Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099456623
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: FINZI
Description
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) Clarinet ConcertoFive BagatellesThree SoliloquiesSevern Rhapsody RomanceIntroitGerald Finzi belongs to a generation ofEnglish composers that has, until recently, suffered some neglect, His music istonal and attractive, firmly based in English traditions to which thedescriptive adjective 'pastoral' has been applied, in addition to moreopprobrious epithets from some quarters. Born into a family of Italian Jewishorigin, Sephardic on his father's side and, less happily, belonging to theAskenazim tradition on his mother's, rooted rather in Germany than in thelong-established Sephardic connection with England, Finzi was born, theyoungest of five children, in London in 1901. His father died in 1909 and hewas brought up by his mother, his three brothers dying in close succession, theyoungest as a war-time airman in 1918. Finzi and his mother had meanwhile movedfrom London to Harrogate, where he was able to study music with Ernest Farrar,a former pupil of Stanford who had worked in Germany and was at the timeorganist at Christ Church in Harrogate. Farrar's connection with composersassociated with the revival of English music in the early years of thetwentieth century had a lasting influence on Finzi, felt all the more afterFarrar's death in action in 1918. Farrar had been nearer to his own age, only33 when he died. Finzi's next teacher represented a much more conservative andformal tradition. Edward Bairstow, a Yorkshireman, had been appointed organistat York Minster in 1913, a position he held until his death in 1946. A pupil ofHenry Farmer and, as an organist, of Frederick Bridge, he remained a pillar ofthe English cathedral tradition, his stricter teaching of less relevance to hispupil.It was, it may be supposed; in pursuit ofthe spirit that had inspired Vaughan Williams and Holst, Parry and Elgar, thatFinzi moved in 1922 to Gloucestershire, his compositions at this time largelyconsisting of songs, settings of Christina Rossetti and Thomas Hardy.His period in the Cotswolds broughtcontact with the composer Herbert Howells. In 1925, on the advice of theconductor Adrian Boult, he took lessons in counterpoint from R. 0. Morris,whose pupils included Edmund Rubbra and Howard Ferguson, moving then to London,where he had personal contact with a wider circle of young musicians. Hisfriendship with Ferguson and with Rubbra remained of great importance to him,as was the encouragement he received from Vaughan Williams, Hoist and Bliss. Itwas this last who seems to have procured for him, in 1930, work at the RoyalAcademy of Music, teaching second-study composition students the elements ofcounterpoint and harmony one day a week. During this period in London hiscompositions had varied success. His Violin Concerto, written for SybilEaton, proved intractable and after a first partial performance it was revisedand completed, to be heard under Vaughan Williams in 1928. His attempted PianoConcerto offered still further difficulties and was not comp
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
