SIR - While accepting that 'culture' can be defined in many various ways, I am somewhat surprised to discover that out of a whole year of celebrating the culture of Bradford in 2025 rather less than 20 minutes is devoted to a major contributor to the culture of the city.
I refer of course to Frederick Delius whose piano concerto is scheduled for performance in May. While it is perhaps understandable or regrettable that other Bradford composers - Frederic Cliffe, Harry Bramma, and even my contemporary at Belle Vue Grammar School sixty years ago, Mike Batt of Wombles and Watership Down fame - should have been overlooked, presumably because the organisers of the City of Culture have never heard of them, to give such scant notice to a major British composer is an outrage.
At a time of particular concern over the scandal of slavery in British history, what a golden opportunity could have been achieved with a performance (concert or staged) of the Delius opera 'Koanga' which tells the story of an African prince, Mioko-Koanga, and the cruelty endured in his enslavement on a plantation.
An alternative choice is of course the opera A village Romeo and Juliet which Opera North had in their repertoire years ago. The short piano concerto is an unrepresentative work of Delius; it started life in three movements in 1897 and shrunk to one movement in 1907. After all, Delius was a violinist, not a pianist.
The rarity of its performance will no doubt attract Delius devotees but compared with the great Delius Festivals held in Bradford in former years this is a stingy sampling of a great Bradford composer.
Dr Paul Seeley. Retired pianist, former piano teacher at Bradford Grammar School
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