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Music
The works of the English composer Gerald Finzi do not add up to any great number. So why is it that his compositions demand such attention? The main reason is the sheer quality of the music. His settings of Hardy and Shakespeare have never yet been equalled in their tunefulness, colour and skill of word-setting. His anthems guide the listener along an epic spiritual journey, for example, the moving ‘Lo the Full, Final Sacrifice’ which shows Finzi at his most intensely, profound, leading to surely the most beautiful ‘Amen’ coda in all music. His instrumental compositions are lyrical and at times have a distinctly English melancholy, as seen in his vast Cello Concerto (the last work he wrote) which takes the listener through the whole gamut of emotions which a composer, with his life literally hanging in the balance (from leukaemia), experienced. He was deeply influenced by the composers and other artists working around him, notable examples including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, Edmund Blunden, Gustav Holst, and his wife, the artist Joy Finzi (nee Black). Other than music, he was also an experienced apple farmer, and saved many English apples from obscurity in his orchard at Ashmansworth, Hampshire. An extremely well-read man, his knowledge of English literature was perhaps one of the deepest at the time, as seen by his extensive library now housed at Reading University. Perhaps it was through this living ‘in’ the poetry of his homeland that his music naturally pervades each text, breathing life into it and sounding completely at one with the words. As an introduction to Finzi’s skill as a songwriter look no further than his masterpiece of the Shakespeare setting, ‘Let us Garlands Bring.' Gerald Finzi may have left us few works, but they are have such polish and complete mastery, that one wonders why they are not more popular.
Life
[in Dutch]
Gerald Finzi was van Italiaans-joodse afkomst en vooral bekend door zijn liederen. In 1930 werd hij docent aan de Royal Academy of Music in London, maar vertrok in de 2e WO om voor het ‘Ministry of War Transport’ te werken. Gedurende de oorlogsjaren stelden hij en zijn vrouw, de kunstenares Joy Black, hun huis open voor een aantal Duitse en Tsjechische vluchtelingen.
Zijn interesse in oude Engelse muziek en grote kennis van Engelse literatuur is grotendeels weerspiegeld in zijn muziek, mede door invloeden van Sir Charles Parry, zijn oudere tijdgenoot en voorbeeld Vaughan Williams en Elgar. Met de door hem opgerichte ‘Newbury String Players’ voerde hij tot zijn dood zijn eigen werken en nieuwe werken van tijdgenoten uit. Na de oorlog kreeg Finzi een aantal grote compositie-opdrachten. Pas in 1954, toen hij reeds drie jaar ziek was, werd Finzi volwaardig in het Britse muziekleven erkend. Hij stierf in 1956 aan kanker.
De liederencyclus ‘Let us Garlands Bring’ (Shakespeare) voor bariton en piano, werd ook gearrangeerd voor bariton en strijkorkest. (conntribution by Robbert Muuse <robbertmuuse
hotmail.com>)