Beyond The Proms: Delius and Ravel

Beyond The Proms: Delius and Ravel
Runcorn, February 2026.

Welcome to this, my very last (I promise) 'Beyond The Proms' post, pertaining to the 2025 run of concerts.

As the 2025 season played out, the BBC (mostly BBC 4), aired a handful of related documentary ditties, profiling the composers that were, posthumously, taking centre stage at the Royal Albert Hall. At the time I was knee-deep in writing up my thoughts on each concert, and could see only as far as what was about to hit me next. I therefore took the opportunity, with the help of a piece of software and my limited tech knowhow, to scalp a couple of said programmes from BBC iPlayer to watch at a later date, before they expired and disappeared from the platform.

From all the composers showcased at the 2025 BBC Proms, I have chosen two to focus my attention on: Delius and Ravel. Not so much their music, but rather a quick examination of their biographies.

Why those two?

Ravel stood out to me as a man who had composed with an element of altruism. His Piano Concerto for the Left Hand was performed at the 2025 Proms by Nicholas McCarthy, and one cannot help but become endeared to Ravel for this seemingly kind gesture. I happened to be chatting to an old friend and work colleague about this (there was a fire drill at work around the time), and he mentioned - for he is a learned man - that there were other composers who did this, or similar. Looking it up now for a refresher, I learn that the central figure around this phenomenon was one Paul Wittgenstein, a well-known Austrian pianist who lost his right arm in WWI. Various composers - not just Ravel - penned compositions for him.

Delius was a name I was unfamiliar with before the 2025 BBC Proms, but through the acquaintance of  Richard Bratby on Twitter, I was directed to the film Song of Summer. During the Proms run, the BBC iPlayer had this film running, plus another offering in the form of Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma. So I downloaded them. I have just looked back at what I wrote when I listened to A Mass of Life on the radio, and it turns out I did enjoy the music very much, though I was curious as to why the RAH was not a sell out that night, apart from the obvious it being Monday.

What to make of Ravel?

I watch the BBC programme, and it is an old-school Auntie [BBC] piece of profiling - I make a guess late 60's to early 70's, and I am thrilled to know I was in the ball park, its one and only prior broadcast being in 1973. 

He was from southern France; the Basque region. A pianist who, latterly, did compose in tribute to his friends fallen during the First World War.

It seems he was one of those frequent-but-rare 'separate from his peers' types at college. Something 'special' about him. Adopted a Dandy image in his early adulthood (a la Beau Brummel) sporting a slick beard. He entered the Prix du Rome numerous times, and he did achieve second place in that French prize, one time. Looking on Wikipedia now, I can see that his exclusion from the prize on his final entry caused some controversy.

For me, I think actually the most exciting thing to learn about Maurice Ravel is that he was intrigued by American jazz and blues, which is some common ground we share. He even called the second movement of his violin sonata no. 2, 'blues: moderato'. How about that?!

And what to make of Delius?

I start with the film Song of Summer, which is focussed on his later years. The story starts with a young buck from Scarborough, Eric Fenby, travelling out to France to live and work with Delius; by now an old curmudgeon, blinded by syphilis. His [Delius's] every whim tended to, there is a curious homoerotic undercurrent to their relationship. I may need to read Delius, As I Knew Him by Eric Fenby, the book this film was based on, to get more insight on this working relationship. At time of writing it is available to borrow on archive.com.

Next up is Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma, which opens with a tale of his midnight burial, somewhere in Surrey. 

A rummy character, our Delius. He liked his sex, apparently having a string of liaisons with women and fathering a son, as you do, with a lady on his orange grove in Florida. I don't get it. Personally, the age-withered Delius reminds me of Terrence Hardiman in The Demon Headmaster, who in the nineties frightened me and a generation of my peers. But... oh, and but... I remember being gripped to that programme after school. True edge-of-your-seat stuff for tweenagers of the era. And perhaps the same can be said for Delius. I would metaphorise him as an elegant pastry whose cream filling has gone off - even though you balked and spat it out in disgust, you look at it again and there is something willing you to take another bite, as if it'll taste better the second time.

