Part 1 – Elgar in France
It is May 1933 and we are in the garden of Delius’s French home at Grez-sur-Loing, twenty miles south of Paris. There is a table covered in a white cloth, and around the table chairs. To one side an easel with one of Jelka Delius unfinished canvases. It is a hot day.
We hear Noel Coward singing “ Lover of my Dreams.
The 71 year old Frederick Delius enters pushed in a wheelchair by his German nurse, Carl; they are followed by Delius’s wife, Jelka. Delius is paralysed, and partially blind as a result of Syphilis. He wears a white suite, white shirt, dark glasses, and a large white fedora. Jelka is a woman in her 60s, and her clothes are more reminiscent of the 1910s, than of the 1930s. As the Noel Coward fades we hear Deliuss Concerto for Cello in the background. The nurse parks Delius to one side of the table, and Jelka sits at the other side.
JELKA: Why did you say he could call, Fred? You know I dont like Elgar.
DELIUS: Jelka? Leibling? Edward is a good man, a good composer too. But not as good as me you understand.
JELKA: He intimidates me, he’s so loud, and tall.
DELIUS: Jelka Rosen, daughter of a Junker intimidated by an Englishman?
JELKA: Just don’t ask me to join in. I shall escape and paint for the day.
DELIUS: As you wish, but at least stay for an hour, and make him welcome. (To the nurse) You may leave us now, Carl, but keep a look out for Sir Edward.
The Nurse Exits
JELKA: An hour.
DELIUS: Good, then you can escape.
We hear the sound of men laughing.
DELIUS: I think he is already here, my dear?
Enter Sir Edward Elgar, followed by his driver Joe. They are still laughing as if they have shared a rather good joke. Elgar is wearing a dark suit, and has a cane. Joe is wearing a rumpled suit and shirt. Elgar sees Delius.
Sir Edward Elgar
ELGAR: Ah, Fred.
Elgar goes over to Delius, removes the fedora and kisses the top of Delius’ head, then puts the hat back.
ELGAR: How are you, old man?
DELIUS: As you see, Edward, as you see. Such noise.
ELGAR: Joe can tell a good joke. (To Jelka) How are you, my dear?
JELKA: Fine.
ELGAR (To Joe): Joe, say hello to Frederick Delius, England’s finest composer, and his delightful wife Jelka.
JOE: A great pleasure, sir, madam.
DELIUS: Fred, call me Fred.
JOE: Fred, sir.
ELGAR: We had quite a journey did we not, Joe?
JOE: We did.
ELGAR: Nearly ended in the ditch, some damn fool of a motorcyclist. Joe is a taxi driver from Paris, an American.
DELIUS: Ah, indeed. I spent many happy years in Paris, it is the most wonderful of cities, is it not?
JOE: Indeed it is, sir, er, Fred.
DELIUS: Sit down, Joe, Edward. But alas I fear we may all remember this day, and this year for more important reasons than a motorcyclist. I received a letter from my sister this morning where she has written again of the outpourings of adulation shown on Hitler’s birthday last month. It obviously preys on her mind a good deal, and I have to say I fear for my family’s land under his chancellorship.
ELGAR: You may be right, Fred, and I have to say I feel he is greatly flawed. A statesman who begins by persecuting the Jews is as hopelessly compromised as an officer who cheats at cards. But I feel I must support his proclamation on compulsory labour, and his nationalisation of the trade unions, which are essentially communist of course.
DELIUS: You sound like your friend Shaw.
ELGAR: George? The most notorious of communists. And he would argue that it is senseless for Hitler to denounce Marxism at every opportunity, that he should wait to see who his friends are.
JELKA: Sir Edward. Fred. I will not have politics discussed on such a beautiful day.
Elgar goes across to Jelka and kisses her hand; he’d kiss her mouth if he could.
ELGAR: Madam Delius, Jelka, forgive me, and, as you say, on such a beautiful day, and in such a beautiful garden. It is an honour, a delight, to meet you again.
