recorded 2010 Benjamin Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake. Gerald Finley and Julius Drake Track Listing: 1 Lemady ‘One midsummer’s morn as I was a-walking‘ 2 She’s like the swallow 3 I wonder as I wander 4 Tom Bowling ‘Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling‘ Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op 74 5 No 01: Proverb I ‘The pride of the peacock if the glory of God’ 6 No 02: London ‘I wander thro’ each charter’d street’ 7 No 03: Proverb II ‘Prisons are built with stones of Law’ 8 No 04: The Chimney-Sweeper ‘A little black thing among the snow’ 9 No 05: Proverb III ‘The bird a nest, the spider a web’ 10 No 06: A Poison Tree ‘I was angry with my friend’ 11 No 07: Proverb IV ‘Think in the morning’ 12 No 08: The Tyger ‘Tyger! Tyger! burning bright’ 13 No 09: Proverb 5 ‘The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction’ 14 No 10: The Fly ‘Little Fly’ 15 No 11: Proverb VI ‘The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock’ 16 No 12: Ah, Sun-flower 17 No 13: Proverb VII ‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand’ 18 No 14: Every Night and every Morn Tit for Tat 19 No 1: A Song of Enchantment 20 No 2: Autumn ‘There’s a wind where the rose was’ 21 No 3: Silver ‘Slowly, silently, now the moon’ 22 No 4: Vigil ‘Dark is the night’ 23 No 5: Tit for Tat ‘Have you been catching fish, Tom Noddy?’ 24 Um Mitternacht 25 A Poison Tree ‘I was angry with my friend‘ This way to the tomb 26 No 1: Evening ‘The red fox, the sun, tears the throat of the evening’ 27 No 2: Morning 28 No 3: Night 29 David of the White Rock ‘Life and its follies are fading away‘ 30 Greensleeves ‘Alas, my love, you do me wrong’ 31 The Crocodile ‘Now listen you landsmen unto me‘ 32 The Deaf Woman’s Courtship ‘Old woman, old woman, are you fond of smoking?‘ 33 Bird scarer’s song ‘Shoo all ‘er birds you be so black‘ CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 10 July 2010 Britten's settings of Blake's poems were written for the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and his recording from 1965 carries massive authority. But this new recording tops it. Fischer-Dieskau can seem mannered, whereas Gerald Finley's strength is his easy, natural quality. Everything he sings has a feeling of emotional truth, without any artfulness. That's a great asset in these songs, which are very artful indeed, and can sound overwrought (in both senses) in performance. Finley makes Blake's aphorisms ring out with the force of an Old Testament prophet and the gradual revelation of evil in "A Poison Tree" is overwhelming. At the opposite pole is "Little Fly", but the same quality of easy strength is there which makes the evocation of the fly's little world seem touching, rather than precious. Elsewhere Finley and pianist Julius Drake face different challenges. No performers could overcome the preciousness of Britten's teenage settings of Walter de la Mare and the three Ronald Duncan poems Britten set in the Forties have a fake medieval quality. But in these performances they actually seem worth listening to. Different again are Britten's folk-song settings, of which there are nine on this CD. Here Britten shows an uncanny ability to reveal the soul of a song with the minimum of notes. Eloquence rooted in sturdy simplicity is what they need, and Finley and Drake hit the right note every time. The musing delicacy of I Wonder as I Wander, is caught to perfection, Drake's high piano line floating like a lonely shepherd's pipe over Finley's voice. Finally, in The Deaf Woman's Courtship Finley reveals his inner spinster to hilarious effect. FIVE STARS Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 19 June 2010 Britten’s oeuvre is so dominated by the music he composed for Peter Pears, his long-time partner and creative muse, that it’s easy to forget he was inspired by voices other than tenor. There are diverse roles in all the operas, of course, but this marvellous CD showcases the songs Britten wrote for the baritones Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, John Shirley-Quirk and Benjamin Luxon – music that Finley, now at the peak of his very considerable powers, makes his own with the pianist Julius Drake. Not that Pears is entirely absent, for the mature Britten’s choice of texts was made or influenced by the tenor. This was very much the case with the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, written for Fischer-Dieskau and premiered by him at the 1965 Aldeburgh festival. Blake’s vivid and often visionary poems – 14 of them, alternating short, aphoristic proverbs with rhyming poetry – were chosen partly because of Britten’s liking for the idiom (he had already set “The Sick Rose” in the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings) and