Gerald Finzi made an unrivalled contribution to British twentieth-century song-writing, especially in his settings of Thomas Hardy, his favourite poet. This third and final volume of Finzi songs includes two Hardy settings, A Young Man’s Exhortation and Till Earth Outwears, which share the poet’s preoccupation with the ‘passing preciousness of dreams’, the transience of life and death itself. The posthumously published Oh Fair to see draws on various authors, from Christina Rossetti to Blunden and Bridges. Volumes 1 and 2 of the complete Finzi songs with piano are available on Naxos 8.557644 and 8.557963.