Album Reviews: Delius & Julian Lloyd Webber

Delius, Concertos. Photo / Supplied

Peter Warlock once described Fredrick Delius (1862-1934) as "the sunset of that great period of music which is called Romanticism", citing Beethoven as the morning and Wagner as high noon.

Born in the same year as Debussy, Delius has often been credited with an impressionistic bent for his delicate watercolours in sound.

The unruffled calm of his On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring might seem New Age before its time, but this composer was never drawn to bland, white-note harmonies. His harmonic palette is a heady one, essentially post-Wagnerian and precursing the sort of suave and slippery chords you might hear from jazz pianist Bill Evans.

A new Chandos CD brings together Delius' 1916 Violin Concerto and Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with the 1921 Cello Concerto.

One could not wish for more persuasive soloists than Tasmin Little and Paul Watkins, who make an idyllic musical tryst out of the Double Concerto's intertwining dialogues.

Behind them, Sir Andrew Davis blends the BBC Symphony Orchestra to perfection.

For some, the composer's rhapsodic style may prove a liability, although the admirable Tasmin Little tackles the Violin Concerto with such forthrightness that any meandering is kept to a minimum. Her Sibelian sixths thrill; the Cadenza has you hanging on her every note.

Paul Watkins is a powerful force in the Cello Concerto, the composer's favourite of the three. His upper-register playing is as sweet-toned as a violin, yet on the lower strings he projects a real thrust and forcefulness, without ever risking gruffness.

Julian Lloyd Webber's Evening Songs presents transcriptions of songs by Delius and John Ireland, with pianist John Lenehan and Webber's fellow-cellist wife, Jiaxin Cheng, offering an occasional obbligato.

Without words - the Delius songs set the poems of Shelley, Tennyson and Jacobsen, among others - the music on Evening Songs registers as a succession of rather dull miniatures.

Ireland's Sea Fever says it all. With Masefield's poem, it is one of the most rousing tunes in the baritone's songbook; without, it comes across as a tired, defenceless folksong, trapped in the most tedious of salons.

Classical CDs

Delius: Concertos (Chandos, through Ode Records)

Stars: 5/5

Julian Lloyd Webber: Evening Songs (Naxos)

Stars: 3/5

Verdict: Two Delius recordings prove that this music fares better when played as the composer intended.