The Finzi Friends have
been in existence promoting the music
and knowledge of Finzi’s life-work since
the late 1970s. Their newsletters represent
a significant research treasury. This
book celebrates 25 years of the Friends’
Newsletters but casts its net well beyond
the pages of the newsletter, vol. 1
no. 1 of which is reproduced as Appendix
3. It collects often long unavailable
writings by and about both Gerald and
Joy. The presentation and appearance
of the book including a wrapper photo
that magnificently relates eternity
to the ‘orient and immortal wheat’ referred
to in Dies Natalis is fully in
keeping with the standards of ‘Craftsman’s
art and music’s measure’.
There is a foreword
by Paul Spicer and three indices (general,
works, contributors). Some 90 pieces
of writing are organised into 12 sections
including At Ashmansworth, The Poems
of Joy Finzi, writings by and about
Gerald Finzi, an examination of the
Hardy-Finzi connection, Friendship (Milford,
Dale Roberts, Ferguson, Scott, Leighton,
Bliss, Farrar, Rubbra, RVW, Howells,
Gurney), music-making and a composer’s
gallery.
The 30 plates mix a
few familiar ones with many that are
not. Good to see that the latest generation
of Finzi performers are represented
there including James Gilchrist, Howard
Wong, Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside.
The Finzi ‘cake’ is
cut at many angles and attitudes – there’s
even a selection of Howard Ferguson’s
recipes – some with a decidedly seasonal
tang. It is all very satisfying and
deeply rewarding to dip into.
I rather regretted
that there was nothing by Ian Partridge
about his experience of interpreting
Finzi – especially Intimations,
or by Christopher Bunting about ‘creating’
the premiere of the Cello Concerto,
or by the singers who championed Finzi
in the 1940s and 1950s, most grievously
Eric Greene, nor anything by one of
his greatest and least predictable Finzi
admirers, Benjamin Frankel. However
I suspect that the material simply was
not there.
Contributions are sometimes
very short – a couple of paragraphs
up to a maximum of ten pages but the
whole makes for a glowing complement
to the biographical works by Diana McVeagh
and Stephen Banfield as well as the
bio-bibliography by John Dressler.
I still have hopes
that one day archive recordings of the
premieres of Intimations and
the Cello Concerto will appear. Finzians
will not however be disappointed with
this book and indeed if you are at all
interested in Finzi’s circle, the story
of his life and of the renaissance of
his music since the early 1970s this
book is essential, surprising and gratifying
reading.
Rob Barnett
