Delius: A Life in Letters 1862-1908

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text excerpt

I dare not talk to you to-night before that heterogeneous mob, & I could not write about your work. Frankly I did not think the interest sustained to the end, because the end was so badly played. But up to 2 -3^rds till after the Largo - the poignancy of the emotion was so strong that had you gone on I must have collapsed. I think I never was so moved by modern music as by that, in spite of horns "cracking" etc. And for that reason, old hand as I am, I could not write. My notice conveys nothing, I fear, though it may show one or two that I felt the sincerity of the composition Also I felt not a little bitter at all the youths being there & regarding themselves as your equal - But for the genuine emotion, for the sheer loveliness of that Largo, I thank you sincerely & from the bottom of a heart that I thought was growing stoney & cynical & hard as nails. 

I dare not talk to you to-night before that heterogeneous mob, & I could not write about your work. Frankly I did not think the interest sustained to the end, because the end was so badly played. But up to 2 -3^rds till after the Largo - the poignancy of the emotion was so strong that had you gone on I must have collapsed. I think I never was so moved by modern music as by that, in spite of horns "cracking" etc. And for that reason, old hand as I am, I could not write. My notice conveys nothing, I fear, though it may show one or two that I felt the sincerity of the composition Also I felt not a little bitter at all the youths being there & regarding themselves as your equal - But for the genuine emotion, for the sheer loveliness of that Largo, I thank you sincerely & from the bottom of a heart that I thought was growing stoney & cynical & hard as nails. 

excerpt from 'Delius: A Life in Letters 1862-1908' pp. 304 (167 words)

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1462115684696