Steve Brock asks:

>I just watched a magnificent online performance of music by Frederick
>Delius by the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and others ...
>and was struck by the range of his repertoire.  I know that he and Elgar
>are regarded as two of the best English composers of the century, but wide
>recognition seems to have escaped Delius.  Why do you think this is? Is
>there too much focus on the latter years of his life, when he was battling
>blindness and paralysis?

I doubt it has much to do with his life, since most people don't know a lot
about Delius's life.  I would propose several reasons:

1.  Much of Delius's achievement is in opera.  Most opera houses don't do
operas in English, including those companies in English-speaking countries.
About the only English opera that gets performed is by Britten.

2.  Delius's music is very difficult to perform, not because it's so complex
but because it's so individual.  Very few conductors have been "with" him,
Beecham and Barbirolli two notable exceptions.

Steve Schwartz