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Recital

2  October 2007

Musikverein, Vienna

Gerald Finley

Julius Drake

Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky:

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Interval

Charles Edward Ives:

Ned Rorem:

Samuel Barber:

Encores

Charles Ives:

What the critics say

Click here for a personal review by Ursula Turecek

Die Presse, 4. 10. 2007 (dob)

Translated by Ursula Turecek

Review Musikverein: Shattering diary

Gerald Finley opened the recital series at Brahmssaal.

“Why do I write music? Because I want to hear it, it’s as simple as this”, Ned Rorem, barely known in this country, justified his vocation as a composer. “War Scenes” is the title of his song cycle, created in 1969 after words of his compatriot Walt Whitman: Music full of accusal against warfare. The sound commemorates shattering notes in a diary. Gerald Finley the Canadian baritone who is celebrated in equal measure at concert halls and in opera houses flaunted his elegantly employed voice supported by a magnificent technique and an always crystal clear articulation.

Before this Finley had already captivated with subtle nuances, sophisticated phrasing and depth of expression during his cleverly arranged selection of songs by Tchaikovsky that by no means put only sentimental moments into the fore. In this he was supported in fabulous way by Julius Drake at the Steinway. Like Finley the technically brilliant Drake teaches in London.

Death dances gracefully

Finley’s and Drake’s interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s "Songs and Dances of Death" expressed no pomposity but much touching fragility in their demonstratively lean performance. Compared to Thomas Quasthoff for example who had this song cycle scheduled at the Salzburg Summer Festival, Finley comes across as more emotionally reserved. He prefers the role of an observer to that of someone who experiences. But it is all the more enthralling when he introduces powerful accents, thus immediately augmenting the tension. This is a device he also applied again and again after the interval. Here he gave himself over to two other American composers of position in addition to Rorem: Samuel Barber and Charles Ives. This was about war, personal loss, trepidation too, but also about love and affection. Jokes did not come off at all badly. Because, as he also showed in the encores, Finley does not only know how to get to the bottom of things. He has an equally convincing liking for the bright sides of life.

 

 

Hans Peter Nowak, Der Neue Merker, November 2007

Translated by Janet Woodall

Gerald Finley, Bass baritone, and Julius Drake at the piano arranged such a completely  different lieder recital to what one is used to, full of possibilities to discover. The evening began with 7 Tchaikovsky songs from different cycles from which I knew only some. There followed Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Both parts were presented in understandable Russian. After the break a change took place to the English field (with German inserts). This was the opportunity to get to know songs of Charles Ives and Samuel Barber. In between them the War Scenes of Ned Rorem which refer, certainly, to the American Civil War but are a timeless plea against war of any kind. The songs of Charles Ives touched me most strongly. His main profession was as an insurance broker and he wrote as a "leisure composer" approx. 200 songs, among them German texts of Heine and Goethe as well as child-like English texts.

One notes that Gerald Finley also frequently sings opera (Mozart's repertoire among other things). He lives with the text. Companion Julius Drake is a stupendously able pianist. Sometimes he places a little too much emphasis on being a “keyboard tiger” [a piano virtuoso].

A lot of applause, but only 2 encores (again Ives) after a certainly exhausting, impressively delivered program.