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Recital
9 October 2007
Oper Frankfurt
Gerald Finley
Julius Drake
Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky:
"Serenada Don Zhuana", op. 38/1 (“Don Juan’s Serenade”)
"To bilo ranyeyu vesnoi", op. 38/2 ("It was in the early spring ")
"Sred´ shumnovo bala", op. 38/3 ("In the midst of the ball ")
"Den li zarit", op. 47/6 ("Does the day reign?")
"Pesn’ Min’ony: Net, tol’ko tot, kto znal", op. 6/6 (Mignon's song: “None but the lonely heart")
"Nam zvyozdy krotkiye siyali", op. 60/12 ("Gentle stars shone for us")
"Kak, nad goryacheyu zoloy", op. 25/2 ("As over the burning embers ")
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
"Lieder und Tänze des Todes" (Songs and Dances of Death)
Kalybel’naja (Lullaby)
Serenada (Serenade)
Trepak
Palkavodets (The Field Marshall)
Interval
Charles Edward Ives:
"Ich grolle nicht"
"The Swimmers"
"The Housatonic at Stockbridge"
"The Side Show"
"The Greatest Man"
"Tom Sails Away"
"1,2,3"
Ned Rorem:
"War Scenes"
Samuel Barber:
"There’s nae lark"
"In the dark pinewood"
"Beggar’s Song"
"Rain has fallen", op. 10/1
"Sleep now", op. 10/2
"I hear an army", op. 10/3
Encores
Samuel Barber
“Sure on this shining night” Op. 13, No. 4
Charles Ives
Memories:
· a. Very Pleasant
· b. Rather Sad
Ilmenau
What the critics say
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 2007 (Guido Holze)
Translated by Ursula Turecek
In his recital at the Frankfurt Opera it soon became clear that Gerald Finley is not in total a lyrical baritone but, as a Mozart-singer in demand, does not possess a heavy dramatic voice either. But you gladly believed that the Canadian baritone was successful as Eugen Onegin in Tchaikovsky’s opera. For with his substantial middle range and his expert technique in legato he has the best qualifications for the fach that was formerly called „Kavalierbariton“. Furthermore he obviously enjoys to sing in the Russian language and so he created a tense, predominantly melancholic atmosphere with selected songs by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky’s „Songs and Dances of Death“. Primarily Russian in melody and scenario Mussorgsky’s „Trepak“ as a dance with Death for example: A drunken peasant freezes to death in a snowstorm.
But sometimes Finley tended toward exaggeratation. Facial expression, gestures and fortissimo came across as operatic then. On the other hand his flexible and discreet accompanist at the piano, Julius Drake, made differentiation mainly in the quieter sections, thus skilfully slowing down some of the singer’s too great a passion wherever possible. Finley showed the mutability of his timbre in Tchaikovsky’s „Lullaby“, in the dialogue of a mother with Death. Actually death and war were the great themes of this programme that was built coherently even with unknown repertoire. Thus „The Commander“ by Mussorgsky was the transition to a group of songs in English in the center of which were Ned Rorem’s War Scenes.
There a huge pile of epic text from a diary from the American Civil War is propelled quickly in recitative with a commenting piano part in modern tonality. Before this Finley gave an impression of Charles Ives’ characteristics and his poly-stylistics: Strange for example and completely independent from Schumann’s well-known setting the romantic interpretation [by Ives] of the Heine-song „Ich grolle nicht“. Finally, six selected songs by Samuel Barber in their smooth, neo-romantic sound suited Finley best.
