I said to Love was gathered and grouped, after Finzi’s premature death, by his executors. Three songs date from Finzi’s last year. ‘At Middle-Field Gate’ shows a welcome extension of his harmonic range, but, like ‘In five-score summers’, it ends in Hardy’s gloomy vein. The last two songs are more astringent. The resolution of ‘For Life I had never cared greatly’ is carried lightly. For ‘I said to Love’ Finzi found an unusual vigour and defiance which—though apparently contradicting Hardy’s words ‘We are too old in apathy!’—strike absolutely to the underlying mood of the poem. After the first performance by John Carol Case and Howard Ferguson on 27 January 1957, Vaughan Williams wrote: ‘As regards Gerald’s new songs, the first and the last hit the nail in my head right away.’

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