Finzi: Intimations of Immortality / For St Cecilia

"This disc represents an easy first choice in Finzi's Intimations of Immortality, one of the masterpieces of the English choral literature and a surprisingly neglected one too. Its only serious competition comes from Richard Hickox on EMI (if it's still in print) and Matthew Best on Hyperion (a very good version, if not quite as orchestrally polished as this). David Hill has one advantage over everyone: his is simply the most exciting performance available, not just a function of swift tempos, but also in terms of the acuity and enthusiasm of the instrumental response to the music's bold contrasts and driving climaxes.

With James Gilchrist, a very fine tenor soloist, singing with impressive clarity of diction and very little of that traditionally English, pinched tone quality, the overall picture only gets better. It may be that in his own Corydon Singers Best has a finer contingent of massed voices, but the Bournemouth choir certainly does as well as Hickox's Liverpool forces. The coupling is equally impressive: a resounding performance of the ebullient ceremonial ode For St. Cecilia (Hickox offers the Grand Fantasia and Toccata for piano and orchestra, Best the gentle cantata Dies Natalis). At Naxos' budget price, this is an easy call. Buy it!"
-- David Hurwitz, Classics Today, July 2006

"There are many good recordings of Finzi's masterpiece Dies Natalis op. 8 but relatively few of Intimations of Immortality op. 29. Only two recordings are readily available, one with Philip Langridge (Hickox, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, 1988) and another with John Mark Ainsley (Best, Corydon Orchestra and chorus, 1996). The surprise is that this new recording is so good it exceeds even the high standards of its predecessors. This is the one to get, on nearly every count.

Intimations is a blockbuster, a spectacular on a massive scale. As Finzi himself joked, it was a "hell of a noise, but rather a wonderful noise all told". It certainly is ambitious, requiring a large orchestra, a well trained big chorus and a tenor with the fortitude to sustain 45 minutes of singing against a loud background. Finzi attempts to match the grand, stirring verse of Wordsworth with an equally expansive orchestral setting. For a composer whose strength was in chamber and choral music and song, it is quite an achievement: in some ways it outdoes Vaughan Williams in dramatic effects. Nonetheless, its very sprawling ambitiousness, and the rush with which it was completed for first performance in 1950 poses problems. This means all the more that it needs to be performed with clear vision.

As with Dies Natalis, Intimations starts with an Andante setting out the main themes to come: the horn solo is particularly evocative, with its echoes of Arcadia. Then Gilchrist enters, pure and clear. Gilchrist's voice is remarkably beautiful, pure and clear. Ainsley brings a highly refined, magical quality to his singing: this baroque sensibility brings out a deeply spiritual level to the text, which is utterly appropriate and will remain a favourite of mine. But Gilchrist has a more direct, almost conversational edge which expresses profound conviction. His phrasing is immaculate, his diction so clear that Wordsworth's difficult long sentences come across with a natural ease and flow. Wisely, the recording keeps his voice in the foreground. Langridge's more straightforward singing is more recessed into the whole, which doesn't help, since the soloist's role is so important.

David Hill has been conducting Finzi for years, and with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and chorus, he has fine musicians to work with. The results show in by far the most animated, vivacious playing of all three recordings. One of the critical points for me is the xylophone solo which dominates the fourth stanza. Stephen Banfield, one of the great Finzi commentators, calls it, charitably, "ragtime", though what place ragtime has in Wordsworth, I don't know. Of course it's cheerful, but in the Best/Corydon recording in particular it reminds me far too much of "The Donkey Serenade", a concept totally jarring to the ideas in Wordsworth and the general thrust of the music, and spoils the recording. Hickox may not mute its effect, but doesn't overemphasize it, either. Hill thoughtfully tones it down and keeps it more integrated with the rest of the orchestra and the choir, so it does not jar quite so much. Indeed, he gets from his players a clarity and liveliness that complements Gilchrist's expressive singing. This is one of the strengths of this recording, as balancing the constituent parts of the piece make it flow with more spirit and feeling. What Finzi may have been seeking, after all, was a profound emotional charge, so as to equal Wordsworth's intense poetry. While the Langridge/Hickox recording has its merits, it's far more conservative and unadventurous. It doesn't capture the sense of wonder and excitement that Finzi's spectacular setting seems to cry out for.

Indeed, what strikes me about his setting is its "technicolor" elements: great surges of volume, intense chromatics, lushly romantic voices and strings in particular. It's not surprising that the Hollywood musician Bernard Herrmann was one of the first to appreciate the work for what it was. Hollywood may have bad connotations in conservative eyes, but in those dark days of post-war austerity, it meant something quite different. If Finzi sought the ebullient and the upbeat, it seems quite natural that he should have written music whose boundless optimism transcended parochial convention. It's no defect. Indeed, Banfield calls the chirpy little melody that illustrates the words "this sweet May morning" as "one of most sly pieces of mickey-mousing outside Hollywood". Finzi's good humour meant he was no po-faced musical snob. Gilchrist, Hill and the Bournemouth musicians seem to understand Finzi's quintessential approach, so their bright, vivacious performance is more in keeping with the composer's vision than their rather staid predecessors.

