This new Chandos recording of three major string concertos by Delius puts them on disc together for the first time. It is the second disc of Delius from the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis for the label. The Double Concerto was inspired by a performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto by the sisters May and Beatrice Harrison in a Hallé Orchestra concert. Work on the concerto began in 1915, when Delius and his wife had moved back to the south of England because of the complications of the war. The piece was not aired publicly until the war was over, in 1920. It is divided into five sections that flow seamlessly together, and the solo instruments are very much melded into the orchestral texture. The Violin Concerto was written a year later and dedicated to Albert Sammons. It is an altogether more traditional-sounding concerto in terms of the relationship between soloist and orchestra, with the violin taking a more prominent role. Again, each movement segues into the next, much use is made of lush and lyrical chromatic writing and the movements are closely thematically linked. Little’s slightly sinewy tone is very much suited to the style of this work and she plays with total conviction throughout. Delius regarded the Cello Concerto, written at the request of Beatrice Harrison, as his favourite among his concertos. He started composing it in 1920, and it was the last work he was able to complete unassisted due to his debilitating illness. The opening bars bear an uncanny similarity to the opening of the Elgar Cello Concerto but thereafter the work takes on a world of its own. The Chandos engineers have done a masterful job - the cello could easily have been swamped within the depths of the orchestra, but the sound is always expansive and the detail of the score never lost. This is music that can take time to fully appreciate, but it is worth the effort.

Reviewed by Dawn Gibson