A few lines back I wrote the name of Delius. A British subject but of German origin,
Delius had been intended by his parents for a commercial career.
At the age of twenty he was working an orange plantation in Florida.
It was there that he began to study music on his own,
and then he left America to settle in Europe.
I heard his Seadrift, based on the poem by Walt Whitman,
performed at a festival held in Essen in I906 with the composer present.
As I listened to this music, which is so undeservedly sneered at nowadays,
I forgot orchestra, singers and audience and lost myself in a dream
from which I only awoke the next morning I went to see Delius.
He was a charming man, natural, sensitive and good-hearted.
"I am like Brünnhilde", he said to me: "I have eight sisters..."
As for me, I declared to him,
"I haven't got an orchestra yet, but as soon as I have the first work I'll play is your Seadrift!"
And I kept my promise, at Frankfurt, though I slightly rearranged
the orchestration which I considered imperfect.
Delius was in the audience again that evening.
He embraced me and said,
"You did well to re-touch the orchestration.
It's something I should never have given anyone permission to do,
but with you it's different, because I realize you are fond of me"
However, this was the only document I knew until recently which suggested the relationship
between Delius and Schuricht.
I got a book entitled "DELIUS - A Life in Letters 1909-1934" written by Lionel Carley (Scolar Press).
In this book, you will find the name Schuricht many times.
Although his first encounter with Schuricht in 1906 can not be found in this book,
you will know that Schuricht played an important role in introducing
Delius' music in Germany.
Here you will find some excerpts from this book.
And also, letters from Schuricht to Delius are available here.
Recently (November 1999), Archiphon released a CD of Delius' "Sea-Drift" conducted by Schuricht (ARC-3.0).
Followings is a list of Delius' music performed by Schuricht.
| 7 November, 1910 | Sea-drift | Wiesbaden | |
| 16 March, 1925 | Mass of life | Wiesbaden | |
| May, 1926 | Mass of life | Wiesbaden, Francfort | |
| 3 October, 1927 | Mass of life | Berlin | |
| September, 1931 | Mass of life | Scheveningen | |
| 5 January, 1954 | Sea-drift | SDR Stuttgart, Heinz Rehfuss(B.) | * |
| 1 February, 1960 | Sea-drift | SDR Stuttgart | |
| 21, 25 March, 1961 | Sea-drift | NDR Hamburgh, Herbert Fliether (B.) | * |
| 8 March, 1963 | Sea-drift | Bavarian RSO, Carlos Alexander (B.) | * |
They might be not all of the performances.
If you have further information, please inform the webmaster about it.
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