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Track(s) taken from CDD22070

A Young Man's Exhortation, Op 14

composer
1933; Group 1 prefaced 'in the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up', Group 2 'In the evening it is cut down, and withereth'; first performed on 5 December 1933 by Frank Drew and Augustus Lowe
author of text

Martyn Hill (tenor), Clifford Benson (piano)
Recording details: December 1984
The New Concert Hall, University of South Wales, Cardiff, Wales
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: January 1990
Total duration: 28 minutes 11 seconds

Cover artwork: Derwent Fells and Newlands Valley, Cumbria.
Photograph by Norman Feakins / Power Pix
 

Other recordings available for download

Mark Padmore (tenor), Roger Vignoles (piano)
A Young Man’s Exhortation, is a cycle, but has no narrative—unlike Die schöne Müllerin or Winterreise. The thread is an emotional one, linking the young idealist as he matures to his gentle end under the yellowing trees. Over the first five songs Finzi set the quotation in Latin, ‘In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up’ (but even by song 4 the singer is imagining his own past obscurity) and over part II ‘In the evening it is cut down, and withereth’. The first song begins lyrically, with imitation in the piano part, as if all set for a closed form; but it slackens into quasi-recitative for the questioning fourth verse; has a Holstian march bass at the mention of passing time, and ends (having started in A flat) on a surprising chord of E major—all characteristic Finzi procedures. The second song, apparently artless, is subtle in the way Finzi plays stress against metre to point up the words. ‘Budmouth Dears’ is deliberately more hearty, for contrast. ‘The Comet at Yell’ham’ is remote and still: poet and composer set our little human life in perspective, but without sitting in judgement. In ‘Former Beauties’ a vision, held in the memory, is re-lived. All five songs have their counterpart—in sentiment and form—in the later sets. The first complete public performance of A Young Man’s Exhortation was given on 5 December 1933 by Frank Drew and Augustus Lowe.

from notes by Diana McVeagh © 1989
Diana McVeagh’s Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music is published by Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge

Other albums featuring this work

Britten, Finzi & Tippett: Songs
CDA67459
Proud Songsters
Studio Master: KGS0052-DDownload onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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