partly because they seemed tailor-made for the German baritone’s brand of intense lyricism and dramatic characterisation – a combination for which Finley is also famous. His recording gives this edgy song-cycle an up-to-date profile. Britten’s blend of luminous eloquence and quietly corrosive chromatics – echoing the innocent/world-tainted ambiguity of Blake’s poetry – will not be to everyone’s taste, but Finley lends it the very beauty and intelligence and ecstatic vocalism it needs, without the mannerisms of Fischer-Dieskau, whose recording with Britten is still available. There are two pinnacles, “The Poison Tree” and “Ah, Sun-flower”, the chill tension of which Finley and Drake capture to eerie effect. The idiom in Tit for Tat, the other song-cycle on this disc, is sunnier, a reflection not just of the more innocuous poetry of Walter de la Mare but of the music’s genesis: Britten composed these five songs as a teenager and “cleaned them very slightly” – his own words – for Shirley-Quirk in 1969. The rest of the CD is devoted to early songs and late folksong settings, several of which Britten wrote with harp accompaniment, transcribed here for piano. CD OF THE WEEK The Times, 13 June 2010 The Canadian baritone has already impressed with his outstanding diction in three albums of North American song (two devoted to Charles Ives, one to Samuel Barber) for Hyperion. Now he turns to the repertoire that Britten wrote for two of his favourite baritones: Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and Tit for Tat (John Shirley-Quirk). In addition for folk songs, Finley includes a selection of the posthumous repertoire of early works selected and edited by Britten’s musical assistant, Colin Matthews. Britten gave tacit approval for the release of these jewels as early as 1968, when he chose five settings of Walter de la Mare composed in his late teens as a 70th birthday tribute to the poet’s son, Richard, then chairman of Britten’s publisher, Faber Music. Tit for Tat displays the young composer’s prodigious melodic gift and his savour of words. Finley’s noble baritones is a richer-coloured instrument than Shirley-Quirk’s, and his more modern approach eschews the slightly purse-lipped Englishness of the older singer. In the Blake settings, Finley naturally sounds more at home with the English texts than Fischer-Dieskau did, even if he occasionally underplays the intellectual-philosophical emphasis of the great German baritone. Finley’s watchwords are directness and clarity, both of which come across to splendid effect in the folk-song arrangements and the comic duet The Deaf Woman’s Courtship, in which he performs both parts. Drake is his admirable partner in this outstanding enterprise. Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 3 June 2010 4 stars The early song cycle on poems by Walter de la Mare, Tit for Tat, together with a motley collection of folk song arrangements and one-offs (including a setting of Goethe’s Um Mitternacht) make an odd context for one of Britten’s greatest song cycles. But Gerald Finley sings them all with such an unwaveringly beautiful tone and attention to every syllable, and pianist Julian Drake is so wonderfully attuned to the baritone’s inflections that it hardly seems to matter. The Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, composed in 1965 for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau are almost equally fine, too. However, Finley’s voice generally lacks the dark quality with which Fischer-Dieskau could cloak his sound when required, and which Britten exploits in settings such as the creepingly chromatic A Poison Tree and Ah Sun-flower. Nevertheless, Finley comes into his own in the final Every Night and Every Morn, and Drake’s handling of the powerfully wrought accompaniments is superb. Those who have followed them through their series of 20th-century songs for Hyperion (Barber, Ives, Ravel previously) won’t be disappointed with this one either. recorded 2010 Zoltán Kodály: Cello Sonata & other works Natalie Clein and Julius Drake Tracklisting Sonata, Op 8 1 Movement 1: Allegro maestoso ma appassionato 2 Movement 2: Adagio 3 Movement 3: Allegro molto vivace 4 Sonatina Nine Epigrams 5 No 1: Lento 6 No 2: [untitled] 7 No 3: [untitled] 8 No 4: Moderato 9 No 5: Allegretto 10 No 6: Andantino 11 No 7: Con moto 12 No 8: [untitled] 13 No 9: [untitled] FIVE STARS Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 13 August 2010 Zoltán Kodaly’s lasting memorial will be his work in music education, the impact of which is still felt today. In contrast to Bartók, his compatriot, contemporary and fellow collector of Hungarian folk music, his concert music has gone out of fashion – which makes this new recording of his most powerful instrumental work all