There is talk of his opera Koanga, which intrigues me. Delius, like Ravel, is not adverse to a 'blue note' here and there, and one of the interviewees [I forget which] suggests that there almost a touch of Gershwin about it. That's no bad thing, in my view. There is even a line for banjo in Koanga. 

Interesting to note is his acquaintance with Grieg who, as I have mentioned in previous posts, in one of my personal 'all time' composers. And there is a feel, to me, of a 'Grieg-on-steroids' in Delius's music. Sensually grand.

Sir Mark Elder (who conducted A Mass of Life at the 2025 Proms) is interviewed on this film, and he talks about how he took a different approach to Delius than did Sir Thomas Beecham (who was sort of the first 'champion' of Delius). The two interpretations are played one after the other to demonstrate the difference between the two. Despite being the same piece of music, I am blown away by how different they sound.

Finally, I am very much on board with how the Delius listening experience is compared to being 'still' - as if the music is not moving and you are admiring a static piece of art. Yes - I had not thought about it like that before, but I completely get that!

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And that really is it! The very last thing to say is that I am now looking forward to the announcement - ordained for April 21st - of the 2026 BBC Proms roster. While the scale of my 2025 project shan't be repeated, I will perhaps look at something smaller-scale.

    

Beyond the Proms: Becoming A Composer by Errollyn Wallen

Beyond the Proms 
Becoming A Composer by Errollyn Wallen
Widnes Library

As well as being the home of the Stone Roses' infamous Spike Island gig, and the train stop where Paul Simon allegedly wrote Homeward Bound, Widnes now carries a third musical claim to fame: the town where I borrowed Becoming A Composer from the library. Apt, in this town so rich in musical history. It must be a very recent print I'm holding, because the appearance of EW's The Elements at the First Night of the Proms 2025, is actually mentioned in the introduction/critical acclaim page.

What follows is not a review of the book. I am sure there are vastly more qualified critics who can offer a verdict on its integrity. Rather, this post is me writing about me; what did I absorb from reading the book? And what do the Master of the King's Music, and a Runcorn factory worker, have in common? An improbable query, but I will put it forward that there are one or two things:

The first, and most obvious, one: we are both composers. EW's interview on the First Night of the Proms 2025 was what piqued my interest in reading the book in the first place (that, and the fact that I spotted a nice edition on sale in the Royal Albert Hall gift shop.) In the televised interview, she spoke about drawing inspiration for compositions from colours, shapes, and the like. In 2021, I set about composing an orchestral pastiche of Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's 'Orchestra Nights' at the Royal Albert Hall in the early 1990's. That run of concerts proved a triumph for the famous electric guitar player. I was too young to have been in attendance, but the next best thing, as I saw it, was to try and recreate the sound, and experience the thrill of playing along to it with my own Fender Stratocaster. And it was electric.

The point is, I have the music in my head, but the way I get it out of my system is crude by comparison to those who notate and formulate a soundly-structured piece, in line with a formal education in music. I, by contrast, sit in a back bedroom in Wallasey, directing my friend Sean (who has a more 'proper' education in music than I do), and he works his magic on the keys, both piano and qwerty. We toil over the notes on the Cubase software; attempting, wherever practicable, to make the orchestral instruments sound real. (Thank God for MIDI).

The product of our efforts throughout 2021 was Explaudere: a five-track record of fantasised orchestral music, with electric guitar lines threaded (tastefully, I will add) throughout. A chance page-turn in the i newspaper brought me to Susie Dent's Word of the Day which, on this particular day, was 'Explaudere': the Latin expression meaning to drive a performer off stage by clapping. That is, to give them a slow-hand. And there was the title of my record. Bingo!

Astonishingly, when I listened to EW’s Concerto Rosso recently, there is a rhythmic pattern of notes that is eerily similar (though a different tempo) to my very own Faccio Ancora, which is the final track of Explaudere. In actual fact, for this I drew inspiration from Paul Simon’s Can’t Run But, after seeing him perform it with a small ensemble during his Hyde Park show in the summer of 2018 [a second Paul Simon reference for you there]. To me, the instrumental music of Can't Run But sounded like an engine: well-oiled pistons weaving in and out. I wanted to evoke this on one of our own pieces.

Back to comparing myself with proper composers and, otherwise, I learn that Johann Sebastian Bach is a mutual hero of ours. And we both apparently have a penchant for the Baroque.