JELKA: Thank you, Sir Edward. Fred? That corporal will not last, the German people will not tolerate him.
Elgar returns to his seat.
DELIUS: But, Jelka, they voted for him in overwhelming numbers. He has already purged the universities of professors who do not agree with National Socialism. The work of Freud and Einstein can no longer be taught. The man will destroy everything that is beautiful, including this garden if he gets half a chance. He is the personification of the worst of the German character, the worst of you and I, Jelka. He is the brutality of the German army in 1914.
Elgar coughs
ELGAR: Joe? I wonder would you mind bringing in the package from the car?
JOE: Hell no, Sir Edward.
Joe Exits
ELGAR: Hell no. I rather like the American don’t you? So honest. We would have been lost in 1918 without them I fear.
JELKA: Sir Edward, please.
[...] Part 1 – Elgar in France Classy Classical – Symphony Music, Baroque, Choral, Opera [...]
By Allusionz » Edward Elgar in France on April 11th, 2007 at 11:01 am
[...] Start reading here. [...]
By SYNTAGMA » New Syntagma Series on April 11th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
There are few meetings during the twentieth-century that I would rather have eavesdropped on than that of Elgar and Delius in a French garden on May 30, 1933. Both men were near the end of their lives, and they could feel a new and more dangerous world approaching. But each also knew that he had created music that would offer younger generations inspiration and consolation.
What did the two composers talk about? Steven Newman’s play intends to help us imagine. It’s off to a good start, and I look forward to Part 2. Anyone wishing to find out more about Elgar and his music will find a wealth of information at http://www.elgar.org
By Frank Beck on April 11th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Thanks for those kind words, Frank, and I hope you enjoy the rest.
I last produced the play nearly five years ago, and I have to say I was pleased, and relieved, with the reception it received from both the Elgar Society ( it was reviewed by a member of that Society) and the Delius Society.
All we do know about the meeting is that they did drink champagne and talked about the state of music. But I have used the meeting as a dramatic device to try and delve into the backgrounds of the two composers ( one with a formal musical education, one without) to see what made them tick.
Thanks again.
By Steve Newman on April 13th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I do commend to you the following first-hand accounts of Elgar’s visit to Delius, in case you have not seen them.
1) Elgar’s own account in The Daily Telegraph for 1 July 1932.
2) The impressario Fred Gaisberg’s account, reproduced in Jerrold Northrop Moore’s ‘Elgar on Record’, Oxford University Press, 1974 (pages 202-205).
By Michael Trott on April 13th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Dear Michael:
Like you I am familiar with those two accounts, but sadly there isn’t enough in either of them to construct a play, so I’m afraid I went off on several tangents (and took a few liberties, so sorry to the purists) to try and bring the two composers, and their period, alive.
By Steve Newman on April 16th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Steve,
Have you seen Jerrold Northrop Moore’s ‘Edward Elgar, letters of a Lifetime’ (Oxford University Press, 1990)? It gives two letters exchanged between Elgar and Delius after Elgar’s visit. The letters do not shed much more light on the meeting, but they reinforce my impression that the two composers thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and were perhaps surprised at how much they had in common.
The book also quotes Delius in a letter to Ernest Newman (MS is Delius Trust Archive): ‘It was the first time that the real Elgar was revealed to me and that I could talk intimately with him and that I had the opportunity of appreciating his fine intellect and affectionate nature. How I now regret that we were not brought together earlier.’
I admit it: I’m a purist, but I appreciate what you are trying to do.
Michael.
By Michael Trott on April 17th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Thanks, Michael, for your kind words, and, hopefully, the play does bring out the joy of the meeting, and of the two men themselves, who were both close to death.
Sadly, Delius does seem much neglected these days. I don’t remember a single piece by him in last year’s Proms.
By Steve Newman on April 17th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
[...] We have already published here Steve Newman’s play on the great man, A Summer Garden. [...]
By Classy Classical - Symphony Music, Baroque, Choral, Opera » Elgar Play on BBC Radio 3 on June 2nd, 2007 at 2:08 pm