Simon Callaghan - Delius: Orchestral Music Arranged for 2 Pianos, Vol. 2 (2014)

Delius was part of the English music circle that grew up around the so-called Frankfurt Gang of young composers who had studied there in the 1890s: Percy Grainger, Norman O’Neill, Balfour Gardiner, Roger Quilter and Cyril Scott. Two of these – Grainger and Gardiner – Delius’s later-acquired young protégé Philip Heseltine and his faithful amanuensis Eric Fenby together made twelve out of the total of eighteen published four-hand arrangements and a fifteenth was made by his first great champion in Germany and friend, the conductor Julius Buths.

It was Buths who arranged Paris – The Song of a Great City for two pianos. Delius’s first major work, it is a musical impression of the city at night. Buths’ transcription successfully conveys the bewitching colours of the original – snatches of a soulful melody, street cries, rhythmic snatches and the sudden raucous noise of Parisian street life.