Gerald Finzi - Eclogue for Piano and Strings Op. 10

English composer Gerald Finzi gives us a sublime piece here. To my surprise, I first came upon it only last year (2009). And I really don't know how that happened given my love of English music, and also of Finzi's nods to the Baroque idiom throughout this work.

I was driving home when I heard "Eclogue" for the first time on the radio. I was so affected, I had to take the nearest off-ramp. It immediately seized my heart and mind. "If this doesn't break your heart, you haven't got a heart to break" as one reviewer has said of this piece.

My pics here are of a snowy Derbyshire Peak District, England, at Christmas 2009. Again, these photos are centred on the village of Great Longstone, of its lovely medieval church and some of the surrounding landscape. I shall get better with the timings!

Piano: Peter Donohoe
Northern Sinfonia
Conducted by Howard Griffiths
A Naxos Recording

[AntPDC]

"If this doesn't break your heart, you haven't got a heart to break".

I find that a pretty good compass, apropos people.

[Michael-dzvk]

so true, music, heals, soothes every emotion, effects that stay with you forever, god bless music in our lives xx❤

[IPTQ]

When listening to this I picture my mother in her last months. She loved her family and we loved her. She wanted nothing more than to be a mother and love her husband and children. She did just that. We and my 92 year old father are eternally grateful for that love. This piece expresses that life, the sad loss and wonderful memories. Thank you.

[thomasromano]

Finzi was all too aware of the fragility of life, and his music reflects painful losses which would haunt him all his life. The deaths of his brothers and loved ones in World War l, his own impending death from Hodgkins disease. No matter how happy his music can be, it is always touched with melancholy.

[ariesable]

i've been married for 44 years and had the most overwhelming love for my dear husband while listening to this! ah, the power of music ....

[leedshunk]

What is it about Finzi's music that makes you weep ? It takes me to a place where everything is perfect, when loved ones were still with me and melancholy is a restful, peaceful place.

[timjones]

I find myself coming back to this piece along with Butterworth and RVW, when things are a little tough as they are at the moment with such awful things happening around our world, not being able to get out and enjoy the English countryside in spring is tough enough so to listen to this accompanied by the beautiful scenes makes it all a little easier to deal with.

[comedyfriendsenglish]

I just discovered Mr. Finzi's Romance in E-Flat major today and it brought me to tears. I'm so glad that there is always new music to discover. Life truly is beautiful

[alexwells]

My late father used to practice this piece on the piano when I was growing up. Yet I never once heard him mention Finzi's name, although he often mentioned other composers. Perhaps we should begin holding Finzi festival concerts on Gerald's birthday.

[michaelparker]

Music of such exquisite beauty that one can only listen in rapt silence and wonder. This music represents the spirit of the true England, of so many great composers, writers, musicians and others who have enriched our world beyond measure.

[robertgrijalva]

The first time I heard this piece I was a graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was broadcast by Wisconsin Public Radio. The year was 1981. I went the next day to the local music store to order the sheet music. Unfortunately, I was told that the only way to get a score was to rent the entire orchestra and piano parts, which came at no small cost, because the Finzi Foundation have not released it for public purchase. It was a crushing blow. I later found out that many of my classmates at UW had also heard it, and they, too, went to the local store to try to get hands on it. Wisconsin Public Radio broadcast the piece several more times in the coming weeks because it had become one of the most heavily requested pieces on their classical music program. I finally got an opportunity to perform it myself in 1993 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I am a faculty member. Needless to say, the rental fee came out of the orchestra's budget and not mine! Performing it took on an extra special meaning because my parents flew out here all the way from California to hear me perform it with string orchestra. Like many others who have commented, I can attest to the fact that this composition has been the background score to many points in my musical life. Thank you to Gerald Finzi.

[aravis]

This piece takes me to my little Son who died almost two years ago when he was seven months old. Tears drip from my eyes whenever I listen to it.

[markipelagogogo]

I don't exaggerate by any means when I say this is my favorite piece of music that has ever been written. Its modes, its chords, its pure embodiment of Finzi's recognizable and inimitable signature style... It is the most emotionally powerful thing I've ever heard. The piano is the arc of life, from birth to death, with the orchestra coloring in the protagonist's life with encouraging lilts, dissonant terrors, contemplative moments of uncertainty, as if people come and go in one's life that both enhance it or trouble it. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes every time I hear it. And I'm joyful that a piece I've heard many times before never fails to move me so deeply. And this edition was so faithfully done as well.

[GwenMarsh]

I heard this on Classic FM on my way to work this morning; I was almost breathless with it's exquisite beauty and passion and had to take a few moments before starting my day.  This is pure poetry, of every description in motion and feeds my soul with it's sumptuous and calming melodies.  My first time of hearing this, but now indeed, it is an addiction!

[moeranite]

I first came to Finzi's music in the 70's through the Lyrita series of LPs which concentrated on British music. 40 years later I still do not tire of listening to his wonderful sound. I visited Ashmansworth, the composer's home village, many years ago just to see where he lived. Once you have been there on a beautiful sunny day you will fully understand where this music comes from - straight out of the heart of what was (and still is in some places) the English countryside.

[WolfyGreen]

Tender, rapt and bittersweet harmonies which seem to reach back into one's personal past with ease and profound sincerity; music so in sympathy with private thoughts that from the outset, it gently mists the eyes and unlocks years of quietly folded feeling.

[Oakrider]

My love dad. Thanks so much everything you have done to me. Now you are in peace and I will never forget you. See you soon again, dad.

[susangooding]

this music is so beautiful it touches my soul, makes me remember my five daughters running across our farm fields in the snow, their joy in nature and the love that binds us all together whether we realise it or not. one day we will know we are all one and nothing can separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord.

[ericashmusic]

I lived very near the Licky Hills in younger days, (Birmingham), & hundreds of times I walked thro' the deep woods & over the hills in winter snows, spring, summer, autumn & winter, both 4.30 sunrise &/or sunset. I always felt this ethereal 'something' in the air, 1000 ft up on the Monument, as the sun came up at dawn, or as I watched it go down, the silence & Peace, solitude & kind of safety, that all was well. This lovely music & moving photo show has it all. Thank you poster.

[HuPAC]

Remarkably placid and evocative. The accompanying photos enhance the piece greatly. There is a sense of melancholy and hope that pervades its entirety. Thank you!