Delius - Florida Suite: III. Around the Plantation

Photos by Thomas K Mack and Gene Whitney, plus a few unknown. All photos were taken in Florida. Photochoreography provided by Bev Hendricks for Orchestra performance in February 2008.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Symphony
• Orchestra
• Florida

[bshendr]

A couple of them are at the St. John's River.

[bshendr]

I can't remember, but it's not the LSO.

[PolkRidgeAesthete]

Still astonishing to hear after all of these decades...there was and is nothing like FLORIDA SUITE.---David Thomas Roberts

[bshendr]

@PolkRidgeAesthete After I heard this the first time, I probably played it every day for two months. It's really sounds like Florida to me. Delius was way ahead of his time on this one.

[AlanHemenway]

Are any of these photos from the Delius plantation at Solano Grove or of the St. John's River

[windstorm1000]

Delius absorbed spirituals into his eclectic orchestral compositional method without losing his unique inner quality. He loved the plantation spirituals in FL and in VA where he later lived. The lovely main theme here can only be described as American--it has that widespread river feeling.

[fgldnglbs]

The works Delius composed while in Florida, in my opinion, represent a missed opportunity to contribute landmark works in America. If Dvorak thought anyone with a nose could smell America in his 9th Symphony, the aromas are powerful here with the folk elements. But since those works were shut away for decades, they couldn't become more popular in the repertoire. It might also have saved some of the Florida Delius knew, I like to think.

Love the climax in the middle. It foreshadows Hollywood.

[michaelgluck]

The Florida Suite is one of the most beautiful pieces of music every written! Delius was a genius composer and arranger. THIS is what good music sounds like!

[pianiplunker]

What orchestra is this please? LSO?

[melodyrrt]

So beautiful!