- Finzi composed his Romance in E-flat Major for Orchestra op. 11 in 1928, and revised it around 1951.
- Finzi composed this piece when he was a young man living in London, where he spent time with other young composers, like Arthur Bliss and Edmund Rubbra, and where he also met composers from the previous generation, like Holst and Vaughan Williams.1
- In 1951 a young fan of Finzi, John Russell, asked Finzi’s permission to perform this Romance, y then one of Finzi’s older works. The two became god friend and Finzi dedicated the piece to John Russell in gratitude.2
- Finzi didn’t publish this piece until 1952, after revisions. At the time he told his friend, composer Robin Milford, that he thought his early Romance was “antiquated.”3
Sources
- Diana McVeagh, “Finzi, Gerald,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 1, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000009689.
- Diana McVeagh, Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music (Woodbrigde, England: Boydell Press, 2010), 119.
- Ibid., 221.
Cut IDs
41664, 43323