During the first half of the twentieth century Beecham explored incomparably all the music of Delius’s best period (1900–15) as well as other pieces outside it which sufficiently appealed to him. He recorded much of the Delius canon as many as two or three times as recording techniques advanced and were able to do greater justice to its magical sound world. The works contained on this disc were all recorded between 1946–52, some at the time of the second Delius Festival that Beecham organized in London in October–November 1946, and include his only commercial recording of North Country Sketches, from 1949.