Finzi: Dies natalis

Day 320

Finzi: Dies Natalis op 8

Andrew Kennedy

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

James Judd

I am normally fairly immune to early 20th century English song. I find the harmonic style cloying and the whole effect often quite soggy - no doubt the problem is with me rather than the music.  So I didn’t anticipate much from this piece but I was very taken with it. It is a setting of words by the mystic/religious poet Thomas Traherne for solo tenor (though the first performance was by a soprano) and string orchestra. What stuck me most was the fluidity of the word setting. There is a freedom here which is unusual for the time (at least in England) with the use of a semi-parlando/recitative style which keeps propelling the music forward, even in the slowest passages. Perhaps the most distinctive song is the last. I’ve seen this described as a being like a chorale prelude, with a simple tune in the violas being supported by generally slower moving music in the rest of the strings. This is in the purest G major, with hardly any chromatic inflection at all. It reminded me of the end of the Vaughan Williams 5th symphony in its expressive simplicity. 

I think that I was roped in to play a piece of Finzi at very short notice (I think I might have even sight read it in the concert) but I can’t remember what it was and don’t have any other experience of his music. I must have heard a few of the songs over the years, I suppose, but nothing has stayed in the memory. But this piece certainly will.