IN THE PREFACE to the New York edition of Roderick Hudson, Henry James explained that the chief problem of the novelist is deciding where to stop his characters’ stories—at what point to give up ...

Moments before he passed away, in 1945, composer Aldo Finzi whispered the words, “Fate suonare la mia musica” (“Let my music be performed”). Recently, on a particularly cold December night, his last ...

“The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” had what its creators call a “difficult birth.” Over a decade in the making, the opera, adapted from Giorgio Bassani’s book of the same name, which Vittorio De Sica ...

Popular pieces that the composer dismissed as 'only trifles.' In 1941, shortly before being drafted into the war effort, Finzi finished three pieces for clarinet, using ‘20-year-old bits and pieces’.

In our hectic world of instant gratification many people still turn to pursuits that require patience and attention. One of the pleasures of bird-watching is having to wait quietly for something to ...

Gerald Finzi’s Cello Concerto was his last completed work, first performed in 1955, a year before his death. It is also by a long way his most substantial orchestral score – Paul Watkins’ performance ...

Sixty years after Gerald Finzi’s death devotees keep his unmistakably English music alive. This odd anniversary collection places genuine orchestral pieces alongside newly made arrangements of songs ...