Celebrating 60 years of the Delius Society with new music and recent Delius discoveries

Frederick Delius in 1897 by Christian Krohg (1852–1925) 

The Delius Society is marking its 60th birthday with a concert at the Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music on Sunday 26 June 2022 which combines three newly commissioned pieces by Bo Holten, Ian Venables and Roderick Williams with Delius songs and chamber music including newly re-discovered pieces performed by Milly Forrest (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Timothy Ridout (viola), Chiao-Ying Chang (piano), Eric McElroy (piano), The Carice Singers and the Coull Quartet.

There are three works written specially for anniversary concert. Bo Holten describes The Delian Madrigal as a "composition that expands and elaborates one of Delius’s ‘Two Songs for Children’.  Performances are rare, and my recomposition/arrangement is a way to have this charming piece more often performed by madrigal groups or choirs." Ian Venables's Hermes Trismegistus is a scena for soprano, viola and piano that sets a text by Longfellow. Roderick Williams' To be sung on a winter night on frozen water was born out of lockdown while the composer was holed up in Amsterdam when a cold snap caused the canals to freeze over, paying tribute to Delius' choral work. Williams' describes his new piece as "a lot of fun … and a little bit naughty here and there!"

Also in the programme will be the recently rediscovered Six Piano Pieces, two lost songs which were recently acquired in New York by the Delius Trust, and the first movement of Delius' String Quartet (from 1889) the manuscript of which was only found in 2020, plus the Violin Sonata No. 2 transcribed for viola by Lionel Tertis, and three songs arranged by Roderick Williams.

Further details from EventBrite.