the more welcome. Unlike Bartók, Kodaly (1882-1967) stuck to abstract forms: the fewer instruments he dealt with, the more effective the music. That is certainly true of the half-hour unaccompanied Sonata – alternately desolate, passionate and highly virtuosic, its classical principles intricately tied to the rich bank of folk-related harmonic/melodic resources the composer had uncovered and assimilated on his journeys into the countryside. The Sonata was long “owned” by Janos Starker, whose interpretation carried the composer’s stamp of approval, but it was high time one of the younger breed of cellists took it up. Clein proves a more than worthy champion, not least in the tumultuous finale, a fabulous compendium of themes that sound as if they have been drawn from within the instrument, turning it into zither, bagpipe and chanter. The playing is never self-reverential: Clein rises above the fearsome technical challenges, capturing the bravura nature of the piece in a way that makes it “speak” like pure music. There is much to enjoy, too, in her performances (with Julius Drake on piano) of the early Sonatina and the late Epigrams – simple studies designed to exemplify Kodaly’s educational method but enjoyable on their own terms. The final two pieces, Romance lyrique and Adagio, are student works, exuding an innocent romanticism that Clein and Drake capture to perfection. PERFORMANCE: FIVE STARS RECORDING: FIVE STARS John Allison, BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 Zoltan Kodály’s long life (1882-1967) is mirrored in the wide span of works on this excellent new release. More than half a century separates the early Romance lyrique of 1898 and the Nine Epigrams of 1954, a period in which Kodály (along with Bartók) set about collecting folk music from the remotest corners of Hungary. In his perceptive notes accompanying this release, Calum MacDonald compares Kodály with Vaughan Williams as two great national composers who played a broad role in society. Little of that folk spirit is heard in the earliest work here, really a salon piece, but it and the slightly later Adagio (Kodály’s first official chamber music) both benefit from the warm and sensitive partnership of Natalie Clein and Julius Drake. The miniature Epigrams, pieces that sound like less edgy Bartók while having their own originality, are also touchingly done. But the compelling reason for acquiring this disc, which does nor attempt to be a complete survey of Kodály ’s cello music, is Clein’s magnificent account of the Solo Sonata, Op. 8. One of rhe masterpieces of the cello repertory, it opens with massive, declamatory chords, and Clein’s depth of tone makes an immediate impact on this well-engineered recording. A wartime work dating from 1915, this is sombre music that finds space for folk inflected ruminations – at one point in the central Adagio even conjuring up the dusky sound of the cimbalom. A must-have disc. FIVE STARS Geoffrey Norris, The Telegraph, 25 June 2010 Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello represents one of those daunting summits that cellists feel ineluctably drawn to conquer, and Natalie Clein does so here with terrific passion, piquancy and technical accomplishment. The Hungarian spice of the music is hot, imbued as it is with the distinctive traits of folksong and folkdance that Kodály had studied first-hand on his field trips with Bartók. The frenzied finale is a case in point, but so too is the brooding central adagio movement, where Kodály gets the cello to imitate the twang of the cimbalom. In fact, as Clein shows in this supreme performance, Kodály’s ability to conjure up a kaleidoscope of colours from the cello attests to his remarkable insight into the instrument’s expressive potential and range, using pizzicato, multiple-stoppings, harmonics, unequivocal gestures, heady lyricism and haunting languor in a score that is disciplined structurally but also has a supple sense of spontaneous invention. The Sonata, composed in 1915, sounds far more radical than the Sonatina for Cello and Piano of 1922, maybe because the latter is thought to be the movement that Kodály wrote to replace one that he had felt to be unsatisfactory in his Cello Sonata of 1909-10. Perhaps he was trying to match it to an earlier manner of writing, but it nevertheless has a vibrant personality that Clein and Julius Drake light upon and convey instinctively. A very early Romance Lyrique, written in 1898 when Kodály was still in his teens, inhabits the realms of the sophisticated salon, but the darker Adagio of 1905 has a more intense and bleak message, and the Nine Epigrams of 1954 transcend their educational function to conjure up crisp, poignant images. Altogether, an imaginatively planned disc, and one played compellingly. Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 27 May 2010 4 stars The point of Natalie Clein’s collection is the epic Sonata for unaccompanied cello, which is not only one of Zoltán Kodály’s greatest achievements, but also arguably the single most important work for solo cello since Bach’s six Suites. Even if Clein’s performance does not quite match János Starker’s celebrated recording (available on Delos) for sheer sweep and intensity, it is nevertheless extremely impressive, both in the impassioned rhapsodies of the first two movements, and in the array of folk tunes that are paraded in the ferociously challenging finale. Rather than do the obvious and combine the solo Sonata with Kodály’s earlier two-movement Sonata Op 4 for cello and piano, Clein and Julius Drake complete the disc with a collection of the composer’s smaller-scale pieces for the same combination. There are a couple of early pieces: a rather Debussy-like Sonatina that may well have been originally intended as a new first movement for the Op 4 Sonata; and the set of Epigrams from 1954 that derive from Kodaly’s copious educational music. Originally wordless with piano accompaniment, Clein and Drake show how easily they transform into charming instrumental miniatures. recorded 2009 Christianne Stotijn (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) Tchaikovsky Romances has won the Vocal category for the BBC Music Magazine 2010 Awards in a ceremony that took place on 13 April at King's Place, London. You can watch the award ceremony online by clicking: "BBC Music Magazine website" . Track listing 1 At the Ball op.38 no.3 2.33 2 None but the lonely Heart op.6 no.6 3.30 3 Over burning ashes op.25 no.5 1.47 4 My genius, my angel, my friend! 1.55 5 Lullaby op.16 no.1 3.16 6 Reconciliation op. 25 no.1 5.17 7 The sun has set op.73 no.4 1.41 8 The fearful moment op.28 no.6 3.35 9 Mild stars looked down op.60 no.12 3.26 10 Had I only known op. 47 no.1 4.00 11 The lights were being dimmed op.63 no.5 2.46 12 Not a word, my friend op.6 no.2 3.06 13 Why? op 6, no.5 2.56 14 The Bride’s Lament op.47 no.7 5.47 15 The gypsy song op.60 no.7 2.39 16 Do not believe, my friend op.6 no.1 3.57 17 It was in early spring op.38 no.2 2.38 18 Cuckoo op.54 no.8 2.31 19 Can it be day? op.47 no.6 3.19 20 Again, as before, alone op.73 no.6 2.15 Gramophone Editor's Choice - February 2009 - Patrick O' Connor An album to remind one of the treasures of Russian song. Remember that wonderful Sergei Leiferkus Mussorgsky song series? But I digress. The ever more impressive Christianne Stotijn invests this marvellous collection with intelligence and refulgent tone, even managing to sound idiomatic (well, to my non-Russian ears). She is well matched by Julius Drake. A real pleasure. [James Inverne] The Times Stotijn loses nothing in comparison with ghosts from the past. Her voice is a full-blooded mezzo but steady and true, without a hint of that vibrato that can often disturb the line in Slavonic singers....the piano parts are superbly done: in every sense these songs are duets...Tchaikovsky's songs are not nearly well enough known and this superb recital should enourage more interest in them. A second volume, please, and soon! Highly recommended. Among young mezzo-sopranos, Christianne Stotijn is in a class apart; she stamps every note and word with character, and delivers her songs with a lyrical glow that considerably advances global warming. This Tchaikovsky selection rolls happily through plangent love dramas and comic folk tales, through Tolstoy poems and Goethe too. Whatever the song, Stotijn sings from the heart to the heart. Praise too for Julius Drake, a deft piano accompanist. order... At the Ball - Had I only known recorded 2009 Gerald Finley (baritone) Julius Drake (piano) Nominated in the 2010 Juno Awards: Classical Album of the Year Vocal or Choral Performance category. The awards ceremony will take place in St John's, NL on April 17 and broadcast on CTV on April 18. "Canadian Gerald Finley and his superb piano partner Julius Drake...have created an essential entry into the Ravel discography," wrote critic David Vernier. "Finley's warmly resonant and extraordinarily expressive voice proves an ideal vehicle for this wide array of songs." Track Listing Histoires naturelles 1 No 1: Le paon 2 No 2: Le grillon 3 No 3: Le cygne 4 No 4: Le martin-pêcheur 5 No 5: La pintade 6 Ronsard à son âme Don Quichotte à Dulcinée 7 No 1: Chanson romanesque 8 No 2: Chanson épique 9 No 3: Chanson à boire 10 Un grand sommeil noir 11 Les grands vents venus d’outremer 12 Sur l’herbe Chants populaires 13 No 2: Chanson française 14 No 3: Chanson italienne 15 No 4: Chanson hébraïque 16 No 5: Chanson écossaise 17 Noël des jouets Deux épigrammes de Clément Marot 18 No 1: D’Anne qui m’a jecta de la neige 19 No 2: D’Anne jouant de l’espinette Cinq mélodies populaires grecques 20 No 1: Le réveil de la mariée 21 No 2: Là-bas, vers l’église 22 No 3: Quel galant m’est comparable? 