Finzi - Eclogue [Lane/ Handley-Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra]Here's a really nice disc, having three works that are somewhat off the beaten track, and all three are very much worth listening to.
Piers Lane is Australian, he is now 52, and he mainly records for the Hyperion Classical Label.
Gerald Finzi worked very slow on his compositions, plus he was very critical of his works, and would only release that which he was satisfied with, the Eclogue was actually the middle movement in a projected Piano Concerto, but he never fully composed the outer movements, and so this gorgeous slow movement stands on its own.
Finzi's Eclogue starts off as a solo piano piece, with just the piano playing the first minute [0:00-0:57], very much like Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, and similar in soundworld too, it truly has a stunning beauty about it, there's an innocent simplicity which is touching, the orchestra enters [0:57+], and takes up the piano tune, it meanders as a dialogue between piano and orchestra, it always remains gentle and relaxed, even though you can hear a storm far off, the opening reprises now and again, and it ends as gently as it began, something to truly soothe a troubled heart.
Here's Finzi's Eclogue being played on YouTube.
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