In November 1923, Ralph Vaughan Williams received a letter from a young composer asking for permission to use a folk tune, ‘The truth sent from above’, that the great man had recorded on a field trip and subsequently used to beautiful effect in his ‘Fantasia on Christmas Carols’ (S&B, 1912). Luckily for Gerald Finzi, as he had already written his piece, RVW agreed on condition that Finzi also asked his fellow collector, Ella Mary Leather.

The brightness of this day is an expansive and thrilli...