Get out of the bed Elgar - yes your cello concerto is good and earlier than Gerald Finzi but thins speaks to me. its modern and romantic but sadly rarely played and I don't know why? BBC Proms where are you this is great stuff!
Interesting, you mention Elgar but what I find in this concerto a calm that is not present in the Elgar. I am fatigued by the strident shouts of it that overpowers the cello. I seldom listen to it anymore. Now this ....is more contemplative.
A lovely piece made even more poignant by the fact it was the last major piece Finzi composed before he died at the tragically young age of 56. It was broadcast by the BBC the night before he died.
Finzi's melodic gift is immediate yet immaculately restrained; it speaks our language but rarely insists - it invites and the invitation is irresistible. Finzi's understanding of the orchestra and the principal instrument ensures that there is no gap between his intention and our response. This is beauty - but not easy beauty - it invites all possibilities. Thank you Mr Ant.
I have been a complete devotee of Finzi for over 50 years having listened first to the heart wrenching Dies Natalis and Intimations of Mortality. Thanks for doing so much to bring his work to the attention of new listeners.
Thank you ANT for reminding me that there is more to Finzi than just Eclogue for piano and strings. A piece I often listen to. Lovely combination of music and images.
As I understand it, his wife Joyce arranged for a radio to be installed in his hospital room in order for him to hear the broadcast of the premiere of his cello concerto. It was the last music he ever heard; he died during the night.
I think you are right. I recently played this for a cellist who'd never heard of Finzi, let alone the concerto. I watched him dissolve into tears before my eyes and I don't feel the least bit guilty. Now we're searching for a piano reduction of the score so that I can play it on said instrument or expand a transcription for pipe organ. Wish us luck!
isn't it interesting how different kinds of music have a different effect on us? when i'm energetic (if not a bit aggressive) i listen to wagner, when i want the beautiful i listen to bach and when i want pastoral peace i listen to finzi. thank you antpdc for introducing me to him - his music deserves to be better known
O For sure HA'SHEM BLESS YOU LORD ABOVE, when you created the world you also created some fantastic and gifted human beings, This man's vision and music 🎶 is brilliant, And for the scenery it so remind me of here in Tipperary lreland 🇮🇪 , Thanks for sharing with us all. SHALOM AMEN,
It was my sincere pleasure. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Mr Finzi's work. I have spent many a lovely time in your beautiful country: it was always a privilege when I was living in the United States to pop over the border to Canada. In fact, it felt like home!
AntPDC - Gerald Finzi - Cello Concerto Op. 40 11. - Andante Quieto. Mr. Finzi can do no wrong where emotive pieces like this one is concerned. There’s nowhere better than looking out onto our English countryside and seeing the beauty it holds. You certainly have the talent to produce video footage to show how you can combine both music and the countryside’s loveliness. Clever man, Anthony.
@turnedloose I've just listened to that ABC radio interview with Kevin McCleod via "listen again" (how the Internet has changed the World) mainly because I admire him and am interested in architecture. It's the kind of compelling, insightful radio I came to love at an early age listening to BBC radio on the other side of the world! So thank you for introducing me to ABC! I was thinking about uploading the final movement of Finzi's Cello Concerto, and I shall do so shortly. Best wishes.
Superb for meditation and relaxation & well performed! Cello concertos don't get the recognition (compared to violin) as they deserve. Although the violin is perhaps the most physically challenging instrument to play, that should not be the criteria for enjoying & rating music. Thank you for introducing me to this lovely piece!
@ConductPro Thanks for your kind comments - the Derbyshire Peak District is an overwhelmingly beautiful part of the world - but we mustn't overlook the Staffordshire parts of the National Park too! Mea culpa!
After hearing/seeing your presentations, I want to jump on a plane from Toronto to Derbyshire with my camera. I have seen some scenes like these in other parts of your green and sceptered isle and must return, with my iPhone loaded with Finzi's music. I'm just now working my way through Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and the feelings are very much the same. Thanks again, again.
Imagine if George Butterworth had lived longer--I think his work would have sounded much like this....a rural peace that English composers seem to specialize in.
I have just heard this work and rate it highly. If what I have seen of Yo Yo Ma is anything to go by, his orgasms playing anything is too distracting. I shall stick with unpretentious cellists.
@@daviddavenport9350 Live concerts are always superior to recordings. Though l do not care for his pretentiousness, l would most certainly attend his live playing given the opportunity. Lovers of real music need to stick together, l feel we are a dying breed!
Cuando escuchas esto, no me imagino el invierno sino un ocaso, cuando se funden todos los naranjas y crean un violeta donde nacen las estrellas Dios mío de belleza
I think the "English Cowpat" thing is a little bit tongue-in-cheek Leigh. And a publicly-avowed liking for this sort of English pastoral might damage critics' critical credentials ;) Hey ho - thank goodness the "atonal" period died an ignominious death!
Well, there is my unpublished 1st symphony, provisionally entitled either "The Splat" or "The Squish", haven't made up my mind yet. Conceived at a damp Glastonbury concert ...... (Love Finzi, by the way.)
I've read years ago that British composers can produce spectacular music because of the beautiful country where you see fields stretching into infinity. I stayed in England for a year and can attest to that. I certainly miss England. My first introduction to Finzi was through his Eclogue which I listened to over and over again in a plane. I came across this piece years ago and now that my daughter is going to learn to play the cello, I want to introduce her to this piece first. Thank you AntPDC
Ant your photography is quite sublime and very professional Gerald's music speaks for itself quite gorgeous I think he must have been a gentle kind souls to write so eloquently
Thank you for this astoundingly heartbreaking composition, so many instruments complimenting the haunting but poignant Cello; the refrain or theme, is gorgeous. ❤️💔 Your accompanying visuals are equally mystifying, heart wrenching! 💓🔥
I really like the Tim Hugh rendition of this. I don't quite know why but I am not thrilled with the Yo Yo Ma version. Especially at the end of the Andante here I even prefer Grebenier to Ma.