Something we definitely have in common is our sweet tooth. EW talks about her cake diet. Chocolate is my vice. 

And we both inhabit homes of character: she in a lighthouse in the highlands of Scotland, me in a two-hundred-year-old canal-side cottage. Both, I'm sure, offer their own charm of serenity and inspiration.

Beyond The Proms: Winter Watching

Beyond The Proms: Winter Watching
Norton Cottages, 25^th November 2025

November. While I am not yet roasting figurative chestnuts, I am enjoying the character of my period cottage by sustaining a raw fire in my living room on a near-nightly basis. Yesterday I enjoyed my thirty-seventh birthday. How did that happen? With that, I am treating myself to a week off work and a chance to type up one more reflection of the BBC Proms 2025. The following is not a jactitation, but a reflection on where I’ve got to at time of writing, and what is still ‘on the list’ for the coming winter months.

Back in September, I ticked off another item on my ‘bucket list’ ledger, by watching and listening to all – or as near as dammit – of the BBC Proms from this year. It was a hefty undertaking, with a lot of new information to take in. The BBC Proms finishing did not spell the end of my project. Rather, it nudged it to the next stage, which was (is) the consolidation of everything I picked up along the way.

The first step has been to start watching all of the Proms TV broadcasts back, because many of these were released weeks after the actual performance and radio broadcasts. While I still have more to watch, this has been really enjoyable. Seeing it all happen again, appreciating the nuances that I may have missed on the radio. I particularly enjoyed watching the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra do Dvorak’s 9^th (New World) symphony, and also the televised version of the Viennese Waltzes Prom, which the radio broadcast had left me craving.

The aftermath of the Proms has also left me with a list of materials to follow up on, as follows:

Books

I have made a note to retrieve Errollyn Wallen’s book, Becoming A Composer, from my local library. I am confident that it will be an absorbing read.

Documentaries and dramatisations:

During the 2025 Proms run, I had my first meeting with Frederick Delius. BBC iPlayer currently has on its docket, Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma. I have downloaded this, and also Ken Russel’s Song of Summer from 1968 which was recommended to me.

Another composer I accumulated a liking for (amongst others) was Maurice Ravel, not least of all from learning about the concept of the Piano Concerto for Left Hand. At the time of the Proms run, iPlayer had a Ravel documentary up, which I downloaded at the time.

All of the above will, I hope, be consumed ahead of Christmas. There is something else on iPlayer right now called Mozart: Rise of a Genius. Might be worth a punt.

Movies:

Just last night, I pulled out the Alfred Hitchcock DVD box set and enjoyed the experience of rewatching Vertigo – not so much a film as a work of art. I had only seen it once before, and it had been many years since. I had forgotten James Stewart was the lead, and I like him a lot. Not only that, but Bernard Hermann’s score – the one I heard on the ‘Classic Thriller Soundtracks’ Prom – is chilling, in a beautiful way. This is the second Hitchcock outing I have had since The Proms, because I was gagging to watch The Man Who Knew Too Much which, aside from being another outing for Bernie Hermann and Jimmy Stew, features tense final scenes at the Royal Albert Hall! The music from this film had a rare outing at the Last Night of the Proms this year, so what could be better?! It was interesting to look at a 1950’s Royal Albert Hall on film. While in many ways recognisable, the movie exposes the difference in the interior décor of the building, and customs from the time – when cigarettes were both predominant and fashionable. It took my mind back to watching Woody Allen’s 1993 film, Manhattan Murder Mystery. In it, there is a scene in a small hotel with typical North American décor. A bit dingy – looks like it could have been pulled from the 1950’s. As a note to myself, this is ‘Hotel 17’ on East 17^th Street, where I lodged for a week in April 2013.

While the Proms were running, iPlayer had Shaft and In The Heat of the Night available to watch. Both of these featured on the Classic Thriller Soundtracks Prom, so I took my chance to have a watch of these before they were removed.

Otherwise, I recently picked up Taxi Driver for about fifty pence in a charity shop. That will, similarly, be a worthy rewatch after a gap of many years. I also downloaded The Italian Job from iPlayer – I know of its cultural prevalence, but this will be a first-time watch.

