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Recital

2 December 2004

Wigmore Hall, London

Gerald Finley

Julius Drake

Franz Schubert:

Der Schiffer, D536
Der Kreuzzug, D932
Prometheus, D674
Abendstern, D806
Der Musensohn, D764


Hugo Wolf:

Mörike-Lieder


Vaughan Williams:

Songs of Travel

 


Charles Ives:

The Greatest Man
Charlie Rutlage
The Cage
Tom Sails Away
Those Evening Bells
1, 2, 3

What the critics say

David Murray, Financial Times, 8 December 2004

http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=Gerald+Finley&y=5&aje=true&x=15&id=041208001288&ct=0

Gerald Finley won a spontaneous, vociferously appreciative ovation at the end of his Wigmore recital with the pianist Julius Drake. I cannot recall anything much like it in that hall since Maxim Vengerov's debut there, a good few years ago. But of course we have been hearing the Canadian baritone much more often than we do Vengerov; the thing is that Finley is now manifestly in his prime.

His voice has virile power and rich resources of colour and expression, generously displayed in his chosen programme here. It can also be piercingly beautiful, not just in "honeyed tone" passages but even or particularly - in full cry, though he lets it sound like that only in the right places. He uses his theatrical skills in just the right places too.

In the first half of his recital, astutely accompanied by Drake, we got dramatically contrasted groups of songs by Schubert and by Hugo Wolf.

Schubert's stormy "Der Schiffer" came first, followed by his angry "Prometheus" monologue, the dreamy "Abendstern" and the jaunty "Musensohn".

All of the Wolf came from his Mörike-Lieder, running from the blissful out-of-doors "Fussreise" through the nightmare conflagration of "Der Feuerreiter" to the anti-critic jibe "Abschied". Finley's clean German diction was excellent, and wittily deployed.

The performers were more than equal to every challenge: "Feuerreiter" is notably stressful for the pianist but Drake coped with intrepid fervour.

The second half consisted of Vaughan Williams' early Songs of Travel and finally, blessedly bracing and comical, six inimitable songs by US composer Charles Ives.