Gerald Finzi Classics Violin and Cello Concertos Tasmin Little violin Raphael Wallfi sch cello City of London Sinfonia Richard Hickox Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vernon Handley CHAN 10425 X Gerald Finzi (1901–1956) Cello Concerto, Op. 40 39:10 in A minor • in a-Moll • en la mineur Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library 1 I Allegro moderato 15:53 2 II Andante quieto 13:34 3 III Rondo: Adagio – Allegro giocoso 9:44 Raphael Wallfi sch cello Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Malcolm Stewart leader Vernon Handley Gerald Finzi 3 Finzi: Cello Concerto and Violin Concerto Finzi completed his Cello Concerto for the reaches out to a major sixth, so swinging the 4 Prelude, Op. 25 5:00 Cheltenham Festival of 1955. He had long harmony round in its second bar to a major for string orchestra had a cello concerto in mind, and some of it chord; with this reaching out, and the fi erce Adagio espressivo – Poco più mosso – Tempo primo already composed, when Sir John Barbirolli trills, scotch-snap rhythms, and up-thrusting asked him for a major work; so the fi rst shape, the theme sets up a restless energy. performance was given by Christopher The second subject is a gentler cantabile, but 5 Romance, Op. 11 7:52 Bunting and The Hallé Orchestra under the movement ends stormily, gathered into a for string orchestra Barbirolli on 19 July 1955. cadenza and then despatched with four great Andante espressivo – Più mosso – Tempo primo Those who know Finzi only from his more hammer-blows. lyrical songs, perhaps even from his Clarinet The slow movement opens in a mood of † Concerto as well, may be surprised at the shy rapture, the song-melody beautifully Concerto for Small Orchestra and Solo Violin 20:05 breadth and power of this work. But songs unwinding in diatonic security over a 6 I Allegro 6:16 such as ‘Channel Firing’ – in effect a seven- persistent tread. But the quieto of the 7 II Molto sereno 10:07 minute symphonic poem – and ‘He abjures direction allows for some strong climaxes love’ indicate a wider range, and the Grand and the whole movement is shot through with 8 III Hornpipe Rondo: Allegro risoluto 3:40 Fantasia and Toccata for piano and orchestra the melancholy grandeur that informs Finzi’s TT 72:07 of 1953 (though the Fantasia dates from Intimations of Immortality. 1928) is a highly original concerto with a The rondo tune is eerily foreshadowed by Tasmin Little violin† curious, twisted strength. the cello in pizzicato octaves. Most of the City of London Sinfonia So the turbulence of the Cello Concerto’s movement is dance-like, though there is a trace fi rst movement is not unaccountable, even of unease in its good cheer with a couple of Nick Ward leader without bearing in mind that Finzi, only references back to the fi rst movement. When it Richard Hickox in his fi fties, knew that his years were sounds to be working to a cadenza the music numbered. The work is in traditional, though surprisingly clears into C major with the rondo rhapsodic, sonata form. It begins with three theme augmented, chorale-like, on brass. It brusque chords, tearing at each other in then ends on A with a fl ick and a scamper. contrary motion, which slice impatiently into the main theme. This, in A minor, at once © Diana McVeagh 4 5 Finzi wrote his Concerto for Small Orchestra 1999, which led to this recording by the same neo-baroque feeling can be heard in the Menotti, Prokofi ev, Respighi and Richard and Solo Violin, his earliest extended artists, was therefore only the second of the middle section of the Prelude but the Strauss. Many of Britain’s leading composers instrumental work, between 1925 and 1927 entire work. Romance, dating from 1928, is a warmer have written works for him, including Sir when he was in his mid-twenties. It was written Very much of its period, the Violin work altogether because Finzi rewrote it Richard Rodney Bennett, James MacMillan, Paul for Sybil Eaton, a young violinist with whom Concerto’s English amalgam of folksong later in life when his style had relaxed and Patterson, Robert Saxton, Robert Simpson, he had fallen ineffectually in love, and she pastoral and Bach constitutes an ‘arts and he had gained practical experience of string Giles Swayne, Sir John Tavener and Adrian performed its second and third movements in crafts’ ploy countering Stravinskyan neo- orchestras (he conducted his own). There Williams. Queen’s Hall, London, on 4 May 1927 with baroque with a vernacular version (Bach was is evidence that he hoped to include it in a Teaching is one of Raphael Wallfi sch’s the British Women’s Symphony Orchestra virtually an honorary Englishman at the time). string serenade, but that never eventuated passions. He is in great demand as a teacher conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Finzi was The rapt slow movement makes an obvious and he had the Romance performed all over the world, and holds professorships dissatisfi ed with the fi rst movement and had success of these impulses and paved the way separately in 1951, and published in 1952. in Switzerland at the Zürich