Essential Finzi Demands Your Attention

One of the finest Finzi recordings ever committed to posterity.

Composer: Finzi
Repertoire: Intimations of Immortality, For St Cecilia
Artists: James Gilchrist (tenor), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Chorus/David Hill
Rating: 5/5

Genre: Vocal

Label: Naxos 8.557863

We’ve all grown used to Naxos winners. Perhaps we even take the artistic quality of much of the budget label’s output for granted. But this disc is up there with the finest money can buy, a red-letter recording of Finzi’s masterpiece, Intimations of Immortality, and an unbeatable introduction to the composer’s setting of Edmund Blunden’s ode For St Cecilia. James Gilchrist has never sounded finer on disc, colouring phrases with mercurial changes of tone and accent and weighting Wordsworth’s evocative text with true affection. David Hill’s command of both scores, meanwhile, elicits classy music-making from the Bournemouth SO and Chorus. Unmissable.