Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
Clarinet Concerto
Five Bagatelles
Three Soliloquies
Severn Rhapsody
Romance
Introit

Gerald Finzi belongs to a generation of English composers that has, until recently, suffered some neglect, His music is tonal and attractive, firmly based in English traditions to which the descriptive adjective 'pastoral' has been applied, in addition to more opprobrious epithets from some quarters. Born into a family of Italian Jewish origin, Sephardic on his father's side and, less happily, belonging to the Askenazim tradition on his mother's, rooted rather in Germany than in the long-established Sephardic connection with England, Finzi was born, the youngest of five children, in London in 1901. His father died in 1909 and he was brought up by his mother, his three brothers dying in close succession, the youngest as a war-time airman in 1918. Finzi and his mother had meanwhile moved from London to Harrogate, where he was able to study music with Ernest Farrar, a former pupil of Stanford who had worked in Germany and was at the time organist at Christ Church in Harrogate. Farrar's connection with composers associated with the revival of English music in the early years of the twentieth century had a lasting influence on Finzi, felt all the more after Farrar's death in action in 1918. Farrar had been nearer to his own age, only 33 when he died. Finzi's next teacher represented a much more conservative and formal tradition. Edward Bairstow, a Yorkshireman, had been appointed organist at York Minster in 1913, a position he held until his death in 1946. A pupil of Henry Farmer and, as an organist, of Frederick Bridge, he remained a pillar of the English cathedral tradition, his stricter teaching of less relevance to his pupil.

It was, it may be supposed; in pursuit of the spirit that had inspired Vaughan Williams and Holst, Parry and Elgar, that Finzi moved in 1922 to Gloucestershire, his compositions at this time largely consisting of songs, settings of Christina Rossetti and Thomas Hardy.

His period in the Cotswolds brought contact with the composer Herbert Howells. In 1925, on the advice of the conductor Adrian Boult, he took lessons in counterpoint from R. 0. Morris, whose pupils included Edmund Rubbra and Howard Ferguson, moving then to London, where he had personal contact with a wider circle of young musicians. His friendship with Ferguson and with Rubbra remained of great importance to him, as was the encouragement he received from Vaughan Williams, Hoist and Bliss. It was this last who seems to have procured for him, in 1930, work at the Royal Academy of Music, teaching second-study composition students the elements of counterpoint and harmony one day a week. During this period in London his compositions had varied success. His Violin Concerto, written for Sybil Eaton, proved intractable and after a first partial performance it was revised and completed, to be heard under Vaughan Williams in 1928. His attempted Piano Concerto offered still further difficulties and was not completed, serving as the source for later compositions.

In 1933 Finzi married the artist Joyce Black and after a period living in Hampstead they moved to the country, this time to Wiltshire. In 1939 they moved again to Ashmansworth on a Hampshire hill-top, near Newbury, having bought a farm-house that they replaced with a building well adapted to their own requirements. Retirement from London allowed Finzi to live a relatively simple life, concentrating now on composition, on his continuing literary interests and on his study of earlier English music, in particular that of the eighteenth century. In the English countryside, where he was able to indulge an interest in apple- growing, he was in close touch with the roots that he had adopted as his own and that were an essential basis of his work as a composer. Contact with the Three Choirs Festival brought the composition of what remains his best known composition, Dies Natalis.

Although Finzi had distanced himself from his Jewish identity, he nevertheless was bound to be affected by the events in Germany in the 1930s. The war brought inevitable disruption and he was forced to return to London, working there throughout the war at the Ministry of War Transpon. Although there was relatively little time for music, there was, by way of compensation, a salary, although the Newbury String Players, the amateur orchestra he had established in Newbury in 1940, could still occupy weekends when he was able to escape to the country. Compositions from this period are few, although the Five Bagatelles date in pan from this time.

Released from his war-time duties in 1945, Finzi was able to resume the life on which he had embarked five years before. The Newbury String Players continued to flourish, often providing an outlet for composers whose work he found congenial. His own life as a composer prospered with a series of compositions that now found a hearing, notably his setting of Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality on which he had embarked before the war and which he now completed, for a first performance in the Three Choirs Festival in 1950 Finzi's health had never been good and the years before the war had brought threats of tuberculosis. In 1951 he was found to be suffering from Hodgkin's Disease and it was as a result of an infection consequent on this immune deficiency that he died in September 1956, three weeks after conducting his In terra pax at the Three Choirs Festival, where Howard Ferguson' s Amore langueo, dedicated to the Finzis, had also been performed.

