Gerald Finzi - Songs

John Carol Case, baritone
Robert Tear, tenor
Neil Jenkins, tenor
Howard Ferguson, piano

Label: Lyrita
Copyright: 2007 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England
Catalogue number: SRCD.282
UPC/EAN: 5020926028228
Format: CD
Analogue / Digital recording: ADD
Number of discs: 2
Total playing time: 1 hours 59 mins
Price: £ 14.99 (+ postage & packing)

CD 1: Recorded at Decca No. 3, 29 December 1967
CD 2: Recorded at Smith Square, 30 April 1970, Producer: David Harvey, Engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson, Colin Moorfoot

"I do hate the bilge and bunkum about composers trying to 'add' to a poem - that a fine poem is complete in itself, and to set it is only to gild the lily, and so on ... I rather expected it [over the setting of two Milton Sonnets] and expect it still more when the Intimations [of Immortality] is finished . . . Obviously a poem may be unsatisfactory in itself for setting, but that is a purely musical consideration - that it has no architectural possibilities - no broad vowels where climaxes should be, and so on. But the first and last thing is that a composer is (presumably) moved by a poem and wishes to identify himself with it and share it." Gerald Finzi

Disc 1
Before & After Summer - ten songs for baritone and piano Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) 32.25
1 Childhood among the Ferns 3.28
2 Before & After Summer 2.36
3 The Self-unseeing 2.16
4 Overlooking the River 3.07
5 Channel Firing 6.53
6 In the Mind’s Eye 1.48
7 The too short Time 2.48
8 Epeisodia 2.11
9 Amabel 2.21
10 He abjures Love 4.57
Till Earth Outwears - seven songs for tenor and piano Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) 16.40
11 Let me enjoy the Earth 2.17
12 In Years defaced 3.31
13 The Market-Girl 2.04
14 I look into my Glass 1.58
15 It never looks like Summer 1.08
16 At a lunar Eclipse 3.25
17 Life laughs onwards 2.17
I said to Love - six songs for baritone and piano Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) 13.26
18 I need not go 2.00
19 At Middle-Field Gate in February 3.26
20 Two Lips 0.54
21 In five score Summers (Meditation) 1.49
22 For Life I had never cared greatly 2.14
23 I said to Love 3.03
Disc 2
A young Man’s Exhortation - ten songs for tenor and piano Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) 26.27
1 Part I – Mane floreat, et transeat. Ps. 89 - A young Man’s Exhortation 3.15
2 Part I – Mane floreat, et transeat. Ps. 89 - Ditty 2.50
3 Part I – Mane floreat, et transeat. Ps. 89 - Budmouth Dears 1.42
4 Part I – Mane floreat, et transeat. Ps. 89 - Her Temple 1.53
5 Part I – Mane floreat, et transeat. Ps. 89 - The Comet at Yell’ham 3.04
6 Part II – Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat. Ps. 89 - Shortening Days 2.23
7 Part II – Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat. Ps. 89 - The Sigh 3.11
8 Part II – Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat. Ps. 89 - Former Beauties 3.03
9 Part II – Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat. Ps. 89 - Transformations 1.32
10 Part II – Vespere decidat, induret, et arescat. Ps. 89 - The Dance continued 3.34
Earth and Air and Rain - ten songs for baritone and piano Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) 29.55
11 Summer Schemes 2.32
12 When I set out for Lyonesse 1.58
13 Waiting both 2.52
14 The Phantom 3.31
15 So I have fared 2.30
16 Rollicum-rorum 1.42
17 To Lizbie-Brown 4.16
18 The Clock of the Years 3.58
19 In a Churchyard 3.26
20 Proud Songsters 3.10