23 No 4: Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques 24 No 5: Tout gai! Deux mélodies hébraïques 25 No 1: Kaddisch 26 No 2: L’énigme éternelle EDITOR'S CHOICE, GRAMOPHONE Evocative performances of these exquisitely crafted miniatures Another month, another Gerald Finley recital disc, another Editor’s Choice. Par for the course for this most splendid interpreter of song. And, no doubt helped by his own bilingual Canadian upbringing, he takes to Ravel’s songs as to the manner born – delving deep to find a composer playing, not only with emotions, but with the form itself. Marvellous work too from Julius Drake. FIVE STARS, BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE When it comes to Ravel’s songs, there is hardly an embarrassment of riches in the catalogue. While there is an Aladdin’s cave of releases featuring his orchestral, chamber and piano works, recent discs of the melodies and chansons are as rare as blue diamonds, and often only the cases could be described as jewels. It feels inadequate, then, just to describe this enchanting new collection from Gerald Finley and Julius Drake as the best modern recital devoted to the wonderfully varied world of Ravel’s songs. It is difficult for baritones to escape names such as Gerard Souzay and Gabriel Bacquier in this repertoire but, if Finley may not always match them for breezy characterisation, his richness of tone and sureness of touch ensure that he can hold his head high in their company. Rarely has the disturbing picture of Un grand sommeil noir been draped in such dark velvet, an inky malevolent beauty. Finley gives the melancholic affirmation of ‘Kaddisch’ its full weight of understated nobility, and is clearly having fun in the drinking song from Don Quichotte a Dulcinee. He is typically direct, yet not afraid to include a delicious slide at the mention of a fishing rod in ‘Le Martin-Pecheur’ (Histoires naturelles). Julius Drake’s warm toned playing is, as ever, a perfect foil, all captured in Hyperion’s wonderful (for CD) sound. Riches indeed. SUNDAY TIMES RECORD OF THE WEEK After outstanding recitals of Charles Ives, Samuel Barber and Schumann, the Canadian baritone and his regular pianist turn their attention to Ravel, a great but still undervalued songwriter. Their selection includes three of his finest song groups — the Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (1905-06), Histoires naturelles (1907) and the late Cervantes triptych, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. Finley is in his vocal prime (late forties) and his burnished baritone is richer and more beautiful than ever. His French, too, is excellent, even if it doesn’t have the savour of a native speaker. He captures the laid-back irony of Jules Renard’s bird and insect portraits (Histoires naturelles) to perfection: the preening, self-admiring exhibitionism of the peacock, the grotesque awkwardness and aggression of the “barnyard’s hunchback”, the guinea fowl (Drake underlines the bird’s pugilistic character with his marvelously trenchant playing) and a magical sense of wonder in his description of the angler, whose rod is mistaken for a branch by a kingfisher. If his Don Quixote sounds youthful, he nevertheless revels in the Iberian dance rhythms Ravel inherited from his Basque mother. In the Greek folk songs and a selection of four Chants populaires Finley sings with the art that conceals art — relishing but never overpointing the texts, and using a wide palette of dynamic and colour to underpin his musical insights. INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW Ravel was not, it seems, an instinctive songwriter, but rather a composer who generally wrote songs to commission. So no Fauré reaching for mélodies like a dolphin delights in water or even Debussy unable to resist the challenge of stretching his music around some of the most opaque of all late nineteenth-century French lyric poetry. (How revealing that when Ravel sets Verlaine he chooses Un Brand sommeil noir, one of the poet's darkest meditations, and turns it into a Ravelian exploration of agonized ennui, with the piano on a kind of musical treadmill.) For all that, these are songs that deserve to be better known and Roger Nichols is surely right to wonder in the thoughtful essay in the booklet that accompanies this recording why these are the 'least appreciated' of Ravel's works. Nichols separates the 26 songs here into 'folk-songs' and 'art songs', though listening to Gerald Finley and Julius Drake you sometimes feel that there is a shifting frontier between the two. The 'Chanson