Release Date: 06 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313296323
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: FINZI
Description
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) Earth and Air and Rain To a Poet By Footpath and Stile Gerald Finzi studied with Ernest Farrar, Edward Bairstow and R.O. Morris. He came to attention with works like the orchestral miniature A Severn Rhapsody (1923) and a song-cycle to poems by Thomas Hardy, By Footpath and Stile (1921-2). Finzi's reputation grew during the 1930s with performances of two groups of Hardy settings, A Young Man's Exhortation (1926-9) and Earth and Air and Rain (1928-32), and was consolidated with the premi?¿re in 1940 of his cantata Dies Natalis (1925-39). During World War II Finzi worked at the Ministry of War Transport and founded a fine, mainly amateur, orchestra, the Newbury String Players. Two of his most popular works appeared during the war, the Five Bagatelles for clarinet (1920s, 1941-3), and the Shakespeare settings, Let us garlands bring (1938-40). To the post-war years belong the festival anthem 'Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice' (1946), the ceremonial ode For St Cecilia (1947) and a further Hardy song set Before and After Summer (1932-49), the Clarinet Concerto (1948-9) and Intimations of Immortality for chorus and orchestra (late 1936-8, 1949-50). Although the final years of his life were lived under the shadow of an incurable illness, he completed the Christmas scene In Terra Pax (1951-4) and the Cello Concerto (1951-5). Song-writing is at the heart of Finzi's output and he made a significant contribution to British twentieth-century music in this genre, especially the settings of Thomas Hardy, his favourite poet, whom he set more than any other. His volume of Hardy's Collected Poems was a treasured possession; as he wrote to a friend: 'If I had to be cut off from everything that would be the one book I should choose'. He felt an empathy with Hardy's bleak fatalism, his sense of transience, and his anger at the suffering that mankind afflicts on mankind. About Hardy he wrote tellingly: 'I have always loved him so much and from earliest days responded, not so much to an influence, as to a kinship with him.' The songs that comprise Earth and Air and Rain were composed between 1928 and 1932 and published in 1936. Several songs were performed individually, or in groups, but it was not until 1943 that the first complete performance took place on 23 March with Robert Irwin, accompanied by Howard Ferguson. The work marks a significant step forward in Finzi's development as his mature voice comes to the fore in the impressive range of emotions tackled. In 'Summer Schemes', Finzi aptly captures the contrast between the eager anticipation of the summer idylls that the poet dreams he and his sweetheart will share, and the measured caution of the caveat in the final lines of each verse - so long as fate does not intervene. 'When I set out for Lyonesse', recalls Hardy's visit to Cornwall as a young man when he fell in love with Emma Gifford who became his first wife. Its brisk march rhythm creates a sense of adventure and the
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
