BaL 30.06.18 - Finzi: Dies Natalis

[ardcarp]

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.

You took the very words out of my mouth, Pulcs. I have the Bostridge version, and in many ways it comes closest to the iconic Brown/Finzi. I'm of the firm opinion that the work suffers if too big a body of strings is used. For instance the Intrada played by LSO strings with Hickox (whom I usually admire enormously in the English repertoire) was just leaden. A shame also because I'm a Langridge fan, but clearly the chemistry...or the record production...just didn't work.

As you say, I though EMT gave us a great BAL, and I'm happy enough to try Gilchrist, conducted of course by a renowned choral expert. I do think she might have dwelt on the string playing a little more as it's so integral to the piece. Surely Christopher Finzi and the ECO showed us how it ought to be done. It's NOT neo-Elgar, and C. Finzi just lets the music unfold without interfering! Likewise, to my ears, Marriner and The Academy of SMF do likewise.

On a personal note, the work is very special to Mrs A and me, as Brown/Finzi became available (on the Recorded Music Centre label) just as we were 'courting', and it's stayed with us for nigh on 55 years!

[BBMmk2]

I didn’t here why the Wilfred Brown version was t chosen. Was it because o it’s age?

[ardcarp]

Not really. She did say the Brown/Finzi was remarkably well recorded and produced for 1964. It was in her last three. She found Gilchrist capable of a big dynamic range and the Bournmouth string tone 'silvery'. I guess also David Hill didn't 'hang about' and gave it the forward momentum it needs. But I'm with you. I don't over-use the word 'iconic', but the Brown/Finzi surely is just that.

[BBMmk2]

Not really. She did say the Brown/Finzi was remarkably well recorded and produced for 1964. It was in her last three. She found Gilchrist capable of a big dynamic range and the Bournmouth string tone 'silvery'. I guess also David Hill didn't 'hang about' and gave it the forward momentum it needs. But I'm with you. I don't over-use the word 'iconic', but the Brown/Finzi surely is just that.

Thank you Ardcarp, for that. I thought it might’ve been for that reason being rather old that it wasn’t chosen.

[Nick Armstrong]

Caught up with this BAL this morning - I agree with others that Elin M-T gave an absorbing view of the piece and the runners and riders, even though personal 'taste' might differ from hers.

I still think the Brown/Finzi rules the roost.

I've listened to the chosen Gilchrist version (that Finzi Anthology set is available on Qobuz). Though I love his musicality, not least in Finzi (a recent private BAL put him way ahead of the field in Till Earth Outwears), and though in the softer passages his voice sounded wonderful, I do find the tone on higher, louder notes hard to like. Very good performance of the accompaniment, lovely pace and pulse.

I've owned the Bostridge since it came out. The extracts came across well, but overall it's not a version I return to - the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

Agree with others that Padmore didn't sound to be having a good day when he recorded this, and that the Langridge is burdened by the over heavy LSO (that Intrada sounds just leaden, I agree ardcarp).

It's odd but for a piece I've loved for 30 odd years, I'd never heard a soprano version (I didn't know the première was done with a soprano, and that the score seems to give precedence to female voice). Like Pulcinella, I'm not convinced. I don't think it's a coincidence that performance with tenor has become the norm. That high soprano line seems separated from the accompaniment somehow - but of course it could be just decades of being accustomed to hearing it otherwise. As Elin M-T said, so much depends on how one first heard it and became used to it - credit to her that despite being indroduced to the piece through the soprano version, and having performed it as such, she had the flexibilty to accept the tenor version.

And for what it's worth, I didn't like the Gritton version at all - it's the Evans version I'd head for, to hear the soprano version again.

[Master Jacques]

Beautifully summarised Caliban, if I might say so.

This BaL was indeed really well presented, in classic style, with the runners and riders clearly described, differentiated and appreciated, with a good level of historical insight too. I think you are on the money about Gilchrist, whose voice does tend to spread and harden once a fortissimo is called for. His quiet singing is lovely, and his diction only bettered by Brown's.

I've possessed the Rebecca Evans version for a while, and value it highly. I agree with you that it is in many respects preferable to Gritton - I was only sorry that although Joan Cross's moving recording was dismissed (not least by Finzi himself) as "too operatic", we didn't get a chance to hear "Ellen Orford" in the first of the songs especially. But you can't have everything, and maybe Cross is not currently in the catalogue.