Gerald Finzi - Nocturne (Op.7)

Like a number of my other Finzi videos, the original video of this piece (Boult/LPO) fell victim to recording company Nimbus/Lyrita's copyright policy (though I may say they pursed their claim with good grace, and didn't cause a spiteful strike on my account).

I've uploaded here the very fine Naxos recording featuring instead the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under David Hill.

From my original upload:

I continue to explore even more of Mr Finzi's musical pastures. I didn't know this piece at all well; here, in David Hill's hands, "everything beautiful moves on light feet" (Adrian Boult).

Finzi's "Nocturne (New Year Music)" dates from the 1920s but was revised in the 1940s. It was inspired by Charles Lamb's New Year's Eve essay and Robert Bridges' poem Noel: Christmas Eve 1913.

For me, Finzi is the most eloquent of all the English pastoral composers: his music evokes the deepest feelings, senses, imagery that I felt as a boy, lucky enough to have grown up in the English countryside - in my case, the Derbyshire Peak District as shown here.

I took these photos at Great Longstone (Derbyshire, England) and surroundings in May and June 2012.

The procession up the hill at 4:00 is to the lighting of the village beacon under Longstone Edge on June 4th 2012 at 10:01 pm in commemoration of the 60 year reign of HM Queen Elizabeth II - her Diamond Jubilee.

This beacon was only one of thousands which were lit across the entire length and breadth of the United Kingdom that night, and I must say, it was a magical experience. Huge thanks are indeed in order for the Cox brothers, farmers at Great Longstone, who not only organised the beacon itself, but treated the assembled villagers to a spectacular firework display as well. I captured two of the Cox's at 4:27, as they were lighting the beacon.

Congratulations Your Majesty!

Conductor: David Hill
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
A Naxos Recording