Composers: Finzi
Compositions: By Footpath and Stile, Romance for string orchestra, Prelude for string orchestra, Interlude for oboe and string quartet, Elegy, Five Bagatelles
Performers: Marcus Farnsworth bar,
Finzi Quartet
Catalogue Number: Resonus RES10109

Gerald Finzi is is the perfect musical counterpart to Thomas Hardy’s poetry. They both capture the bucolic melancholy and elegiac loneliness of England. In the precocious song cycle By Footpath and Stile, Finzi’s first published composition, the verses are sung by baritone Marcus Farnsworth. This musical idiom is an acquired taste, but the work stops short of being what I’d call impossibly arty. I’d...