Gerald Finzi's obsession with the poetry of Thomas Hardy led to one of the most important contributions to the twentieth-century history of British song. He set over 50 poems, of which 43 were recorded here on this invaluable two-disc set. In the past I have often felt that while one could understand Finzi's temperamental affinity with these texts—many of them appearing to be almost unsettable in their curious phraseology—the music and the words were not always happily matched. Listening to these deeply sensitive and perceptive performances by Martyn Hill and Stephen Varcoe, I am beginning to change my mind, while still feeling that, in his Winter Words songs, Britten came closer to the ironic vein of Hardy.
But the lyricism of Finzi's Hardy, and the subtle commentary in the piano accompaniments, which are most beautifully played by Clifford Benson reflect the melancholy of the verse uncannily. A song like ''It never looks like summer here'' is a microcosm of Hardy-Finzi, while in ''At a Lunar Eclipse'' not even Britten could have supplied a setting more in keeping with the visionary philosophy of the words. There is the light touch, too, as in the delightful setting of ''To Lizbie Browne'', a lovely song.
There are five cycles altogether, covering 35 years' creativity. The two last sets were put together after Finzi's death and contain a particularly fine setting of ''I said to love''. Elsewhere, I find the large-scale setting of ''Channel Firing'' a failure, nor do I greatly care for the heartiness of ''Budmouth Dears'', but compared with the dozens of successes, these will not detract from admiration for a major achievement. Recording and performances are entirely praiseworthy and Diana McVeagh's accompanying notes are a model of their kind. It is a pity the captions under the photographs of Hill and Varcoe have been transposed.'