Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued, recording session - Nick Pritchard, Ian Tindale [Photo: Jan Capinski]

Gerald Finzi is a composer whose music has followed tenor Nick Pritchard from his teens. Having performed as a duo with pianist Ian Tindale since the two met in college, and having included Finzi's music in their programmes from early on, it was perhaps inevitable that for their second disc together that they should turn to Finzi.

2026 is something of a double Gerald Finzi anniversary, marking both the anniversary of his birth in 1901, and death in 1956. And it was partly in reflection of this and partly because the composer is dear to them that Nick Pritchard and Ian Tindale recorded an album of Finzi's songs.

Their disc, Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued comes out on Signum Records on 25 September 2026 and features three of Finzi's song cycles, A Young Man’s Exhortation, Op. 14, Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19a, and Oh Fair to See, Op. 13b, along with a selection of Finzi's unpublished songs.

A Young Man's Exhortation, written between 1926 and 1929, is Finzi's only true song cycle, consisting of ten songs setting Thomas Hardy. Finzi was in the practice of not publishing single songs because he thought an individual song might be overlooked by the public and critics. He typically waited until he had a group of ten that were somehow related. During his last year Finzi had a remarkable burst of songwriting, and though, at the time of his death, none of the sets was completed, some two dozen songs were left ready for publication. Some of these were edited into song cycles by Finzi's friend, the composer Howard Ferguson, Finzi's wife, Joy and son, Christopher.

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued, recording session
Nick Pritchard [Photo: Jan Capinski]

Till Earth Outwears and O Fair To See are two such song sets. Till Earth Outwears features seven songs setting words by Thomas Hardy, the songs being written in 1927, 1929 and 1936. Oh Fair To See is both the name of this set of songs and the second song in the set. The set features the work of six poets, Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, Edward Shanks, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden and Robert Bridges, the songs written in 1921, 1925, 1929, 1931, and 1956 with the setting of Robert Bridge's "Since We Loved" being the last song Finzi wrote before his death.

Both Nick and Ian have a love of Finzi's music stretching back to their first meeting at college. So it was not surprising that when preparing their 2025 release Little Wanderer (on Signum), which features Britten's Winter Words (more Thomas Hardy settings) alongside music by Imogen Holst and Daniel Kidane, that their thoughts should turn to 2026 being Finzi's double anniversary. As Finzi's only song cycle, A Young Man's Exhortation was a clear choice, whilst the other two song sets have the attraction of using songs from across Finzi's career. Being as there are other albums with this choice of material, including one by James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook (on Linn Records) which was Nick's introduction to Finzi's music, they decided to add some extra songs, perhaps adding novelty. At first thinking of companion pieces by other composers, thoughts finally turned to Finzi's early unpublished songs which are mentioned in the literature. They were lucky enough to get permission to examine the Finzi songs in manuscript in the Bodleian Library. These are early songs which remained unpublished but which Ian feels have hints of the Finzi to come.

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued, recording session
Ian Tindale [Photo: Jan Capinski]

Nick and Ian have been a duo since college, and they performed O Fair To See quite early in their collaboration, though had not performed A Young Man's Exhortation until preparing it for the recording. Ian loves Finzi, especially the way he sets Hardy, and Ian feels the songs fit them as a duo. Finzi played a big part in Nick's upbringing as a tenor. The head of music at his secondary school, who was a big Finzi fan, gave the teenage Nick an album of Finzi's songs (the one by James Gilchrist mentioned earlier) and Nick's love of the composer was pretty much instant.

Nick, who performs a fair amount of Early Music himself, points out that a lot of Early Music performers like Finzi's music. In fact, Finzi was a big Early Music nut, he transcribed a lot of music by William Boyce (editing a volume of his work for Musica Britannica) and was fond of polyphony. Both Nick and Ian emphasise the fineness of Finzi's word setting, along with his fondness for very English texts, and Nick calls him a very vocal writer. Nick describes Finzi as something of a 'Marmite composer'. Not everyone loves him, but he has a fond place in many peoples hearts and has always spoken to the duo.

Having decided to do the recording both men found that they both had various links to places where important in Finzi's life, and reading more about him there were a lot of odd connections. Looking at Finzi's life both find it interesting to consider the composers he was and wasn't in touch with. The company he kept was very much the old guard, Vaughan Williams was a close friend, whereas younger composer such as Britten and Tippett do not seem to have featured in his circle. Ian points out that Finzi was quite a private, secluded person. He was passionate about the music of William Boyce and worked hard to get Ivor Gurney's music published. He founded the Newbury String Players in 1940 in order to perform music by Boyce and other 18th century figures alongside that of his contemporaries.

Nick and Ian have a launch event for the disc on 25 September at St Clement Danes Church, with a concert the week before (18 September) as part of Ian's Shipston Song Festival, where they will be performing the majority of the disc alongside songs by Howells and Gurney. There are also plans to perform the programme at the Three Choirs Festival next year (again another Finzi link as he wrote for the festival).

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued
Till Earth Outwears
Days too short, A Cradle Song, The Terrible Robber Men, Rondel, English Hills
A Young Man’s Exhortation
Oh Fair to See
Nick Pritchard (tenor)
Ian Tindale (piano)
Signum Records SIGCD1011 

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