Finzi ends the work with a sparsely orchestrated, exquisitely elegant simplicity, all the more profound for its contrast with what went before. In this final stanza, Gilchrist's singing is almost surreally beautiful. The way he sings "another race have been, and other palms are won" gives me goosebumps, for so clearly does he evoke "Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears".

The recording is followed by the Ceremonial Ode For St Cecilia, to words by Edmund Blunden, Finzi's friend. It gets a fine performance but isn't in the league of Intimations.

This is an amazing recording, easily the most intelligently thought through. With it, Naxos has scored a triumph, for this should be an essential recording for anyone interested in English music or art song as a genre. A lot of "bargain" recordings are rubbish, and no real bargain, but this one would be a steal even at top price. I hope Naxos realize what a treasure they have here."
-- Anne Ozorio, Musicweb International, August 2006

One of the most enjoyable concerts I've ever attended - not necessarily best but most enjoyable - was given many years ago in a local church and consisted of Finzi's Intimations of Immortality and Delius's Violin Concerto played by Manoug Parikian. I suppose it was an indication of my enthusiasms at the time that Ian Partidge's LP recording has obliterated all recollection of the tenor soloist (I do hope it wasn't Partridge) in the Finzi but that Parikian's splendid playing in the Delius has remained a warm memory. Must look up the programme if it's still around.

This new Gilchrist/Hill recording is that much quicker (over three minutes) than a current rival with John Mark Ainsley and Matthew Best on Hyperion - the Partridge/Handley is in limbo land or Lotus Land or wherever it is that LP recordings go to stagnate and die - and its tauter compression is a pleasurable feature of the new recording. I've not heard the Langridge/Hickox on EMI which is coupled with Philip Fowke's performance of the wonderful Grand Fantasia and Toccata.

But greater tension and speed are not everything; inflexion, subtlety of word deployment, vowel shading and crispness of consonants count for a huge amount and especially so in the mammoth responsibility in setting Wordsworth. The differences between Ainsley and Gilchrist are considerable. Ainsley has a much more focused, centred voice; it's harder, less inclined to soft edges. Gilchrist is more consistent with his cathedral background, more reflective, softer and more malleable, more fragile and introspective. Ainsley's is a public persona in this work, more declamatory, Gilchrist more withdrawn.

This manifests itself in a number of ways, some positive, and some negative. Gilchrist strains sometimes going up, where the voice can spread, and where a relative uncertainty of pitch comes into play. He colours vowels attractively if inconsistently and his quick throbbing vibrato is accompanied by a lack of optimum sustenance at the top of the register and lack of chest heft lower down. But hear what he does with the "eternal silence" section (track 11) where Gilchrist bleaches his tone white. Ainsley is good here as well but far less touching. Or his head voice in track 13's And O, ye fountains where he attains a touching grace of expression. Demerits also include some strange colourings, odd things such as the way he deals with the "delight" in track 3 ("The Moon doth with delight") and elsewhere, where his response is rather hampered technically.

The orchestra plays well with some very expressive solos in the Introduction. The chorus is rather blurry however - which may be an acoustical problem or a balance one, or both - and its entries are occasionally mushy and indistinct. I found certain passages, such as the glorious and unforgettable Waters on a starry night, sounded chorally unspontaneous and over-prepared, which limited its mystery and awe-struck immediacy somewhat.

I'd rate this performance well enough but there are rather too many little problems that tend to drag it down a touch, for me at least.

Coupled with it is the fanfare efflorescence and sensitive introspection of the much less well known and less often performed For St Cecilia. The choral and orchestral forces certainly catch the Parry-burnished nobility and masculine Englishness of the final section, Wherefore we bid with impressive sonority - they seem to be a touch better balanced here as well. It's a stirring, chest swelling interpretation, with crisp brass and alert percussion to the fore. Gilchrist's honesty and clarity of diction are most attractive features of this performance."
-- Review by Jonathan Woolf
Musicweb International, August 2006

"Naxos preside over a warm and richly detailed recording of one of Finzi's most ambitious works as well as one of his most enjoyably celebratory pieces. Intimations is to St Cecilia what Walton's Belshazzar is to the Gloria. Both Finzi works are in their more animated passages gratefully indebted to Walton and specifically to Belshazzar (eg tr. 4 4.10).

