Wigmore Hall, London

2 December 2004

Gerald Finley (bass-baritone)
Julius Drake (piano)

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

Hugo Wolf: Mörike-Lieder
Fussreise (nr. 10)
Heimweh (nr. 37)
Der Feurreiter (nr. 44)
Um Mitternacht (nr. 19)
Begegnung (nr. 8 )
Abschied (nr. 53)

Ralph 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”.