de cueilleuses du lentisques' (Mélodies populaires grecques No.4) has its roots in traditional Greek music, but in tone and feeling it's not so very far from the wonderful Histoires naturelles, the prosody of which scandalized some of the audience at their first performance in 1907. These are wonderful settings of prose poems by Jules Renard in which the peacock parades, a swan glides across glittering water and a kingfisher perches on a fisherman's rod. Drake relishes Ravel's iridescent piano parts, shifting imperceptibly from picture-painting - the peacock strutting his stuff- to psychological comment, with the fisherman overcome by the beauty of the kingfisher. A commission was evidently no brake on Ravel's imagination. Among his last works was Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, a trio of songs commissioned in 1932 for a film about the Knight of the Woeful Countenance with Chaliapin as Don Quixote and to be directed by George Pabst. Ravel's songs never made the final cut (Ibert proved to be a more prompt composer at coming up with the goods), but magnificently performed by Finley and Drake these grand mélodies are all the great Russian bass's loss and our gain. They are a compelling miniature drama in three acts: the full-throated heroic knight in 'Chanson romanesque', with rocking riding rhythm in the piano part; then a solemn prayer 'Chanson épique'; and finally a swaggering drinking song elegantly ironized by a teasing piano part for the right hand. Finley matches Drake song for song, the naive knight, the ardent lover and, in 'Chanson épique', a grave and gravelly voice for this most principled of heroes. Baritone and pianist are just as committed to Ravel's 'folk-songs'. Invidious, perhaps, to pick one example from so many, but 'Kaddisch', the first of two Mélodies hébraïques, is a revelation, with Finley stretching for ecstasy and finally soaring above the earthbound relentless chords in the piano part. Another commission, in 1914 from Alvina Alvi, a soprano with the St Petersburg Opera, it is a kind of proof, as is just about every track on this fine CD, that while Ravel may not have been a mélodiste by nature, he was a composer who rose to a given musical occasion with consummate artistry, conviction and originality. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH After acclaimed recordings of Barber, Ives and Schumann, baritone Gerald Finley and pianist Julius Drake pull off another success with this disc of Ravel songs. These are for the most part works of cool restraint, with passion hidden beneath a jewelled surface, and Finley’s wonderfully flexible voice achieves maximum effect with minimal means. He darkens his tone in Un Grand Sommeil noir , brightens it in Tout gai! , and in Ronsard à son âme he wisely allows the blank beauty of the music to do all the work. The highlight is the group Histoires naturelles , where Drake’s playing is a marvel of delicacy and almost gamelan-like sonorities. Telegraph rating: * * * * THE GUARDIAN Art songs can be among the most self-revealing works in any composer’s output, so it’s not surprising that Ravel, among the most private of men, wrote few of them. Those we do have show him to be something of a chameleon and a bit of a borrower, containing and hiding his emotions within folk-song arrangements, behind the formal ambiguities of 17th-century poetry or beneath the anthropomorphic fables of Histoires Naturelles. Gerald Finley and Julius Drake’s survey gathers all his major songs together. It’s a beautiful disc that startles in ways you don’t always expect. Though Ravel is often non-specific about the genders of his singers, much of this material has become the province of mezzos, so it might take you a while to acclimatise yourself to Finley’s dark, warm baritone in this music. Only the Kaddish from the Deux Mélodies Hébraïques sounds awkward sung by a man, however exquisitely Finley shapes it. Elsewhere, the poetic restraint of his singing and Drake’s playing is spellbinding. The settings of Marot and Ronsard are ravishingly done, and the mixture of irony and sadness they bring to Histoires Naturelles is exceptional. order... Histoires naturelles: Le paon - Don Quichotte à Dulcinée: Chanson à boire - Un grand sommeil noir recorded 2008 Brahms: 8 Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 57 Schumann: 4 songs from Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister, Op. 98a Frauenliebe und Leben Op. 42 (1840) ENCORE - Debussy Fantoches (from Fetes galantes) ENCORE - 'Angels ever bright and fair’ from Handel’s Theodora The Times November 22, 2008 Rick Jones The luminous mezzo voice of Hunt Lieberson is beautifully captured here at a Wigmore Hall solo recital in 1999, six years before her death from cancer at the age of 