Finally, I have recently watched the 1997 Studio Ghibli film, Princess Mononoke after spotting it on Netflix. It was nice to dip back in to Studio Ghibli and the music of Joe Hisaishi. I have a few others on DVD-R that I recorded from Film4 some years ago, but have never gotten around to watching. Maybe this is the time?

Wishlist of live performances:

By no means an exhaustive list (just some highlights, and no doubt one will lead to another, and so on...) These will do, for starters:

Beethoven’s 5^th and 9^th, Dvorak’s 9^th,, Greig’s Peer Gynt and Piano Concerto No.1, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1,Vaughn Williams’s London Symphony.

I also have Saint Saens’s Danse Macabre and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (complete and with full orchestra) on the list, but these were already there before the Proms project.

In terms of venues, I am now interested in attending something at the Royal Opera House in London. Surprisingly, I have never attended a performance there. I have got close to joining the daytime tour a couple of times, but something else has always cropped up. I would go as far as mentioning the Sydney Opera House, but that may need to take an indefinite back seat. Never say never.

That’s about all I can think of, for now. As my blues guitar hero Eric Clapton always says: See You Down The Road!

Hotel 17, NYC:
A 1950's Royal Albert Hall?

Beyond The Proms: The Breath at Davenham Players Theatre

The Breath
Davenham Players Theatre
Davenham, Northwich, 25th September 2025

Today is Monday 13th October, so I am writing up this account a few weeks in retrospect. The gig itself took place on Thursday 25th September. As I write this, the Autumn Leaves [the namesake of an old favourite tune of mine, incidentally], are making for a pleasant spectacle around the confines of my home. I have been enjoying the return of a busy schedule, having lately been to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Liverpool Empire, Moulin Rouge at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, Troilus and Cressida at The Globe, and Dead Ringers 25th Anniversary Tour at the Floral Pavilion theatre in New Brighton. And with lots more to come before Christmas. All familiar venues to me, but the show I am writing about here took place at a venue and location that was completely unfamiliar, despite it only being a twenty-something minute drive away from my house.

On the evening of Thursday 25th September, I take a shortish drive to Davenham, just on the south end of Northwhich. It turns out to be a charming little hamlet, with a spackle of cute tea rooms and a pub, The Bull's Head, offering a centerpiece. 

The venue is the Davenham Players Theatre, and it has not doled me a ticket. This show forms part of the 'Jazz@Davenham' initiative, and so in this spirit my name is added to a guestlist upon request, and I'm to pay at the door, £13 cash or card. It's a nice touch: very Ronnie Scott's! The auditorium is cosy, with a makeshift feel to it. It's like a village hall that has been decked out to look the part - and it does. It carries, I noted, a familiar scent that is common to church halls and charity shops: a cross-pollination of Parma Violets and hair lacquer. The walls and ceiling have been draped in black fabric, and there is some mobile stage lighting dotted about the place. The acoustics feel sufficiently dampened, and it all makes for a terrific little venue I have to say.

The sound levels are good for such a small room; not too quiet or too loud. And the music that follows is my cup of tea. Stuart McCallum sits to play the acoustic guitar, which he does with mastery. Ríoghnach Connolly delivers a fine vocal performance on all songs, with humorous interludes and anecdotes throughout the set. My favourite tunes are the ones with the supplementary instrumentation. She plays what looks like a table-top squeeze box, of which I am sure there is a technical name. On some songs she also plays a flute - this makes the music feel more 'Irish,' and it is this what moves me the most.

Before I go I have a quick chat to Stuart McCallum who is in charge of the CD and vinyl sales. I let him know that I had only recently discovered them, having heard their Prom on BBC Radio 3. He tells me it was a surreal experience (or words to that effect), and I intimate that it must have been extraordinary with the orchestra backing them. I want to buy a CD: it's a tenner cash, or twelve with card. Regrettably I have no cash on me, but it is twelve pounds well spent. I had a listen back when I got home and it's a very pleasant disc, packed with music I will no doubt chill to when the mood directs me. 

This is the beauty of doing things like the Proms Marathon. If it wasn't for the BBC Proms I would not have known about The Breath, and if it was not for The Breath I would not have encountered Davenham and its charming theatre. The venue is now on my radar for any other acts that might tickle my fancy.