Delius: Appalachia - Sea Drift - CD

ENGLISH

<p><i>Appalachia </i>(a native American word for North America) is a set of variations based on a slave song about the tragedy of the cotton planters &lsquo;being sold down the river'. Delius heard the song when teaching the violin in Virginia, but the primary inspiration was his formative experience of the semi-tropical beauty of Florida's Solano Grove where he had managed an orange plantation. In <i>Sea Drift </i>Delius absorbed a further American influence in the nature mysticism of Walt Whitman. The symphonic poem, one of his greatest works, is a song of love and death in which the baritone soloist is both a participant in the drama and offers a commentary upon it.</p>