52. Her singing of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben is almost unbearably poignant, while the sense of nervous gaiety as a bride prepares for her wedding in Helft mir is tangible. The shimmer on the hanging high notes in Süsser Freund glistens like autumn leaves before they fall. The devastating bleakness in the final song, Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan, stuns the audience. Julius Drake's piano treads out the death march with ominous restraint. (Wigmore Hall Live, TS £8.99) order... Frauenliebe und Leben: Seit ich ihn gesehen recorded 2008 Tchaikovsky Songs 1. Don Juan's Serenade [2.54] 2. It was in the Early Spring [2.45] 3. At the Ball [2.39] 4. Whether the Day reigns [3.39] 5. The mild stars shone for us [3.37] 6. Only one who knows longing [3.34] 7. As over burning Embers [2.18] Musorgsky 'Songs and Dances of Death' 8. Lullaby [5.35] 9. Serenade [4.42] 10. Trepak [5.16] 11. The Field Marshall [6.20] Ned Rorem - 'War Scenes' 12. A Night Battle [5.07] 13. Specimen Case [2.22] 14. An Incident [2.03] 15. Inauguration Ball [1.50] 16. The real War will never get in the Books [3.38] 17. Announcement 18. ENCORE - Ives: Memories [3.46] 19. Announcement 20. ENCORE - Rautavvarra: Shall I compare thee [2.03] 21. Announcement 22. ENCORE - Wolseley Charles: Green Eyed Dragon [4.48] “…a really superb recital by this accomplished Canadian bass-baritone and his celebrated accompanist, Julius Drake. In recent years Gerald Finley's voice has developed more character and cutting power, and a fine dramatic edge which suits this emphatic, sometimes shocking programme very well indeed.” BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE This polished recital, recorded live at Wigmore Hall last October, is mostly taken up with Russian song. In seven works by Tchaikovsky, which include an emotionally sophisticated take on None But the Lonely Heart (here called Only One Who Knows Longing) and a beguiling performance of The Mild Stars Shone for Us, Finlay offers an extraordinary array of rich colours that inevitably turn darker for Musorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, chillingly delivered. He follows this with something American: Ned Rorem’s 1969 anti-Vietnam cycle War Scenes, declamatory settings of prose texts by Walt Whitman, making a powerful case for this still pertinent work. But darkness turns effortlessly to light with his beautifully delivered encores, pieces by Charles Ives, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Wolseley Charles. THE SUNDAY TIMES Wigmore Hall Live WHLive0025 order... Tchaikovsky: The mild stars looked down on us recorded 2008 Gerald Finley (baritone) Julius Drake (piano) Schumann Dichterliebe & other Heine settings Winner of the 2009 Gramophone Award in Best Solo Vocal category Romanzen und Balladen IV, Op 64 1 No 3a: Tragödie I 2 No 3b: Tragödie II Romanzen und Balladen II, Op 49 3 No 1: Die beiden Grenadiere Romanzen und Balladen I, Op 45 4 No 3: Abends am Strand Romanzen und Balladen II, Op 49 5 No 2: Die feindlichen Brüder Romanzen und Balladen III, Op 53 6 No 3a: Der arme Peter I 7 No 3b: Der arme Peter II 8 No 3c: Der arme Peter III 9 Belsatzar, Op 57 Myrthen, Op 25 10 No 07: Die Lotosblume 11 No 21: Was will die einsame Träne? 12 No 24: Du bist wie eine Blume Vier Gesänge, Op 142 13 No 2: Lehn’ deine Wang’ an meine Wang’ Fünf Lieder und Gesänge, Op 127 14 No 3: Es leuchtet meine Liebe 15 No 2: Dein Angesicht so lieb und schön Vier Gesänge, Op 142 16 No 4: Mein Wagen rollet langsam Dichterliebe, Op 48 17 No 01: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai 18 No 02: Aus meinen Tränen spriessen 19 No 03: Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne 20 No 04: Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ 21 No 05: Ich will meine Seele tauchen 22 No 06: Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome 23 No 07: Ich grolle nicht 24 No 08: Und wüssten’s die Blumen, die kleinen 25 No 09: Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen 26 No 10: Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen 27 No 11: Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen 28 No 12: Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen 29 No 13: Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet 30 No 14: Allnächtlich im Traume 31 No 15: Aus alten Märchen 32 No 16: Die alten, bösen Lieder Reviewed: Gramophone 11/2008, Richard Wigmore A gripping Dichterliebe: Gerald Finley seems to be sweeping the field in song now In close collusion with the ever-sentient Julius Drake, Gerald Finley gives one of the most beautifully sung and intensely experienced performances on disc of Schumann’s cycle of rapture, disillusion and tender regret. This is a Dichterliebe firmly in the past tense, the poet-lover