This was one of my earliest
discoveries of Delius in particular, and English music in general. I remember
buying the old Decca Eclipse (ECS 634) version of this piece played by the London
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Collins. This record was released in
1972 was a ‘re-mastering’ of original recordings made in 1953.
It
included a splendid evocation of Paris,
The Song of a Great City and the more
intimate Summer Night on the River. This
recording of In a Summer Garden has remained
my favourite version of this work for over forty years. Fortunately it has been
released on CD and download.
Just the other day I found out
something I did not know about this work: the composer associated two
quotations with the piece. The first is inscribed on the score and is two beautiful
lines from Sonnet LIX from The House of
Life by the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1822):
‘All are my blooms: and all
sweet blooms of love
To thee I gave while Spring and
Summer sang’.
This sonnet, ‘Love’s Last Gift’
was set by Ralph Vaughan Williams as part of his song cycle The House of Life.
John Masefield commenting on
this sonnet (LIX) has suggested that it is a ‘proud utterance.’ Love tells the
poet that all ‘growth and flower and fruit are Love’s very own, and that all
these things had been given in Spring and Summer.’ However there was a catch,
all these things end with Autumn, which hints at a worse time to come. The
sonnet concludes by a defiant act from the poet –there is a final gift, a
bright leaf of laurel, over which no winter has power.’
The second inscription was printed
on an early programme for the work:-
‘Roses,
lilies, and a thousand scented flowers. Bright butterflies, flitting from petal
to petal. Beneath the shade of ancient trees, a quiet river with water lilies.
In a boat, almost hidden, two people. A thrush is singing in the distance.’
This is unattributed to any writer and may well have been the creation of the
composer.
In a Summer Garden is dedicated to the composer’s wife, Jelka
Rosen.
I
have always regarded this work as an impressionist piece of music: using the
musical equivalent of the technique Pointillism. Yet, maybe it is less of a
nature study than a love poem.
Peter
Warlock has written about In a Summer Garden:-
‘The title might mislead those
who look for objective impressionism in Delius' music. The summer garden is no more
than the background, the setting of his mood; one feels indeed that this work
has a more intimate and personal programme than most of its kind. Yet, to the
external eye, it appears to be built up of thematic scrappets that might well
have been suggested by whispers of wind and the colloquy of birds. Certain
passages suggest a kind of musical pointillism as though the luminous effect of
the whole were attained by a thousand little points of light and colour’.
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