Finzi: Earth And Air And Rain: 5 Song Cycles, Words by Thomas Hardy - MARTYN HILL, STEPHEN VARCOE, CLIFFORD BENSON (2 CDS)

           
Earth and Air and Rain Op 15[29'40]
Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Clifford Benson (piano)
CD1
1
Summer Schemes  When friendly summer calls again[2'29]
2
When I set out for Lyonnesse[2'02]
3
Waiting Both  A star looks down at me[3'12]
4
The Phantom  Queer are the ways of a man I know[3'18]
5
So I have fared  Simple was I and was young[2'29]
6
Rollicum-rorum  When lawyers strive to heal a breach[1'32]
7
To Lizbie Browne  Dear Lizbie Browne[4'21]
8
The Clock of the Years  A spirit passed before my face[3'55]
9
In a Churchyard  It is sad that so many of worth[3'19]
10
Proud Songsters  The thrushes sing as the sun is going[3'03]

Till Earth outwears Op 19a[15'51]
Martyn Hill (tenor), Clifford Benson (piano)
11
Let me enjoy the earth[2'07]
12
In years defaced[3'23]
13
The Market-Girl  Nobody took any notice of her as she stood on the causey kerb[1'35]
14
I look into my glass[2'05]
15
It never looks like summer here[1'08]
16
At a lunar eclipse  Thy shadow, earth, from pole to central sea[3'33]
17
Life Laughs Onward  Rambling I looked for an old abode[2'00]

I said to Love Op 19b[12'33]
Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Clifford Benson (piano)
18
I need not go[1'34]
19
At Middle-Field Gate in February  The bars are thick with drops that show[3'25]
20
Two Lips  I kissed them in fancy as I came away in the morning glow[0'50]
21
In five-score summers[1'36]
22
For Life I had never cared greatly[2'07]
23
I said to Love[3'01]

A Young Man's Exhortation Op 14[28'11]
Martyn Hill (tenor), Clifford Benson (piano)
CD2
24
Group 1 No 1: A Young Man's Exhortation  Call off your eyes from care[3'11]
25
Group 1 No 2: Ditty  Beneath a knap where flown[2'52]
26
Group 1 No 3: Budmouth Dears  When we lay where Budmouth Beach is, o the girls were fresh as peaches[1'34]
27
Group 1 No 4: Her Temple  Dear, think not that they will forget you[1'58]
28
Group 1 No 5: The Comet at Yell'ham  It bends far over Yell'ham Plain[3'17]
29
Group 2 No 1: Shortening Days  The first fire since summer is lit, and it smoking into the room[3'07]
30
Group 2 No 2: The Sigh  Little head against my shoulder[3'47]
31
Group 2 No 3: Former Beauties  These market-dames, mid-aged, with lips thin-drawn[3'03]
32
Group 2 No 4: Transformations  Portion of this yew is a man my grandshire new[1'24]
33
Group 2 No 5: The Dance Continued  Regret not me; beneath the sunny tree[3'58]

Before and After Summer Op 16[30'19]
Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Clifford Benson (piano)
34
Childhood among the Ferns  I sat one sprinkling day upon the lea[3'19]
35
Before and After Summer  Looking forward to the spring[2'29]
36
The Self-Unseeing  Here is the ancient floor, footworn and hollowed and thin[2'30]
37
Overlooking the River  The swallows flew in the curves of an eight[2'24]
38
Channel Firing  That night your great guns, unawares[6'05]
39
In the Mind's Eye  That was once her casement, and the taper nigh[1'46]
40
The Too Short Time  Nine leaves a minute swim down shakily[2'53]
41
Epeisodia  Past the hills that peep[1'59]
42
Amabel  I marked her ruined hues[2'45]
43
He Abjures Love  At last I put off love, for twice ten years[4'09]