Notes and Editorial Reviews
This disc represents an easy first choice in Finzi's Intimations of Immortality, one of the masterpieces of the English choral literature and a surprisingly neglected one too. Its only serious competition comes from Richard Hickox on EMI (if it's still in print) and Matthew Best on Hyperion (a very good version, if not quite as orchestrally polished as this). David Hill has one advantage over everyone: his is simply the most exciting performance available, not just a function of swift tempos, but also in terms of the acuity and enthusiasm of the instrumental response to the music's bold contrasts and driving climaxes.
With James Gilchrist, a very fine tenor soloist, singing with impressive clarity of diction and very
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little of that traditionally English, pinched tone quality, the overall picture only gets better. It may be that in his own Corydon Singers Best has a finer contingent of massed voices, but the Bournemouth choir certainly does as well as Hickox's Liverpool forces. The coupling is equally impressive: a resounding performance of the ebullient ceremonial ode For St. Cecilia (Hickox offers the Grand Fantasia and Toccata for piano and orchestra, Best the gentle cantata Dies Natalis). At Naxos' budget price, this is an easy call. Buy it! [7/24/2006]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Intimations of Immortality for Tenor, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 29 by Gerald Finzi
Performer:
James Gilchrist (Tenor)
Conductor:
David Hill
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
Venue: The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK
Length: 38 Minutes 58 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK (06/04/2005 - 06/05/2005)
2.
For Saint Cecilia, Op. 30 by Gerald Finzi
Conductor:
David Hill
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus
Period: 20th Century
Written: England
Venue: The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK
Length: 16 Minutes 37 Secs.
Language: English
Notes: The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, UK (06/04/2005 - 06/05/2005)
Sound Samples
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Andante sostenuto
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: There was a time when meadow, grove and stream
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: The Rainbow comes and goes
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Oh evil day! If I were sullen
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: But there's a Tree, of many, one
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Oh joy! That in our embers
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: But for those first affections
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
Intimations of Immortality, Op. 29: And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills and Groves
For St. Cecilia, Op. 30: Delightful Goddess, in whose fashionings
For St. Cecilia, Op. 30: Changed is the age; mysterious, man's next star
For St. Cecilia, Op. 30: How came you, lady of fierce martyrdom
For St. Cecilia, Op. 30: How smilingly the saint among her friends
For St. Cecilia, Op. 30: Wherefore we bid you to the full concent
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