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The diligent Jarman has also unpicked a political message – again, labyrinthinely expressed – which he interprets as Berg’s rejection of the culture favoured by the Nazis. Berg wasn’t Jewish, but his music was tarred with the “cultural Bolshevism” brush used to banish all artistic modernism from the German-speaking world. This particular message is expressed via a mysterious cluster of Fs, which denote the motto of a leading fascist youth movement.Jarman is working on a definitive edition of all Berg’s music, and in the case of the Violin Concerto that has meant correcting so many copyist’s mistakes that only now can the piece be seen as the composer intended. Yet the odd thing is that the work has a marvellous emotional directness, despite all the subterfuge and cleverness that went into it. How much do these messages matter to listeners now?Daniel Hope, the violinist whose tenacity helped to push the new recording into production, is in no doubt.

“It’s good for an audience to hear a piece the way the composer wrote it. They won’t understand all the codes, or every intricacy of his 12-note system, but they’ll get a lot, and that will enrich their appreciation. When I play the piece, I have all the codes marked in yellow. I first heard it when I was 14, and it blew my mind.” The way he plays it on this CD suggests that that’s still the case.’Berg & Britten Violin Concertos’: Daniel Hope, with the BBC SO/Paul Watkins, is released by Warner Classics. Southampton’s extraordinary Delays played their biggest gig so far at ULU on Wednesday, the same week that their debut single “Nearer Than Heaven” was re-released for the benefit of those who missed it first time around.

For some reason this exquisite record failed to make the charts, but never mind: it won’t be long.
Following a fine support set from Saint Rose, the band ambled on to the stage, offered the assembled crowd a few friendly nods and grins, then launched into a succession of 13 perfect three-minute pop songs. Third up was “Nearer Than Heaven”, which answered the question: could they sound as good live as in the recording studio? Yes, they could.Seamless harmonies from bass player Colin Fox and keyboard specialist Aaron Gilbert helped matters considerably; but without a doubt the band centres around Greg Gilbert, a tousled talent and natural successor to such past heroes as Alan Clark of The Hollies, Lee Mavers of The La’s (and dare we mention Roger (Jim) McGuinn of The Byrds?) So what’s the boy got, exactly?To start with he plays lovely electric guitar, producing when required both jingle-jangle rhythm and sparkling lead, apparently without any effort at all. Next, he writes (or in some cases co-writes) songs that angels would probably queue up for, only to discover they didn’t possess the necessary vocal faculties. Because it’s Greg Gilbert’s soaring falsetto voice that completes the picture. Depending on one’s imagination, he has the ability to sound at different times like an all-girl backing line-up from the Sixties, or the lead singer from a certain Seventies “super” group, or even both Everly Brothers performing at the same time!This isn’t to say, of course, that the band is simply recycling the pretty sort of pop music that’s been about for the past 40 years.

No, there’s very much an original quality here that places these songs firmly in the 21st century.None the less, “Long Time Coming”, the 12th number in the set (and their biggest hit so far), could easily have been plucked from the repertoire of The Honeycombs or The Applejacks, or similar beat/harmony groups from all those years ago. Delays have only one obvious modern rival, an American outfit called Saves the Day, but the latter are safely ensconced on the other side of the Atlantic.The two Gilberts, Greg and Aaron, both wore stripey Bill & Ben sweaters for the gig Aaron also clowned around in a silly scarecrow’s hat For these aberrations they can surely be forgiven. At the end of the show, Greg spoke humbly to the audience and thanked them for coming The feeling was mutual. The band returned to the stage and played a single encore, “Hey Girl”, which is a bit like “Mr Tambourine Man”, only different.. Where would Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk have been without Joseph Stalin? She was his victim; the product of his system, his immorality.