Finzi's Clarinet Concerto was completed in 1949 in response to a commission from the Three Choirs Festival, that year to be held in Hereford Cathedral, where it was performed with Frederick Thurston as the soloist and the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra under the composer's direction. The first movement opens with a strong statement from the strings, leading to an Elgarian sequence, A stridently repeated octave figure precedes the solo entry with the principal theme of the movement. The soloist leads to the second subject with a two octave downward leap, before the lyrical theme proper is heard. There is a relatively short development section and a recapitulation that is followed by a more extended coda, an undemanding cadenza, inserted at the suggestion of Vaughan Williams, and a maestoso conclusion, the whole in a finely connected, thoroughly English rhapsodic style. Muted strings open the slow movement, before the entry of the soloist. The orchestra then introduces the modal principal theme of the movement. allowing the clarinet to offer its own rhapsodic comment. The music moves forward to a dramatic dynamic climax, the mood of the opening finally restored, as the sound dies away. The final Rondo opens forcefully, leading to the cheerful principal theme from the clarinet, which frames extended episodes, with their reminiscences of motifs from the first movement.

Finzi wrote his Five Bagatelles for clarinet and piano for the clarinettist Pauline Juler, for whom he had originally intended the Clarinet Concerto, forestalled by her marriage and pregnancy and subsequent withdrawal from a concert career. The Bagatelles, completed as a set in 1943, were subsequently arranged for clarinet and strings by Lawrence Ashmore. The highly characteristic Prelude has an exuberant opening and gently contrasting middle section, ending in a slightly menacing climax, after which the first material returns. The tenderly lyrical Romance is followed by the simplicity of Carol that seems to have had its origin in a tune written for the children of Herbert Howells some years before. The Forlana has a gentle lilt to it, not strictly in the pace or mood of the original dance. It seems Finzi himself hesitated over the title of the piece, which seemed mid-way between a Forlana and a Berceuse. The work ends with a Fughetta, its subject first entrusted to the clarinet. While not a masterpiece of counterpoint, it provides a delightful ending to an agreeable set of short pieces.

Finzi's incidental music for Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost was commissioned by the BBC for use in a broadcast version of the play in 1946. The part of Berowne was taken by Paul Scofield and the cast included Ernest Milton and the young David Spenser. From the score, for a small group of instrumentalists, Finzi first extracted the Three Soliloquies for concert performance, followed by a more extended suite. The play, set at the court of the King of Navarre, makes fun of the lofty idealism of the King and his friends, determined to establish at the court a little academe,/ Still and contemplative in living art, forswearing the company of women for three years. The King and his courtiers are soon induced to break their vows, their feelings revealed in the soliloquies. Berowne, a sceptic at court, hides in a tree and observes the King, with a paper in his hand:

So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not
To those fresh morning drops upon the rose,
As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote
The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows:
Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright
Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light:
Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep:
No drop but as a coach doth carry thee:
So ridest thou triumphing in my woe.
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,
And they thy glory through my grief will show:
But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep
My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. O queen of queens! How far thou dost excel,
No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.

Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,
Persuade my heart to this false perjury
Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace, being gain' d, cures all disgrace in me.
Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is:
Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,
Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is:
If broken, then, it is no fault of mine:
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
To lose an oath to win a paradise!

The third to break his vow is Dumaine, another woodcock in the dish:

On a day, alack the day!
Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish 'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But alack! my hand is sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:
Vow, alack! for youth unmeet,
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.
Do not call it sin in me,
That I am forsworn for thee;
Thou for whom e'en love would swear
Juno but an Ethiop were;
And deny himself for love,
Turning mortal for thy love.

As with the King's poem, the music, as in any melodrama, matches the verse.
Finzi's Severn Rhapsody is prefaced by a well-known quotation from Rupert Brooke.

...Oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?

The work was written in 1923, when Finzi was living at Painswick in the Cotswolds, and dedicated to his friend, the Australian artist Vera Somerfield. The rhapsody is scored for flute, oboe doubling cor anglais, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, French horn and strings. The music gently evokes the mood of the English countryside and the meandering river. This unpretentious pastoral was well received and the work received a number of performances, to be published in the Carnegie Collection of British Music, a sign of official approval.

