In A Summer Garden

Look for - ''A Summer Garden Revisited with Notes'' - This is a re-edited version of the above with the benefit of a new 'clean' sound-track and on-screen captions!
Grez-sur-Loing near to Paris was the home of composer Frederick Delius until his death in 1934. Back in 1970 this Super 8 mm film was taken when unique access was given to house and garden. Inevitably things had changed the garden formalized and an extension housing amanuensis Eric Fenby's room removed. The time of my visit coincided with the Yorkshire Television docu/film 'Song of Farewell' and Fenby's last visit to Grez.! During this he commented that - 'Delius' spirt lives on here of that I'm certain'. Beside the gently flowing river beneath the lovely canopy of trees at the far end of the garden the very air is imbued with the spirt of Delius. He dedicated the orchestral tone poem 'In A Summer Garden' to his wonderful Wife Jelka, without her support and the incredible sacrifice of Eric Fenby so much of the blind and paralysed composer's later music would never have so enriched the world. Please compare with Eric Fenby's recollections from 'Delius As I Knew Him' - Enjoy!
Jayne Strutt April 2011.
footnote:-
The music on this video is - Delius' 'Elegy' - from his 'Caprice and Elegy' The 'Concert Arts Orchestra' followed by:-
'In a Summer Garden'

Category:

Music

Tags:

• A Summer Garden
• Delius
• Classical Music
• France
• Eric Fenby
• Jelka Delius
• Grez-sur-loing
• English composer
• Yorkshire Television
• inspirational

[feline1104]

@SuperDevonian1 The sound track is a bit lumpy where the film was spliced, but the image quality is not too bad. When taking the film I recall shaking with excitement! After I was invited to tea there. I am extremely grateful that I was granted this privilege and would never outstay my welcome. It was one of the most momentous days in my life. The narrator was someone very close to me. Thanks for your interest. from the 'Feline1104'

feline1104 6 minutes ago

[SuperDevonian1]

Nice to see some vintage amateur film from the seventies, the narrator sounds nice too!. Grez looks really interesting, I like to imagine how the garden used to be when Delius was alive.

[feline1104]

'The back of the house looked on to a now faded garden, and in the background, some two or three hundred yards away, the great trees by the river-side piled themselves up in a gigantic semicircle, but with a mellowness about them such as I have never seen before.' (That was an image from 1928)

From 'Delius as I Knew Him' by Eric Fenby. The gigantic semicircle of trees can still be seen on the film from what was the music room window plus other features from fenby's recollections.

Jayne Strutt