Susan Juhl asks for opinions of Finzi's work.

I'm probably not the right one to ask, since I like just about everything
he wrote.  Others have mentioned the clarinet concerto, the 5 Bagatelles,
and the cello concerto.  The concerti are his most ambitious instrumental
works, but there are some lovely short pieces: the Introit, The Fall of
the Leaf, the Eclogue for piano and strings, the Grand Fantasia and Toccata
for piano and orchestra, the Love's Labors Lost Suite, the Nocturne, the
Prelude, the Romance, and the Severn Rhapsody.

However, as a song and choral composer, Finzi stands out.  I think him one
of the great songwriters, at his best as good as Faure.  He's known for his
Hardy cycles: Before and after Summer, Earth and Air and Rain, Til Earth
Outwears, A Young Man's Exhortation, and I Said to Love.  However, you
almost can't go wrong with any of his vocal stuff.

Outstanding vocal works: 2 Milton Sonnets, Dies natalis, Farewell to Arms,
Let Us Garlands Bring.

Outstanding choral works: 3 Short Elegies, 7 Part Songs to Poems of Robert
Bridges, All this night, For St. Cecilia, In terra pax, God is gone up
(very Elgarian), Magnificat, and (probably his masterpiece) a setting of
Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality.

Steve Schwartz