The Romance, scored for strings and using a solo violin, was largely the work of 1928, although it seems to have received further attention before its eventual publication in 1952, with a dedication to the pianist and conductor John Russell, a musician who had been of material assistance in the promotion of Finzi's music and had for long been a neighbour and friend. The work has something of Elgar about it, with the solo violin, heard near the opening bars, assuming more prominence in the D flat major central section The material of the first section returns in a much shorter recapitulation.

Finzi's Violin Concerto was written in the years 1925 to 1927, designed for the violinist Sybil Eaton, for whom he entertained considerable admiration. The slow movement was completed first, in 1925, characteristic of the composer's general preference for slower tempi. The first performance by the British Women's Symphony Orchestra under Malcolm Sargent in May 1927 took place without the original first movement, with which Finzi was now dissatisfied. The completed concerto was given its first performance the following February, when the London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Vaughan Williams. On neither occasion was it well received, with Finzi seemingly as dissatisfied with the work as anyone. Eventually it was only the slow movement that was published, under the title Introit and scored for a small orchestra of flute, oboe, cor anglais, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns and strings. The single movement is very much of its period, gently tender as its melody slowly unwinds, leading to whispered harmonics, before the soloist descends into the lower register of the violin. There is a curious shift of tonality, with the soloist entering in canon with the flute and a solo double bass. A distant horn-call is echoed by the clarinets and it is a solo horn that offers the final comment, as the music fades to nothing.

Robert Plane
Since winning the First Prize, Gold Medal and Champagne Pommery Award at the 1992 Royal Over- Seas League Music Competition, Robert Plane has established himself as a much sought-after soloist and chamber musician. He made his London recital debut, in partnership with the pianist Sophia Rahman, at the Purcell Room in 1993 as part of the Park Lane Group New Year Series. Since then he has appeared at all the major London recital venues, as well as the Queens' Hall, Edinburgh and St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol, and has made many festival appearances, including Cheltenham, Brighton, Buxton, Spitalfields, Newbury, Chester, Malvern and Arundel. Robert Plane is a member of a highly successful trio with Sophia Rahman and the viola-player Philip Dukes. Prizewinners in the 1993 John Tunnell Trust, the Plane-Dukes-Rahman Trio fulfills a busy schedule of engagements at home and abroad, with recent concerts in Argentina, Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates and France. Robert Plane is also a member of the ensemble Mobius and gives chamber music recitals in partnership with the Gould Piano Trio. Together with Philip Dukes, Robert Plane has given performances of the Bruch Double Concerto with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He regularly broadcasts concertos and chamber music for BBC Radio 3 and has recorded an interesting and varied repertoire, including important contemporary works, for a number of major record companies. Since January 1993 Robert Plane has been principal clarinet of the Northern Sinfonia.

Northern Sinfonia
Since its first concert in Newcastle in 1958, the Northern Sinfonia has brought orchestral music of the highest standard to the entire North of England, in addition to the concerts it gives throughout Britain and on concert-tours abroad. With a present complement of 37 players, the orchestra was the first such chamber group to offer its concerts on a subscription basis, the first to open its own purpose-built rehearsal and administration centre and the first to include in its programmes smaller-scale chamber pieces. In 1996 the distinguished French pianist and conductor Jean-Bernard Pommier took up his position as Artistic Director, while Heinrich Schiff continues his highly successful association with the Sinfonia as Honorary Guest Conductor and Richard Hickox is the orchestra's Conductor Emeritus. John Casken serves as Composer in Association. The Northern Sinfonia has toured widely throughout Europe and the Americas, is heard regularly in programmes given for the BBC, is seen on television and has recorded a wide repertoire of music for major record companies.

Howard Griffiths
Howard Griffiths was born in England. He first studied at the Royal College of Music in London and later with Eric Schmid in Zurich and with Léon Barzin in Paris. Since 1982 he has lived in Switzerland where he enjoys a long-standing partnership with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, since 1996 as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. The orchestra gives some fifty concerts annually in its home city and tours widely abroad. Howard Griffiths also has a flourishing international career, conducting well known orchestra throughout Europe, as well as in South Africa and the United States of America. In England he made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1991, a year after his first London performance with the English Chamber Orchestra, with which he has had a continuing relationship. He is also a frequent visitor to the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle, appearing with the orchestra in concert-tours and in the recording studio. Howard Griffiths has made over forty compact disc recordings, often promoting the work of lesser known composers, as well as performing standard repertoire.