Gerald Finzi - Three Soliloquies from Love's Labour's Lost - Op. 28

If this
Is the landscape which we, the inconstant one,
Are constantly homesick for, it is chiefly
Because it dissolves
In water

W.H. Auden

"The Three Soliloquies are very short but very sweet. The enchanting first soliloquy, The King's Poem, is coy and wistfully sad. It is a great favourite of mine; I think it is one of the most beautiful melodies in all British Music. It is played here by the Northern Sinfonia with great delicacy and their playing rivals the Boult version on Lyrita. The second Longaville's Sonnet is in very much the same mood while the third soliloquy, Dumaine's Poem has a faster tempo but is equally gentle although strongly melodic."

Ian Lace, from Musicweb.

I must say I heartily agree with Mr Lace. The King's Poem is a most affectingly delicate and beautiful piece: title aside, for me here Finzi conjours meadows full of wildflowers; lazy cattle and sheep in mitigated sunlight; stone barns and pinfolds; swallows, swifts and martins; bubbling brooks of sparkling water; rural people, and a way of life long gone in many ways.

Thanks to the Peak District and other protected British National Parks, we can at least continue to appreciate the spirit, if not entirely the substance, of Finzi's musical allusions. However, we must be ever vigilant: the ugly predations of quarrying companies busy hacking and scarring away the NE flank of Longstone Edge are there for all to see. It's deeply depressing to witness the rape of parts of this landscape by dint of a legal loophole, buried in a statute framed 60 years ago. Children ask "how can this happen?". We grown-ups have no answer which could remotely convince them that it's anything other than despicable. Incredible, and deeply troubling in the heart of one of our Planet's most visited, most beautiful, National Parks.

I took these pictures last week in the Peak District, England, at: Bretton Clough; Coombs Dale; Longstone Edge; Ilam, Stoney Middleton. The Royal Cipher at 3:44 is of hazel planted among green fir, and is on a hillside visible from Chatsworth, Derbyshire.

For more videos and other information about the Peak District please visit Let's Stay Peak District at http://www.peakdistrict-nationalpark.com


Robert Plane, Clarinettist
Northern Sinfonia
Conducted by Howard Griffiths
NAXOS 8.553566