Chandos CHAN10742 ****

Chandos couple mature Delius, the folksy rhapsody Brigg Fair, with less familiar earlier pieces. Paris is in Straussian mode. The Piano Concerto, fierily played by Howard Shelley in an early, three-movement version, shows the unexpected influences of 19th-century romantic piano concertos – think Grieg and Liszt.

The earliest work, the airily pastoral Idylle de printemps , was left in the hands of Delius's greatest advocate, the conductor Thomas Beecham, and the piece had to wait over a century for its premiere in 1995. If you've had your appetite for Delius whetted by the success of A Village Romeo and Juliet at the Wexford Festival, the sympathetic performances on this disc fill in the background to that work. url.ie/f1f2