Before and After Summer

Within this group of Hardy settings the quizzical conclusion of Childhood among the ferns and the expectant fervour of the piano opening of Before and After Summer are notable highlights. The collection as a whole is marked by its varied colouring and the composer’s gift of mirroring musically the inflexions of speech. Most remarkable of all is the setting of Hardy’s war poem Channel Firing, one of Finzi’s most ambitious songs in scope and formal design, in which a six-minute structure somewhat resembling the four movements of a symphony is held together tautly by a gunfire figure and a brief melodic motif.