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Seen
and Heard International Recital Review
Schumann, Ives,
Rorem and Barber:
Gerald Finley, baritone Julius Drake,
piano,
Zankel Hall New York City 23. 3. 2007
(BH)
Schumann:
Dichterliebe
Ives:
"Ich grolle nicht"
Ives:
"Swimmers"
Ives:
"The Housatonic at Stockbridge"
Ives:
"The Side Show"
Ives:
"The Greatest Man"
Ives:
"Tom Sails Away"
Ives:
"1, 2, 3"
Rorem:
War Scenes
Barber:
"There's Nae Lark"
Barber:
"In the Dark Pinewood"
Barber:
"The Beggar's Song"
Barber:
Three Songs, Op. 10: “Rain Has
Fallen,” “Sleep Now,” “I Hear an Army”
I came for the Ives, but was seduced
by the Schumann. In 2005 Gerald
Finley and Julius Drake released one
of the finest recital discs of recent
years, an all-Ives program on
Hyperion. (And Volume II is scheduled
for release soon.) So here was an
unmissable chance to hear a few of
those by one of today’s most
expressive singers matched with one of
today’s most adroit pianists.
In sixteen carefully wrought parts,
Schumann’s Dichterliebe details
the mixed emotions of a poet’s
adoration for his beloved, from the
freshness of the opening “Im wunderschönen
Monat Mai” (“In the wondrously
beautiful month of May”) to the
grittier “Ich grolle nicht” (“I do not
complain”) to the final bitter closing
before the piano alone ultimately has
the last word. Finley pressed through
this journey with the keen attention
of someone totally devoted, presenting
the cycle without breaks, except for a
notably long one after “Das ist ein
Flöten und Geigen” (“What a Fluting
and Fiddling”) as “lovely little
angels” are “sobbing and groaning.”
It was as if Finley had stepped back
emotionally, as if to take stock
before further pursuing his thoughts.
Throughout the set, Finley’s ability
to phrase carefully, sometimes
hesitantly, while maintaining
character made for a remarkable
reading, and Drake was at his side as
the best kind of accompanist, far from
being in the shadows, as if a best
friend were counseling another.
After the break, Ives’ “Ich grolle
nicht” begins startlingly peacefully,
as if a prayer, but the ending becomes
as dense as the conflicting emotions
it portrays. Finley continued with an
entertainingly chosen set that showed
Ives’ immense range from a riveting
“The Housatonic at Stockbridge,” with
its transcendent piano part, to the
melancholic “Tom Sails Away,” with its
brief quotation from “Over There.” In
between, “The Greatest Man” is a
loving tribute to Ives’ father, which
Finley infused with precision and
humor. Drake almost had the harder
role here, given some of Ives’
fiendishly difficult piano work.
Ned Rorem was in the audience, it
turned out, for his piercing War
Scenes that surely left everyone
in the audience slightly chilled.
Written during the Vietnam War years,
these five stark songs only continue
to resonate. How can one not gasp
internally, hearing the singer
describe soldiers with “legs blown
off, some bullets through the breast,
some indescribably horrid wounds in
the face or head, all mutilated,
sickening, torn, gouged out, some mere
boys, they take their turns with the
rest…” With impressive control
and focus, Finley added a hollow gaze
out into the audience, making the
reading even more upsetting.
The final well-considered Barber set
climaxed with his Three Songs,
Op. 10 with texts by James Joyce, and
as before, Drake leaped into the
musical lines with the kind of gusto
singers dream about. For encores,
Finley began by graciously repeating
Rorem’s “An Incident” (after a slight
memory lapse the first time around),
then completely changed the mood with
Ives’ “Memories: A – Very pleasant, B
– Rather sad,” with its two emotional
poles, not to mention a fine bit of
whistling. Things got even funnier
with Woolsey Charles’ fractured fairy
tale, “The Green-Eyed Dragon,” and
then to end it all, with Drake’s
liquid backdrop, Finley poured out a
passionate “Sure on This Shining
Night,” one of Barber’s most
irresistibly beautiful creations.
Bruce Hodges
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