The tenor has a central place in both works and Finzi gives him plenty to do. Gilchrist has already established his Finzi credentials via a Delphian song recital warmly welcomed by Anne Ozorio. review For this reason and having heard the Delphian disc myself, I had high hopes for this version. As ever Gilchrist shows intelligent engagement with the words. His voice lacks the white opalescence of tone of Partridge and before him of Wilfred Brown. Gilchrist's tone is slightly nasal in the line gloriously established by Gerald English and then less pleasingly by Robert Tear.

Intimations was long in the creation having been started in the 1930s. The subject of passing time, loss and specifically the loss of innocence were central to Finzi's creative processes. It can for example be found in the numerous Hardy songs and in the Flecker setting in the cycle To a Poet.It's a theme that recurs time and again throughout his vocal works and is probably a subtext in every one of his pieces. It is no wonder that Finzi was drawn to Wordsworth's Ode with its musings on the passing of childhood and the narrowing of the 'visionary gleam' as adult concerns intrude. Intimations is in some ways the fuller expression of the ecstasy hymned in his much earlier Dies Natalis. Both works turn to childhood for mystical rapture.

Intimations is a cruelly demanding work for a tenor concerned to present the words with the clarity they demand and with Finzi the conveying of meaning is crucial. The words are no mere add-on. The telling concatenation of music and words touches off delight. Tastes vary but I have always found the articulation of sung words damaged by vibrato. Gilchrist is good as his Delphian recital proved but he is not exempt from this issue. Listen to the beat in the voice in the words light and glory and earth (trs. 2 and 3). On the other hand no-one has sung with such an awed feeling of eternity and the mysteries Of the eternal silence (tr. 11 1:10). In that case Gilchrist is steady as a rock. There are some transiently disorientating moments too; not many but one is where Gilchrist's pronunciation of the word 'fountains' comes out as 'fountins' not 'fountAIns' or even 'FountENs'. There should have been more hushed mystery in Gilchrist's singing of The pansy at my feet doth the same tale repeat (tr. 7 1.03) and over the word vanishings (1:47 in tr. 10). All of this said Guilchrist's performance remains outstanding and if I seem critical it is because for years I imprinted on the Partridge version which is of little value to readers since it has never been transferred to CD and there are no indications that it ever will be.

David Hill is no stranger to Finzi and has been conducting his works for years. His In terra Pax is on Decca 468 807-2 and is excellent. Quite apart from the rumba and romp of the celebratory sections Hill has a good eye for the abundant poetry of this score. In the best hands Intimations can be unbearably poignant for a listener. Take, for example, the heart's-ease shimmer at Forbode not any severing of our loves. While the Naxos technical team fail to italicise some solo entries in quite the way Ian Partridge's and Vernon Handley's Guildford-Lyrita team did in 1974 there are some superbly effective moments along the way. Try the discreetly gleaming string sigh behind the sung words 'those shadowy recollections' (tr. 11, 00.08). Hill introduces some unusual approaches as well. Take, for example, the urgent accelerations of Shout round me. A momentary blemish is that the xylophone sounds as if it is suffering a serious joy-deficit, an accusation you could never level at the GPO percussionist. While this scouting of exuberance is regrettable this is compensated for in the demonstrative passages by the wild-eyed singing of a big-sounding choir.

This is the fourth commercially recorded version of Intimations. The first (and the best) is the Lyrita LP SRCS75 with Ian Partridge, Guildford Phil forces and Vernon Handley. This has never made it to CD - more's the pity. Then there are CDs from EMI (Hickox) and Hyperion both of which suffer from tenors (Langridge and Ainsley) who are afflicted with a sometimes woeful vibrato. This is doubly tragic in the case of Langridge whose early 1970s broadcast with the BBC Concert Orchestra found him in much steadier voice.

Finzi's For Cecilia was a commissioned work. It was premiered on 22 November 1947 at the RAH by René Soames with the Luton Choral Society and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. The words are by Edmund Blunden (1896-1974). Blunden and Finzi worked together closely over the words as we are now reminded in Diana McVeagh's biography. review.

This Cecilia is the second commercial recording and it is very good indeed. It may not have quite the Decca house-sound but the fffs open out smartly. Oddly enough Gilchrist is also in better voice in Cecilia than he is in Intimations. Hill's version is up against a recording made by Argo in 1979 during the second flush of the Finzi renaissance. This was performed by Philip Langridge, the LSO, the London Symphony Chorus conducted by Richard Hickox on LP 425 660-2 (Dies; Cecilia, 1978). This was then reissued in two Finzi anthologies: CD 425 660-2 in the early 1990s and most recently on the British Music Collection 468 807-2. review

The notes for this Naxos disc are by Finzi luminary, Andrew Burn. The release is completed by the sung texts reproduced in full in the insert.

No Finzian can afford to be without this disc and those who have dabbled with Finzi through Classic FM bon-bons will find this and the other Naxos Finzi discs cello concerto and clarinet concerto a very inexpensive way of hearing some of the best of Finzi."
-- Rob Barnett, Musicweb International, August 2006