Daniel Grimley explores Delius's 'Sea-Drift' on BBC Radio 3

Daniel Grimley, our Professor of Music, is appearing on BBC Radio 3's Record Review this Saturday, when he joins Andrew McGregor to present the regular 'Building a Library' feature.

Daniel looks at Delius's Sea-Drift, his 1904 setting for baritone, chorus and orchestra of Walt Whitman's poem 'Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking'. Premièred in Germany in 1906, and first performed in England at the 1908 Sheffield Festival, the piece has since become one of Delius's most popular and widely recorded works. Daniel will compare over a dozen different interpretations of the piece, from Thomas Beecham's historic 1928 recording to more recent accounts by Stefan Sanderling and Bo Holten. Featured soloists include John Shirley-Quirk, Thomas Hampson, and Bryn Terfel. As Daniel discovers, Sea-Drift has invited a very broad range of responses, prompting pressing questions of realisation and interpretation. Discussing the choice of final recommendation, however, affirms Sea-Drift's place among Delius's most powerful and compelling achievements.