THE WIRELESS SINGERS
THE B.B.C. ORCHESTRA (Section E)
Conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
AMBROSE GAUNTLETT (Violoncello)

Delius celebrates his seventieth birthday
(whatever books of reference may say to the contrary) tomorrow, and this piece is being played as an act of homage and greeting to him. It is the first performance in its original form for 'cello and orchestra, though it has been played already with pianoforte. Composed about the same time as the Song of Summer, which was introduced to British listeners only last autumn, it may still be called new.
Born at Bradford, of German parentage, Delius was intended at first for a commercial career.
For a time engaged in Florida as an orange planter, he had reached his twentieth year before he was allowed to devote himself seriously to music. As a student in Leipzig he made the acquaintance of Grieg, and something of Grieg's influence is thought by some critics to be discerned in his work. But there is very little trace of any outward influence on his music; in many ways it is among the most distinctively new and original of the present age. In every way as modern as those of any present-day composer, his methods seem rather to have been devised by himself than inherited from any musical ancestor. He has a partiality for subjects of avowedly pictorial intent, and many of his works are of that order which defies anything like ordinary analysis. He has never been good at pressing his own claims, and many of his biggest and finest works have had to wait long and patiently for a hearing. But for a good many years now, he has held a place of high honour in contemporary music; the London Festival in 1929, and the distinction conferred on him by the King, emphasized that in no uncertain way.