“…Paul Watkins delivers the right tone for the purpose, and Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony are on the same page with excellent Chandos sound… Very few North Americans had ever heard of Gerald Finzi until the 1970s, when his marvellously serene Eclogue for piano and orchestra began to make the airwaves. This was the era which saw America fall in love with English Impressionism, and this gentle piece, an early work pinning out simple romantic beauty, was at the forefront of our notice. It’s beautifully done here by Louis Lorte. He’s effective, as well, in the more virtuosic Grand Fantasia and Toccata … there is music here to fall in love with.”

***** (Excellent Album)

“…This is an excellent Finzi collection and anyone interested in his music should investigate it, especially on account of the very fine performance of his eloquent Cello Concerto. Chandos have recorded the music with their customary expertise. I listened to this SACD using the stereo layer and I found that in all the solo pieces the balance between orchestra and soloist was very satisfactory. The overall sound is rich and detailed. Andrew Burn’s notes are very helpful.”

***** (Superb Disc)      Technique: 4.5/5      SACD Technique: 4.5/5

*****

“… Paul Watkins’s captivating performance, supported devotedly by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under an inspired Andrew Davis and captured in opulently detailed sound, radiates insight and conviction in every bar… With first-class couplings, this is a Finzi disc to cherish.”

“Finzi fans need have no hesitation in acquiring this highly attractive collection of some of his best, and best known, works… Paul Watkins is golden-toned throughout in a highly persuasive interpretation [Cello Concerto]… The weirdly proportioned but nonetheless wonderful Grand Fantasia concludes the disc. Here Louis Lortie’s rendition of the very extended cadenza-like passage is spine-tinglingly exciting, and indeed the whole performance is beyond criticism.”

“…If you consider yourself to be a lover of English music, so long as you do not have this release, then your collection is incomplete.”  *****

“…In Chandos’ new recording with cellist Paul Watkins, all of the Concerto’s contrasts come across magnificently. The lyrical moments swoon with intensity, while a certain resigned aggression marks Watkins’ attacks in the first movement’s tempestuous gestures. The soloist’s tone is never less than warm, though, and his intonation – even in the most devilish runs of double stops – is unfailingly precise. Sir Andrew Davis leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) in a robust, full-bodied accompaniment that ably embraces the score’s blend of serenity and chop. Louis Lortie gives a lush, elegant reading of the keyboard solo of Finzi’s famous Eclogue, Davis and the BBCSO strings providing an impassioned accompaniment throughout. Later on, Lortie gets to exhibit a bit more of his impressive range in Finzi’s Grand Fantasia and Toccata, which channels the composer’s admiration of Bach. Left to themselves, Davis and the BBCSO give a stirring reading of Finzi’s elegiac New Year’s Music. This is pensive music, tender and lonely, and you can hardly ask for a more sensitive reading of it than the piece receives here.”

“… not only does Paul Watkins evince his customary purity of intonation, unruffled technical address and selfless dedication, he forges a healthy, infectiously tangible rapport with Andrew Davis, who obtains playing of commendable discipline and eager application from the BBC SO… Louis Lortie seems wholly attuned to the idiom, his playing full of grace and fire … The beautiful balanced sound has the satisfying richness and glow we have come to expect from Chandos. As should be abundantly clear by now, this is something of a treat.”

Concerto Choice

Performance *****      Recording ****

“… Sir Andrew Davis’s feeling for the composer’s sensitive, harmonically conservative language is abundantly clear in these vivid readings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Soloists, too, are well chosen. Not for the first time, cellist Paul Watkins proves a master of expressing powerful feelings through the prism of British reserve, vital for Finzi’s Concert; while Louis Lortie, at the piano, effortlessly masters both poetic simplicities (in the Eclogue) and the fierce Baroque clamour needed for the Grand Fantasia… Admirers of his music can buy without hesitation.”

Classical Album of the Week

“… it [Cello Concerto] ranks as one of the finest British works for cello and orchestra. When he [Finzi] started writing it in 1951, he already knew he did not have long to live, and the wistful land of lost content that never seems too far away in any of his music pervades this work. Watkins’ performance captures that mood perfectly. Nothing is exaggerated or over-assertive … Louis Lortie is the soloist in the ruminatively beautiful Eclogue for piano and strings, and is spiritedly athletic, with full orchestra, in the neo-baroque Grand Fantasia and Toccata. Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra make a fine job of the one near rarity in this collection, the strikingly atmospheric Nocturne …” ****