TOWARDS ENGLISH ROOTS

The success of Delius's works in Germany, with such advocates as Haym, Buths, Schuricht, Cassirer, Hess and others, and Chop's enthusiastic advocacy in print, might have persuaded Delius to ignore the lively environment of London and England altogether. Yet, for all his reported sarcasm about English music, he hankered after recognition in the country of his birth and the critical acclaim of A Mass of Life in London in 1909, together with the championship of his music by Beecham, must have been a source of some satisfaction to the transplanted Yorkshireman. He was also known to his express his impatience with German society, especially the breed of tourist he met during his walking tours in Norway:

Delius's process of ‘anglicisation’ began two years earlier. As Carley has noted, ‘his music showed signs of being ready and sufficiently well-established to cross the Channel … [and] friends there were tilling the ground on his behalf ‘. London, therefore, began to take on an aura of optimism. ‘London is a wonderful place’, he wrote to Jelka, and he was invigorated by the atmosphere of the capital: ‘I lunch with Wood tomorrow & will write you the result. I have a wonderful appetite here & also sleep so well. The climate agrees wonderfully well with me. Mothers milk I suppose!’ After meeting Wood he encountered Balfour Gardiner: ‘I dined with Balfour Gardiner last night & they played Appalachia there (a few musicians were there) all were tremendously taken with it’.