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Gerald FINZI (1901-1956) Earth and Air and Rain, Op. 15 (1928-32) [31:39] To a Poet, Op. 13a (1921-56) [17:02] By Footpath and Stile, Op. 2 (1921-22) [23:14]
(see end of review for details)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Iain Burnside (piano) (Opp. 15; Op. 13a); Sacconi Quartet (Op. 2)
rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK, 27-28 August 2005 (Opp. 15, 13a); 10 January 2006
(Op. 2) DDD
Notes and full texts of songs included NAXOS 8.557963 [71:54]
Roderick
Williams has already recorded the Finzi song-cycles I
Said to Love, Let Us Garlands Bring, and Before
and After Summer on Naxos. Here he continues the sterling
work.
English
solo song is a deceptive genre. Although the songs often
appear simple, in actual fact they are not easy to pull off
effectively. For them to work, every nuance must be brought
out, every slightly inflection must be spot-on, every word
invested with the right emotion. Williams is no stranger
to English solo song and always gets to the heart of the
work. Here he is, as always, beautifully sympathetic, awake
to all nuances of the text – listen to wonderful shades of
light and dark in When
I set out for Lyonesse,
to the poignancy in Lizbie Brown and the chilling
intensity in Clock of the Years. He demonstrates excellent
versatility – from the rumbustious Rollicum-Rorum,
scintillatingly performed – through to the intense and serious
(Ode on the Rejection of St. Cecilia), or the beautifully
tender – The Birthnight.
This
is the only version of By Footpath and Stile currently
available. It was Finzi’s earliest Hardy setting, written
in 1921-22, and was later withdrawn by the composer, whose
plans to revise it were not fully seen through. The work
was abandoned until Finzi’s friend, the composer Howard Ferguson
edited it for republication. Although not as convincing as
Finzi’s later Hardy settings, it nonetheless demonstrates
the composer in the process of finding his own “voice”. The
songs are deftly crafted, and often deeply moving. It is
scored for string quartet accompaniment, sensitively performed
here by the Sacconi Quartet.
Williams
has a lovely rich, dark tone, and exquisite enunciation that
facilitates his excellent communication of the words and
the meaning. He is well accompanied by Iain Burnside. Glorious
songs, and brilliantly performed.
Em Marshall
And a further perspective from Rob Barnett
...
Irrespective of Roderick Williams’ intelligent
emotional engagement with these songs this disc will have
sold well among Finzians. It is, after all, the world premiere
of By Footpath and Stile. Could there be a more English
pastoral title? Interestingly Finzi selected string quartet
and voice rather than the more dramatic and more potently
coloured combination chosen by Gurney and RVW. Both RVW (On
Bredon Hill) and Gurney (Ludlow and Teme) are
laid out for voice and quartet with piano. More of
that cycle later.
First there are the two song
sets, one assembled posthumously by Ferguson. Earth and
Air and Rain was put together by Finzi. Summer Schemes is
lit by Burnside’s magical picturing of the rivulets’ bubble
and gurgle. Lyonesse is given a fine adroit swing
but the magic is neither as hushed nor as tense as in John
Carol Case’s 1960s version on the recently reborn Lyrita
SRCD282 (see review). Rollicum Rorum has
the panache of Ireland’s Great Things – a song spiced
with satire. Williams’s firmly-centred tone is a delight. To
Lizbie Browne is as touching as ever with its sweet melding
of troubadour love song and schadenfreude. The words ‘You
disappeared’ are echoed superbly in the piano line by Burnside.
Wonderful stuff. The Clock of the Years is virtually
an operatic scena. Its spoken introduction adds a patina
of awed Gothic. I have often regretted that this song, unlike
comparable Sibelius songs (Count Magnus and Höstkvall),
was not orchestrated by Finzi or Ferguson. The tenth and
final song, Proud Songsters is a lament sweetened
with a lilt. The ceaseless cycle of life returns to particles
of earth and air and rain and begins again. This looks forward
to science and backward to similar carpe diem sentiments
in Bantock's stylistically very different Omar Khayyam in
which Roderick Williams plays a key solo role.
To a Poet is
a posthumous assemblage made by Howard Ferguson. Its level
of inspiration is desultory by comparison with the tenor
set. There are exceptions though. To a poet a thousand
years hence, a Flecker poem, has the air of an H.G. Wells
scena and touches on one of Finzi’s lifetime themes: friendship
with like-minded souls across the centuries. On parent
knees and Intrada link with Intimations and
the mystic ‘Land of Lost Content’: childhood. Blunden’s Ode
on the rejection of St. Cecilia has some deeply touching
moments including at the words “Earth sleeps in peace”. This
contrasts with the sullen hum of wars to come which in itself
links with Arnold’s ignorant armies clashing by night in Dover
Beach as set by both Samuel Barber and the yet to be
discovered Maurice Johnstone.
By footpath and stile is
laid out instrumentally to the same specification as the
original chamber version of George Butterworth's Love
Blows as the Wind Blows and as several of Warlock's songs
including My Lady is Pretty One and the Corpus
Christi Carol. The string quartet colouring is more subtle
and less stark than if there had been a piano present. There
is here in the first song that same soft insinuating chiming
also to be found in the Butterworth cycle. The Oxen has
been set by a number of British composers including RVW in
his late masterpiece Hodie (recently issued on Naxos).
Finzi is smooth but his setting does not rival the touching
RVW. Williams in the later songs makes the most of the refrain All
day cheerily … all night eerily. His thoughtful excellence
is also apparent in the way he imparts differentiation to
Fanny Hunt, Bachelor Bowring and the rest in Voices from
things growing in a churchyard. The final Exeunt Omnes is
typically downbeat yet without the redeeming renewal of the ‘Apple
Tree Shaker’: Folk all fade ... Soon one more goes thither.
By Footpath and Stile has
moments of great beauty but Finzi was still finding his feet
at this stage in his career. It is a more successful essay
than the Chandos-revived Finzi Violin Concerto where only
the middle movement, which we have long known as Introit,
is stunningly successful. The cycle is done magnificently
though does not efface memories of the first broadcast BBC
revivals of the cycle by the Allegri with David Wilson-Johnson
on 2 October 1982 and three years later by Michael George
with the Bochmann.
This disc is the fifteenth
in The English Song series from Naxos. They gained
a flying start by reissuing all of the Collins Classics English
Song discs and have added to it since. I very much hope
that they will go on to give us a generous selection of the
song output of C.W. Orr, one of the grievously neglected
masters of British music. His Housman settings are miniature
dramatic scenes painted with raw sensitivity and unfailingly
poignant response. Further in the future can we look forward
to the songs of Mary Plumstead, John Williamson, Margaret
Wegener and John Jeffreys?
Track details Earth and Air and Rain
Summer Schemes [2:34]
When I set out for Lyonesse [2:06]
Waiting both [3:24]
The phantom [3:45]
So I have fared [2:49]
Rollicum-Rorum
[1:41]
To Lizbie Browne [4:01]
The Clock of the Years [4:24]
In a churchyard
[3:51]
Proud Songsters
[3:05]
To a Poet
To a poet a thousand years hence [5:02]
On parent knees [1:33]
Intrada [1:34]
The birthnight [1:45]
June on Castle Hill [2:01]
Ode on the
rejection of St.
Cecilia [5:07]
By Footpath and Stile
Paying calls [3:47]
Where the picnic was [4:04]
The oxen [2:42]
The master
and the leaves [2:49]
Voices from things growing in a churchyard [6:34]
Exeunt
omnes [3:17]
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