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Interview with Steven Mazey for The Ottawa Citizen
20 September 2007
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=4ded5106-cc2e-45db-a761-f83a4d1d39e4&p=1
'Marvellous' baritone to make a rare homecoming
His schedule these days includes gigs with the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and the New York Philharmonic, and bass-baritone Gerald Finley has said he owes at least some of his success to the musical start he had as a chorister in the boys' choir at Ottawa's St. Matthew's Church.
Finley, 47, has lived in Britain since the late 1970s, when he went there to study at Cambridge University, but he's returning to town Sunday afternoon for a concert at St. Matthew's that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the church's Gentlemen and Boys' Choir. The concert is a fundraiser for the church restoration project.
Finley has said his experience in the choir with conductor Brian Law in the 1970s "instilled a sense of professionalism, teamwork and discipline" that he continues to impose on himself today.
"Other baritones may have equally gorgeous voices ... but few are blessed with his sensitivity and intellectual prowess," one Toronto critic wrote of Finley. Last year, the editors of Gramophone magazine chose Finley as one of six finalists for the magazine's artist-of-the-year award. Other finalists included Ottawa pianist Angela Hewitt, conductors Simon Rattle and Valery Gergiev and cellist Steven Isserlis. (The award, determined by readers, went to Hewitt).
The editors said the finalists all stood out "as truly unique in their achievements -- it's impossible to define why, but there develops about them an overwhelming sense of having made truly important recordings that elevate them to the ranks of vital ambassadors for music, and essential additions to our record collections." The editors had particular praise for Finley's recording of Stanford's Songs of the Sea on the Chandos label, which the magazine named its record of the month in July 2006.
"Finley's laser-like precision and swashbuckling swagger (though he doesn't neglect the quieter songs) confirmed that not only is he a marvellous artist but he has as much star quality as anyone," a Gramophone critic wrote.
Sunday's concert will mark Finley's first performance in Ottawa since he was soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra last year. It will be a rare chance to hear him in a more intimate venue than an orchestra concert hall or opera house, and it's a chance to hear Finley in a range of styles.
The concert, conducted by church music director Stephen Candow and featuring Christ Church Cathedral organist Matthew Larkin, will include Finley in Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs. He will also be soloist in Mendelssohn's Lord, God of Abraham and in new pieces by former choir members Paul Halley and Kevin Reeves.
Organist Gerald Wheeler, who founded the choir in 1956 and later became organist for the Montreal Symphony, is also returning, to be organ soloist in Ernest MacMillan's Cortège Académique.