Editing Frederick Delius (section)

===Growing reputation===
[[File:Beecham-1910-crop.jpg|thumb|right|[[Thomas Beecham]] in 1910]]
By 1907, thanks to performances of his works in many German cities, Delius was, as [[Thomas Beecham]] said, "floating safely on a wave of prosperity which increased as the year went on".<ref name="Beecham 1975, p. 155">Beecham (1975), p. 155</ref> [[Henry Wood]] premiered the revised version of Delius's Piano Concerto that year. Also in 1907, Cassirer conducted some concerts in London, at one of which, with Beecham's [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]], he presented ''Appalachia''. Beecham, who had until then heard not a note of Delius's music, expressed his "wonderment" and became a lifelong devotee of the composer's works.<ref>Beecham (1944), pp. 63–64</ref> In January 1908, he conducted the British premiere of ''Paris: The Song of a Great City''.<ref name=greene>{{cite thesis |last= Greene|first= Mary E.|url= http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1247&context=oa_theses&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Djelka%2BH%25C3%25A9l%25C3%25A8ne%2BSophie%2BEmilie%2BRosen%2Bbelgrade%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D8%26ved%3D0CFIQFjAH%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarlyrepository.miami.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1247%2526context%253Doa_theses%26ei%3DpSUIUaLEKYWPiAe1roC4Dg%26usg%3DAFQjCNHSFinGSdZ8_uLt5PjLIZK37i_RQw%26bvm%3Dbv.41524429%2Cbs.1%2Cd.dGY#search=%22jelka%20H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne%20Sophie%20Emilie%20Rosen%20belgrade%22 |type= Master of Music |date= May 2011 |title= Before the Champions: Frederick Delius' Florida Suite for Orchestra |page =33 |publisher=University of Miami }}</ref> Later that year, Beecham introduced ''Brigg Fair'' to London audiences,<ref>{{cite journal|title= New Symphony Orchestra|jstor= 902996|journal= The Musical Times|page=324|date= May 1908|volume=49}} {{subscription}}</ref> and [[Enrique Fernández Arbós]] presented ''Lebenstanz''.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Mr. Delius's Dance of Life |jstor=904923 |journal= The Musical Times|page=111|date= February 1908 |volume=49}} {{subscription}}</ref>

In 1909, Beecham conducted the first complete performance of ''[[A Mass of Life]]'', the largest and most ambitious of Delius's concert works, written for four soloists, a double choir, and a large orchestra.<ref name=dnb/> Although the work was based on the same [[Thus Spoke Zarathustra|Nietzsche work]] as Richard Strauss's ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|Also sprach Zarathustra]]'', Delius distanced himself from the Strauss work, which he considered a complete failure.<ref name=carley/> Nor was Strauss an admirer of Delius, as he was of [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]]; he told Delius that he did not wish to conduct ''Paris'' – "the symphonic development seems to me to be too scant, and it seems moreover to be an imitation of [[Gustave Charpentier|Charpentier]]".<ref name=butler>{{cite journal|title= Review|last= Butler|first= Christopher|jstor= 735537 |journal= Music and Letters|pages=78–80|date= January 1986|volume=67|doi=10.1093/ml/67.1.78}} {{subscription}}</ref>

In the early years of the 20th century, Delius composed some of his most popular works, including ''Brigg Fair'' (1907), ''[[In a Summer Garden]]'' (1908, revised 1911), ''[[Summer Night on the River]]'' (1911), and ''[[On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring]]'' (1912), of which McVeagh comments, "These exquisite idylls, for all their composer's German descent and French domicile, spell 'England' for most listeners."<ref name=dnb/> In 1910, Beecham put on an opera season at the [[Royal Opera House]] in London. Having access to the Beecham family's considerable fortune, he ignored commercial considerations and programmed several works of limited box-office appeal, including ''A Village Romeo and Juliet''.{{refn|Other operas in this season included Richard Strauss's ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'', which made a profit, and [[Ethel Smyth]]'s ''[[The Wreckers (opera)|The Wreckers]]'' and [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]],'' which did not.<ref>Reid, p. 107</ref>|group= n}} The reviews were polite, but ''[[The Times]]'', having praised the orchestral aspects of the score, commented, "Mr. Delius seems to have remarkably little sense of dramatic writing for the voice".<ref>{{cite news|title= Music, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, 'The Village Romeo And Juliet'|newspaper= The Times|page=13|date= 23 February 1910}}</ref> Other reviewers agreed that the score contained passages of great beauty, but was ineffective as drama.<ref>See, for example, "Mr. Delius's Opera", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 23 February 1910, p. 14; and "The Beecham Opera Season", ''[[The Observer]]'', 27 February 1910, p. 9</ref>