As I said with my last choice, I have a liking for British Classical music, and it doesn't get much more British than Fred Delius. Or does it?

Frederick (originally Fritz) Theodore Albert Delius, was born in Bradford, to a prosperous mercantile family, but Fred didn't fancy the family business, so he was packed off to Florida in 1884, to manage an orange plantation. He apparently couldn't be arsed with that either, and many oranges paid the price. In 1886 he returned to Europe.

Having been influenced by African-American music during his short stay in Florida, he began composing.

After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany beginning in 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in Paris and then in nearby Grez-sur-Loing, where he and his wife Jelka lived for the rest of their lives, except during the First World War. Freddy had found his raison d'etre at last.

His first successes came in Germany, where Hans Haym and other conductors promoted his music from the late 1890s. In Britain, his music did not make regular appearances in concert programmes until 1907, after Thomas Beecham took it up. Beecham conducted the full premiere of A Mass of Life in London in 1909 (he had premiered Part II in Germany in 1908); he staged the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden in 1910; and he mounted a six-day Delius festival in London in 1929, as well as making gramophone (would you like needles with that?) recordings of many of the composer's works. After 1918, Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis, contracted during his earlier years in Paris. He became paralysed and blind but completed some late compositions between 1928 and 1932 with the aid of an amanuensis, Eric Fenby, who was a composer in his own right.

Fenby later wrote a book about his experiences of working with Delius. Among other details, Fenby reveals Delius's love of cricket. The pair followed the 1930 Test series between England and Australia with great interest, and regaled a bemused Jelka with accounts of their boyhood exploits in the game.

The lyricism in Delius's early compositions reflected the music he had heard in America and the influences of European composers such as Grieg and Wagner. As his skills matured, he developed a style uniquely his own, characterised by his individual orchestration and his uses of chromatic harmony. Delius's music has been only intermittently popular, and often subject to critical attacks.

The Delius Society, formed in 1962 by his more dedicated followers, continues to promote knowledge of the composer's life and works and sponsors the annual Delius Prize competition for young musicians.

All three pieces on this album are worthy of your attention, and  are, in my opinion, beautifully played, but needless to say, I've chosen to regale you with the Cello Concerto. I deliberately avoided the better-known rendition(s) of the piece by Jacqueline du Pré as I know her style can be quite divisive, and I wanted the music to be heard, not the musician so-to-speak. Personally, I am a fan of du Pré, and there's a great CD of her performing both this concerto and the Elgar with Barbirolli conducting the LSO which I believe was actually the premiere commercial recording of the Delius.

Delius maintained that the Cello concerto was his personal favourite among all of his concertos.

After the British premiere, The Observer described the concerto as "beautiful but backboneless … It is from beginning to end nothing but a sort of long one-movement rhapsody". In The Manchester Guardian, Ernest Newman wrote "It is better in detail than as a whole. It abounds in momentary lovelinesses, but long before the end the absence of any sort of climax … induces a sense of monotony"

Critics, eh? What do they know?

Of this recording, "Gramophone" said:

"In the Cello Concerto Watkins resuscitates all except two bars of Delius’s altogether more challenging original edition of the solo part. Suffice it to say, he brings a wealth of profound musicality, ardour and insight to bear, making his an interpretation to cherish and one to which I can already see myself returning many times."

The complete CD review is here. www.gramophone.co.uk/review/delius-concertos

BBC did a rather good documentary on him (sadly not available on iPlayer) called Delius: Composer, Lover, Enigma and then there was 1968's Song of Summer, directed by Ken Russell. You can find both of them on YouTube. They really are both worth a watch, although the Ken Russell gets a bit... well... Ken Russell-y.

Kate Bush wrote a song "Delius (Song of Summer)", which was the B-side of her 1980 hit "Army Dreamers", and it's an "appreciation" of the composer as portrayed in Russell's film. One final bit of Russell/Delius esoterica, Eric Fenby coached both the actor playing him and the actor portraying Delius, for Russell.

All told, this is one of my favourite recordings, and although I've only chosen the Cello Concerto to be judged I do hope you listen to the whole disc. Tasmin Little is in great form and the pair, Watkins & Little, make a great (musical) couple.

Right (said Frederic) give it some ear-action folks and tell me how good it is.