Winterthur already discarded it, but Vaughan Williams, for similar later essays from Finzi (including Konservatorium and in Germany at the © Stephen Banfi eld who had been consulted on this occasion, the Prelude and the Romance for strings on Hochschule Mainz. prompted a replacement by programming this recording). The hornpipe fi nale with its the entire work in a Bach Choir concert the two folky episode tunes and quodlibet ending Born into a family of professional musicians, During a fl ourishing career as a soloist which following year, on 1 February 1928. Vaughan is breezier than most Finzi, but recognisably Raphael Wallfi sch discovered the cello at has taken her to every continent in the world, Williams conducted the London Symphony his. The fi rst movement (his second version), the age of eight. While studying with Gregor Tasmin Little has performed with many of Orchestra himself, once more in Queen’s Hall, abstract and contrapuntal in its shaping, Piatigorsky in California he was chosen to the world’s great orchestras, including among with Eaton as soloist. This, the fi rst complete represents the young composer in his perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz others the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland performance of the concerto, was in effect studiousness but still betrays the underlying in the informal recitals that Piatigorsky held Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Finzi’s London debut, indeed the most vitality that was to see him through the in his home. At the age of twenty-four he Philharmonic and London Symphony, and prominent metropolitan premiere of his career. concertos for cello and clarinet. won the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello has worked with conductors including Masur, Again, however, the fi rst movement was the The Prelude, written around 1929, Competition in Florence. Since then he has Ashkenazy, Järvi, Slatkin, Rostropovich, sticking point in a mixed reception and Finzi was intended as the fi rst movement of an performed continually worldwide. His extensive Mackerras, Rozhdestvensky and Menuhin. In cut his losses thereafter. He put the concerto elegiac Chamber Symphony subtitled ‘The discography features works by a wide range 2006 she made her fourteenth appearance at aside, and despite briefl y re-examining it Bud, the Blossom and the Berry’ of which of British composers, including concertos by the BBC Proms. She continues to champion when he began thinking about a concerto for the last movement eventually became ‘The Bax, Bliss, Delius, Finzi, Leighton, Moeran and seldom-performed repertoire, including clarinet, he sealed its fate in his own lifetime Fall of the Leaf’. Finzi always found slow Walton – for the Chandos Walton Edition he Ligeti’s challenging Violin Concerto which by promoting the slow movement separately as movements easier to write than fast ones, recorded the Cello Concerto originally written brought her unanimous critical acclaim during the Introit, published in 1935. The concerto’s though this example was not salvaged for his master, Piatigorsky –, besides Britten’s her 2003 tour to Berlin, Salzburg, New York performance in the Turner Sims Concert Hall from the abandoned work until after his Cello Symphony. He has also recorded rarer and Philadelphia with the Berlin Philharmonic at Southampton University on 20 November death. Something of the Violin Concerto’s works by Barber, Dohnányi, Grieg, Kabalevsky, and Sir Simon Rattle. 6 7 Tasmin Little has further established her David Atherton, Marek Janowski and Libor Its discography now exceeds 100 recordings, of Balliol College, Oxford, in 1999. Vernon reputation as an artistic director with her Pešek. In 2001, the orchestra announced a including the recent release on Chandos of Handley is currently Conductor Emeritus of hugely successful ‘Delius Inspired’ Festival, ground-breaking partnership with Classic Britten’s Death in Venice which has received the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra broadcast on Radio 3 in 2006. The festival FM to build new audiences for live classical wide critical acclaim. and Associate Conductor of the Royal comprised concerts, fi lms and exhibitions, music. Philharmonic Orchestra, and in September and included an ambitious project of For forty years Vernon Handley has pursued 2003 he was appointed Conductor Laureate outreach work with school children designed The City of London Sinfonia (CLS), founded a career unique amongst those of front rank of the Ulster Orchestra. to widen interest in classical music in young in 1971 by its Music Director, Richard Hickox conductors in that he has championed British people. She also directs and performs with CBE, performs more than 100 concerts a repertoire, and probably recorded, performed One of Britain’s most gifted and versatile orchestras such as Norwegian Chamber, year at many of the UK’s leading festivals and broadcast more British music than any conductors, Richard Hickox CBE is Music Britten Sinfonia and the Royal Philharmonic, and concert venues, as well as touring other conductor.