Gerald Finzi

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Banfield and Dickinson rather sound like these 'chaps'



[Waldorf and Statler]

PD

[Spenserian]

 Sad to hear about the Banfield book, but is it still worth acquiring and reading? Does anybody have experience with the later Diana McVeagh biography, does it fare better?

[calyptorhynchus]

Sad to hear about the Banfield book, but is it still worth acquiring and reading? Does anybody have experience with the later Diana McVeagh biography, does it fare better?

Don't get me wrong, Banfield's book is very valuable, it's just I have a feeling that he doesn't like Finzi's music much. Also there's an argument about the English pastoral school and the figure of the minor composer going on that isn't very interesting to me.

McVeagh's book is delightful, she loves Finzi's music. It isn't quite as long or as a detailed as Banfield's book. Both are worth reading though.

[Spenserian]

Don't get me wrong, Banfield's book is very valuable, it's just I have a feeling that he doesn't like Finzi's music much. Also there's an argument about the English pastoral school and the figure of the minor composer going on that isn't very interesting to me.

McVeagh's book is delightful, she loves Finzi's music. It isn't quite as long or as a detailed as Banfield's book. Both are worth reading though.

All right, thanks a lot, I will get both! Are you still willing to sell the book of leters too? I can basically only find it new and very expensive.

Finzi is among the first classical composers that grabbed me as a teenager, next to Copland and Mozart. Someone on Youtube uploaded a lot of his works and their emotional sincrity and sweep captivated me, as did his setting of English poems, as I went on to study English. I've longed to study him in more detail.

[calyptorhynchus]

As Hurwitz would say 'a resounding Do Not Buy':



I have rarely heard a worse professional recording of anything. The soprano just doesn't sing very well (I wouldn't mind her Italian accent, but I do mind her poor phrasing and the awful balance between her and the orchestra). Words fail me with the Clarinet Concerto, the soloist is quite good and generally keeps the orchestra together while he is playing, but when he is not... :-(

Dies Natalis is one of the most difficult vocal pieces to pull off because it requires great delicacy and a floating quality to the voice that most singers, tenors or sopranos, just can't do. For a soprano version my go to is Valdine Anderson with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

[Roasted Swan]

As Hurwitz would say 'a resounding Do Not Buy':



I have rarely heard a worse professional recording of anything. The soprano just doesn't sing very well (I wouldn't mind her Italian accent, but I do mind her poor phrasing and the awful balance between her and the orchestra). Words fail me with the Clarinet Concerto, the soloist is quite good and generally keeps the orchestra together while he is playing, but when he is not... :-(

Dies Natalis is one of the most difficult vocal pieces to pull off because it requires great delicacy and a floating quality to the voice that most singers, tenors or sopranos, just can't do. For a soprano version my go to is Valdine Anderson with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

Oh what a shame - the wish is always that this kind of music gets played and appreciated beyond the UK because it is glorious.  Never heard a soprano sing Dies Natalis but I can imagine with the right light lyric voice it would be very effective.

[DaveF]

As Hurwitz would say 'a resounding Do Not Buy':

Oh dear - of course, with an intro like that, I had to have a listen.  I think they take generally slow tempi in the concerto because they just can't play it any faster.  Finzi's harmonic language already has its share of strange (but beautiful) dissonance, but these guys add some extra, just for us.  And Susanna Rigacci's performance goes beyond the bad and becomes an instant classic of awfulness.  As far as her non-command of English pronunciation goes, I found myself thinking of this:

(except that Schreier's performance is at least beautiful and sensitive - how could it not be? - unlike Ms Rigacci's)

[kyjo]

As Hurwitz would say 'a resounding Do Not Buy':



I have rarely heard a worse professional recording of anything. The soprano just doesn't sing very well (I wouldn't mind her Italian accent, but I do mind her poor phrasing and the awful balance between her and the orchestra). Words fail me with the Clarinet Concerto, the soloist is quite good and generally keeps the orchestra together while he is playing, but when he is not... :-(

Dies Natalis is one of the most difficult vocal pieces to pull off because it requires great delicacy and a floating quality to the voice that most singers, tenors or sopranos, just can't do. For a soprano version my go to is Valdine Anderson with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

Well, thanks for the heads up! I generally try to avoid recordings on the Brilliant Classics label unless there are no alternatives in the repertoire. The label seems to have a habit of hiring amateurish, usually Italian, musicians for their recordings. A shame, since Finzi's beautiful music doesn't deserve to be maligned by poor performances, but we are at least fortunate to have several fine previous recordings of the works on that Brilliant CD. The same can't be said for the some other repertoire the label records in a substandard fashion, like the Salgado symphonies...

[calyptorhynchus]

Ok, so I was listening to Intimations of Immortality recently and I was wondering which recording people thought the best.

The work itself is just so Finzi, lots of beautiful melodies and harmonies, and then rousing itself to vigorous Walton-like passages (one including some very dinky xylophone playing). But it's a work that is difficult to bring off because the tenor has to sing for so long with the orchestra and choir, difficulties of balance and pacing &c

The recordings that I know are:

Hill/Bournemouth SO/Gilchrist/Naxos
Matthew Best/Corydon Orch and Singers/Ainsley/Helios
Handley/Guildford Phil/Partridge/Lyrita
Hickox/RLPO/Langridge/EMI

Any thoughts?



 

[Roasted Swan]

Ok, so I was listening to Intimations of Immortality recently and I was wondering which recording people thought the best.

The work itself is just so Finzi, lots of beautiful melodies and harmonies, and then rousing itself to vigorous Walton-like passages (one including some very dinky xylophone playing). But it's a work that is difficult to bring off because the tenor has to sing for so long with the orchestra and choir, difficulties of balance and pacing &c

The recordings that I know are:

Hill/Bournemouth SO/Gilchrist/Naxos
Matthew Best/Corydon Orch and Singers/Ainsley/Helios
Handley/Guildford Phil/Partridge/Lyrita
Hickox/RLPO/Langridge/EMI

Any thoughts?



 

Lacking any objectivity and not knowing the Hill/Naxos version my favourite is Handley/Lyrita.  For 3 simple reasons - 1)  it was the 1st version I knew so I'm a bit imprinted on it 2) Ian Partridge is just perfect in this repertoire 3) the coupling of the Hadley Trees so high is inspired.

[calyptorhynchus]

Don't want to preempt anyone else's views, but I was thinking some more about Intimations and listening to the recordings again.

I think for me Hill's is the best, simply because it is the most recent and his tenor (Gilchrist) seems to cope the best with the demands of the score. The other three sound a bit old-fashioned.

Finzi is very well loved (deservedly so), but Intimations isn't one of his best known pieces and you rather get the impression that it's going to be a long time before anyone does a new recording of it. I was thinking though, if and when they do, that perhaps a new approach might be to thin the orchestral strings down, lower the relative volume and have a smaller choir.

The reason for this is this: Finzi chose to set a piece with a lot of text; if it had been all choral it would have been too monotonous, or if it was a canata for solo tenor it would have been too exhausting for the soloist. The choir and soloist aren't competing, or offering different perspectives—they just share the duties. And yet in none of the recordings we have is the choir very clear: at times in all of the recordings you simply can't hear what they are singing even when following the libretto. If there was a smaller choir the choir and soloist would sound more balanced and be equally audible.