Delius: Fennimore and Gerda
Soloists
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Richard Hickox
In last year's project https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/2025/02/delius-sea-drift.html I found Sea Drift hard to come to grips with and finished my blog post thus: Perhaps there are treasures in Delius that I will finally appreciate one day, but for the moment he is not on my list of composers that I must explore further.
If there are treasures to come I don't think that they will be found among Delius' operas. I did see A Village Romeo and Juliet years ago and I have to say it was probably the most boring evening at the opera that I have ever spent. This opera had the merit of being shorter but otherwise my feelings were the same. I just can't get on Delius' wavelength. The music seems to drift along aimlessly with some overwrought chromatic harmony which I often find feels almost uncomfortable or worse. There were a few moments when the music settled down a bit into something lyrically attractive but otherwise this was not for me. There are four other Delius operas - three of them early works. I can't think that I will ever want to listen to any of them! Still this project is all about exploring new things - not everything will come off.
