BaL 30.06.18 - Finzi: Dies Natalis

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Welcome to the Forum, sbmonty - good to hear you get a lot out of these discussions Just pitch in and have fun!

[BBMmk2]

Welcome sbmonty! You will have great fun here indeed. Not only on one topic stuff but on topic, as well. I will be on holiday from today for a fortnight but will be able to listen via WiFi.

[Pulcinella]

Prompted by gurnemanz' post, I have just listened to the Kennedy/BBC/NOW/Judd version (not in contention as not commercially available). I am not a fan of his voice, which I find 'shouty' at times, and there are some very oddly distorted vowel sounds ('all' and 'glory' being particularly offensive to my ears). That said, all credit to BBC MM for giving this wonderful piece wider exposure by including it on one of their cover discs.

The classic Brown recording is available at a silly price new (£49.99!), but there are some reasonably priced offerings of used copies, in different incarnations.
Snap them up now if you can: you won't be disappointed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finzi-Natalis-Fantasia-Williams-MYstical/dp/B000005GSD/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1530264893&sr=1-2&keywords=finzi+dies+natalis

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Howells-Hymnus-Paradisi-Finzi-Natalis/dp/B00008ETZ4/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1530264893&sr=1-4&keywords=finzi+dies+natalis

[Cockney Sparrow]

I find I already have it in :
BRITISH COMPOSERS WARNER (EMI) - 5CD - VAUGHAN WILLIAMS FINZI HOLST 5 099909 543324 - 5CD

A couple of 2nd hand copies (for more than the single discs quoted above - at the moment of writing) in the usual place - ASIN: B004RCLCOU.

Available as a download at Presto Classical:

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/7996178--vaughan-williams-finzi-holst

[BBMmk2]

I have the Wilfred Brown version amongst others.

[mikealdren]

What a lovely programme about such a lovely work. It helps that Elin Manahan Thomas has such a beautiful, lilting speaking voice as well as a performer's deep knowledge of the work. All the options considered and no twofer interruptions.

Perfect

[DoctorT]

Agreed. I'm not familiar with this work so it's great to discover something new and wonderful!
I assume the Gilchrist recording is included in this box...

https://www.mdt.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=a+finzi+anthology&t=general&order=most_viewed

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I assume the Gilchrist recording is included in this box...

https://www.mdt.co.uk/catalogsearch/...er=most_viewed

Yes; Disc 8 - Amazon shows the back of the box to make this clear:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finzi-Anthology-NAXOS-8508017/dp/B01ICFPT1O

[Richard Tarleton]

...whereas Wilfred Brown's diction is impeccable.

Wilfred Brown was my first experience of an English tenor voice - he was the soloist in a school performance of St Nicholas in 1963, the year of this recording - I was a treble, sitting a few feet away. I don't remember us even rehearsing with him, so the effect on me of this voice at the performance was revelatory. Not having any particular interest in the work I was nevertheless interested in what EMT liked and why (I was listening in the car). To my ear, Padmore's voice, in this anyway, has a disagreeable beat in it, absent from the likes of Brown, Langridge, Gilchrist etc. I liked the Rebecca Evans extract (a singer I've heard live a few times).

[BBMmk2]

James Gilgrist!

[LeMartinPecheur]

I liked the Rebecca Evans extract (a singer I've heard live a few times).

Wished we'd heard a bit more of her version. My only disagreement with EMT was over Susan Gritton's diction, which she thought exemplary. I didn't, but possibly it's that all sopranos in alt will struggle to get the words across(?).

A pity: I was highly tempted to get a soprano version to supplement Wilfred Brown after the early suggestion that this was Finzi's clear preference - the tenor option only in brackets in the score. Perhaps because the soprano voice is closer to a newborn's??

[DoctorT]

Yes; Disc 8 - Amazon shows the back of the box to make this clear:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finzi-Antho.../dp/B01ICFPT1O

Thanks fhg

[Nevilevelis]

Wilfred Brown was my first experience of an English tenor voice - he was the soloist in a school performance of St Nicholas in 1963, the year of this recording - I was a treble, sitting a few feet away. I don't remember us even rehearsing with him, so the effect on me of this voice at the performance was revelatory. Not having any particular interest in the work I was nevertheless interested in what EMT liked and why (I was listening in the car). To my ear, Padmore's voice, in this anyway, has a disagreeable beat in it, absent from the likes of Brown, Langridge, Gilchrist etc. I liked the Rebecca Evans extract (a singer I've heard live a few times).

Agreed, and if I were going to purchase a sop. version, it would be Evans. For me, Langridge is the no. 1 tenor, despite her reservations re. the balance, which I must say never really bothered me. Gilchrist is a superb musician and so beguiling as an interpreter but the voice leaves me cold, I'm afraid. Oh, that Allan Clayton had recorded it!

NVV

[Pulcinella]

What a lovely programme about such a lovely work. It helps that Elin Manahan Thomas has such a beautiful, lilting speaking voice as well as a performer's deep knowledge of the work. All the options considered and no twofer interruptions.

Perfect

It was a delightfully honest personal approach that revealed how her own expectations changed as she listened to the various recordings.
I am still not persuaded that it suits the soprano voice as well as it does the tenor, though, so am more than happy with the versions I have (though I was a little tempted by the Bostridge/Marriner, at least in the extracts she played with him singing rather than just the first movement).
And yes, much to be grateful for that it was not a twofer.

[BBMmk2]

I can’t inagin a woman’s voice singing this?