What a wonderful piece! Finzi's ability to express, musically, an amazing range of emotions within a framework of romantic poignancy just tears my heart out. Thank you so much for posting this.
I’ve commented few times- I wish to express gratitude to you: in posting this and others. The length of time you spent picking setting up visuals, and your choice of compositions are a gift to the world! Nothing less. I learned of this and others from you. Your visuals allow me to assemble RU-vid playlists, with notes on the performances. We, well, many of us, no doubt, select your post of the many posted, seeing the visuals first. Your aesthetic abilities so evident. You are teaching non pros like me in our exposure to the best classical/ Impressionistic/ English composer in this case. Otherwise I’d never have experienced this. So, for all those thinking this and not the notion or time to write to you: Thank you from the bottom of my (our) heart(s). And know what you’ve done is significant. ❤️
A Lovely piece. Finzi's Cello Concerto should be programmed a good deal more in our concerto halls. I first came across this movement after I heard it used as the theme for the radio adaption of CP Snow's Strangers and Brothers. Moeran's Cello Concerto is also well worth a listen.
Although I was already familiar with and loved Finzi’s music ( mainly his beautiful songs ) I had never heard this piece until I too started listening to the superb radio adaptation of Strangers and Brothers - and I was immediately captivated. It was a stroke of genius by the producers to use this haunting music to accompany such a classically English and historic piece of writing. It will live with me for ever.
This particular piece was my first experience of Gerald Finiz's music and thanks to your RU-vid site, my rapture in his music has grown into a love affair.
+AntPDC Thank you for being the champion of Finzi. In high musical circle it appears he is fluffed off as "minor composer" but for me - emotionally I am overwhelmed. Gerald touches my heart.
His music takes me to places that overwhelm me also.... absolute perfection, a man with an amazing soul. The first time I heard Finiz's music was in Lidls car park. Eclogue for Piano and String.... I could not move, just sat behind the wheel of my car with the tears running down my face.... beautiful. .
He heard the premiere of this concerto the night before he met God....whom he had denied all his life. He was surprised..... What a beautiful piece. I just ordered the music because I'm going to learn it. Thank you so much for sharing!
Superb. I agree, Finzi is really an underrated composer. Some of his works, particularly songs and cantatas, can stand close to Mahler's for his sensibiility to poetry and understanding of life
Thank you for promoting Gerald Finzi's work. I am going to contact my orchestra in Perth to see if they can include his work in their chamber orchestra concerts. I am his music would be well received.
My RU-vid is on auto play. Just before this I heard Yo-Yo Ma playing the finale, and when this movement started, I assumed this was Ma again, with the second movement. Coming unexpectedly to a different cellist allowed for an honest surprise at such different playing. Not judging one as “better” and not even expressing a particular preference, but very different sound. Different colour, different bow use. Hugh’s vibrato is is a bit more varied, and sparse, and it starts later in the note. Really interesting. Let no one say every performance is the same.
In 2007 I was listening to the BBC's "Classic Drama" on Radio 4 and this 2nd movement was the theme of the production. I wrote them and in their reply of Gerald Finzi, I was captivated forever. In 2010, I visited London and on the 3rd floor of Foyles Book Store on Charing Cross Row I asked the clerk if he had any scores by Finzi. "Finzi???" he the replied.... "I have Finzized the place!!" Blessed be the sound created by my most famous composer and thank you for these wonderful video's.
The "musak" of the commercials heard before any of these videos, juxtaposed with the great, beautiful music of Finzi, is no less than a macabre nightmare of sound fit for a Stephen King movie. Bravo Finzi!
Hello AntPDC - you’re a wonderful morale booster for me - an old north country Englishman who is a very long way from home.I thought it was just soppy old me getting tears welling up with an intense nostalgia but it seems your music collection and photomontage has a similar effect on others. Keep going with this AntPDC - you’ve created a place of beautiful stillness and calm in a world which I find increasingly frightening. JGC.
+ JGC And who could disagree with you JGC? When I was away from England for many years I felt an aching pain in my very being. I'm guessing that feeling isn't unique to Englishmen as to a yearning for "home". Still - and I am biased of course - I have not seen similar sentiments expressed so trenchantly by my friends from other nations. I do wish you well, and I thank you for your heartfelt comment.
AntPDC don’t the Welsh call that yearning for Home the haraith ....sorry if that is spelt wrong I did it phonetically ......a deep aching pain in the heart for Home
This particular movement always brings tears to my eyes too. Sometimes I think like would like this playing on my deathbed. as it was for poor Finzi himself.
Only twelve-and-a-half-minutes of listening & watching have enriched my life forever! This is the first time I have heard Gerald Finzi ~ but ~ it will certainly not be the last! Thank you for introducing me to this remarkably wonderful composer ~ and for sharing the stunning images of your country ... Hello from Canada :o)
Wonderful shafted light at 2.49 onwards. You are doing a very great service in celebrating Finzi who I now live with in consequence. Much heartfelt appreciation from a failed cellist who looks at a case quieto!
A aquellos que acaban de descubrir a Gerald Finzi debo recomendarles su Eclogue Op.10, su concierto para clarinete o sus cinco Bagatelas entre otras obras. Finzi debe ser reivindicado como un autor de primer nivel.
Just beautiful - I've only just discovered this piece - heard it on ABC (Australia) radio in an interview with Kevin McLeod, the "Grand Designs" presenter - one of his favourites. Will be one of mine I think.
