Finzi: I Said To Love / Let Us Garlands Bring / Before and After Summer (English Song, Vol. 12)

Featuring

Roderick Williams
Iain Burnside
Gerald Finzi

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Song-writing was central to Gerald Finzi's output, and he made a significant contribution to British twentieth-century music in this genre, especially through his settings of Thomas Hardy, his favorite poet.

Performer Biography

Roderick Williams, the baritone on this recording, is a versatile artist who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and won several awards, including second prize in the 1994 Kathleen Ferrier singing competition.

Composition History

The song set 'I Said to Love' includes four songs that Gerald Finzi composed or completed in 1956, the last year of his life, alongside others begun in the 1920s.

Notable Performances

Gerald Finzi's Shakespeare settings, 'Let Us Garlands Bring', were first performed by Robert Irvin and Howard Ferguson on October 12, 1942, coinciding with Vaughan Williams's seventieth birthday.

Performer Biography

Iain Burnside, the pianist, has a unique reputation as a pianist and broadcaster, known for his commitment to song repertoire and collaborations with leading international singers.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Gerald Finzi felt a deep empathy with Thomas Hardy's bleak fatalism, sense of transience, and anger at human suffering, which influenced his musical settings.