Finzi Choral works

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Gerald (Raphael) Finzi

Label: Chandos

Magazine Review Date: 9/1991

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ABTD1533

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
God is gone up	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
Welcome sweet and sacred feast	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
(3) Short Elegies	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Thou didst delight my eyes	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
My lovely one	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
(7) Partsongs	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Magnificat	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
White-flowering days	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
All this night	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Lo, the full, final sacrifice	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor

Composer or Director: Gerald (Raphael) Finzi

Label: Chandos

Magazine Review Date: 9/1991

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 79

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CHAN8936

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
God is gone up	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
Welcome sweet and sacred feast	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
(3) Short Elegies	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Thou didst delight my eyes	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
My lovely one	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
(7) Partsongs	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Magnificat	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor
White-flowering days	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
All this night	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Paul Spicer, Conductor
Lo, the full, final sacrifice	Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Finzi Singers Gerald (Raphael) Finzi, Composer Harry Bicket, Organ Paul Spicer, Conductor

Author:

Fine performances here, and a programme full of music that one can be sure will always reward re-hearing. Best-known are the first and last, ''God is gone up'' (from the Op. 27 Anthems) and Lo, the full, final sacrifice, yet they are not entirely the most characteristic. The first rejoices in fortissimo, which is comparatively rare in Finzi, and the other I find (but perhaps mistakenly) passes somewhat unmemorably till towards the end, with the haunting effect of its repeated ''come away'' and the great beauty of its ''Amen''. That (the heart-easing loveliness of the ''Amen'') is also a feature of the Magnificat, the work which, on this occasion at least, I thought the finest. It is interesting to compare this, the original version with organ accompaniment, with the scoring for orchestra used in the recording made in 1979 by Richard Hickox with his singers and the London Sinfonia (Decca (CD) 425 660-2DM); there is additional colour, and almost, at the start, a Waltonian splendour in the orchestration, but it also introduces a secular association, whereas the organ is like a hand cupped to hold the singers in a closer unity and blessedness of spirit. It is a marvellously resourceful composition, and performed with just the right combination of rhythmic vigour and lyrical ease.
The Finzi Singers are an able and devoted choir, as we have known for many years. The voices are fresh, sure in intonation and admirably balanced without acquiring that kind of anonymity which some highly practised choirs assume. Among the best performances are some of the unaccompanied pieces, the Elegies of William Drummond, for instance, with their inspired use of silences, and the Seven Partsongs to words by Robert Bridges, especially in that mounting phrase ''the innumerable choir of day'' at the end of ''Nightingales''. White-flowering days was Finzi's contribution to A Garland for the Queen in Coronation year, and I should say that no other offering to that ''queenly beauty youngly crowned'' caught the hope and freshness of the time better than this.'