Audio CD review:
Gerald Finzi, Maciej Rakowski, Matthew Best, Corydon Orchestra, John Mark Ainsley - Finzi: Intimations of Immortality; Dies Natalis

Gerald Finzi, Maciej Rakowski, Matthew Best, Corydon Orchestra, John Mark Ainsley - Finzi: Intimations of Immortality; Dies Natalis

Band: Gerald Finzi, Maciej Rakowski, Matthew Best, Corydon Orchestra, John Mark Ainsley Title: Finzi: Intimations of Immortality; Dies Natalis Rating: Release Date: 08 November, 1996 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: I. Intrada 2: II. Rhapsody (Recitativo stromentato) 3: III. The Rapture (Danza) 4: IV. Wonder (Arioso) 5: V. The Salutation (Aria) 6: Andante sostenuto 7: There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream 8: Rainbow Comes and Goes, The 9: Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song 10: Ye blessèd Creatures, I have heard the call 11: Oh evil day! if I were sullen 12: But there's a Tree, of many, one 13: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting 14: Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own 15: O joy! that in our embers 16: But for those first affections 17: Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! 18: And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills and Groves

Editoral Review Finzi's setting of it has been criticized in the UK as being inappropriate due to the "fact" that "great poetry requires no musical setting. Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" is said to be one of the great masterpieces of English poetry. " And so, by the same argument, composers should only use less-than-great texts. Now of course many of them do just that, particularly opera composers, but the truth is that when words meet music, it's the music that matters, and Finzi's is wonderful music indeed. Granted he was only a "minor master," but in the careful setting of words his talent was pretty impressive, as this lovely disc so eloquently demonstrates. --David Hurwitz .. You can see a complete list of all Gerald Finzi, Maciej Rakowski, Matthew Best, Corydon Orchestra, John Mark Ainsley discography, or go back to the Gerald Finzi, Maciej Rakowski, Matthew Best, Corydon Orchestra, John Mark Ainsley tabs