achingly resigned from the outset. Finley sings the second song, “Aus meinen Tränen”, as if in a trance, and lingers luxuriantly, even masochistically, over the remembered “Ich liebe dich” in “Wenn ich’ in deine Augen seh’”. Yet here and elsewhere some dangerously slow tempi are vindicated by the acuity of his verbal and musical responses. Where most singers, including Christopher Maltman in his fine performance with Graham Johnson (Hyperion, 5/01), end “Im Rhein” in wistful tenderness, Finley infuses his final words with a wry bitterness. The disenchantment of “Ich grolle nicht” (where Drake evokes Cologne Cathedral with a hieratic depth of sonority) is already glimpsed. In the cycle’s latter stages Finley veers between numb reverie and acerbic – and authentically Heine-esque – self-dramatisation. The birds’ assuaging response in “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen” is magical, barely breathed, the mounting trauma of the funereal dream-song “Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet” chillingly conveyed, the dissolving vision of the penultimate “Aus alten Märchen” relived with ineffable sadness. Adding a cutting edge to his warm, mahogany baritone, Finley imbues the final song with savage irony, before the rueful, healing close. Throughout, Drake’s playing is a model of clarity and acutely observed detail (he is more attentive than most to bass-lines), epitomised in his fluid, exquisitely voiced epilogue. Singer and pianist are just as compelling in the other Heine settings here. Finley is eerily insinuating in “Mein Wagen rollet langsam” – one of four Dichterliebe discards – where Schumann’s music is in danger of sounding too ingenuous for Heine’s sinister verses; and he and Drake throw themselves into “Lehn’ deine Wang’” with an impulsive ardour I’ve never heard equalled. Finley times and colours the biblical ballad “Belsatzar” with the art of a master dramatist, gives an uncommonly – and effectively – introspective reading of “Die beiden Grenadiere” (even the opening is hushed and anxious), and spins a rapt, dulcet line in the two “flower songs”, “Die Lotosblume” and “Du bist wie eine Blume”. The church acoustic is more resonant than I find ideal for Lieder, though that hardly detracts from a glorious Schumann recital. Classic FM Magazine Acclaimed baritone Gerald Finley is both intelligent and gripping, and sings with a tone that has never sounded more luxurious. With in-the-moment honesty, he brings passion, longing, terror, love and bitterness to his interpretations, without ever losing sight of his overall emotional journey. Accompanist Julius Drake partners him with a superb sense of drama and detail' Andrew Clements The Guardian, Friday September 5 2008 Gerald Finley and Julius Drake follow a series of outstanding albums of American and English song - Ives, Barber, Stanford - with Finley's first foray on disc into the German Lied, and the results are just as impressive. There may be three-quarters of a century's great interpretations of Dichterliebe already available on disc, but Finley's stands up well against the best of them, including the series spanning a whole career from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who set the benchmark where baritone versions of this song-cycle are concerned. Finley is a much less knowing, more direct performer than Fischer-Dieskau, concentrating less on precise verbal nuance (though his German diction is wonderfully clear) than on more generalised expressive contours, but the effect is still overwhelmingly powerful. Alongside this greatest of all Schumann's song cycles, Finley lines up another 16 settings of the poetry of Heine, and brings them all to life equally vividly, whether it is the over-the-top dramatics of the ballads Die Feindlichen Brüder and Die Beiden Grenadiere, or the tragic triptych of Der Arme Peter. Metro Finley is an unforgettable communicator on a grand scale, as anyone who has seen him at one of his frequent Royal Opera appearances knows. But on this disc, he proves himself equally memorable in the more intimate arena of the Lieder recital. That his voice is luxuriously warm, even and smooth almost goes without saying … His in-the-moment honesty is matched note-for-note by pianist Julius Drake, who partners him with a superb sense of drama and detail. It's a recital which can stand comparison with the greatest Schumann recordings' International Record Review Drake's accompaniment, so important in the long, often ironic or restorative postludes to many of these songs, scarcely falters, and always sustains with senstivity Finley's bold and unaffected singing' The Sunday Times CD of the week Apart from the Op 24 Liederkreis, Finley’s first album of German lieder collects all of Schumann’s settings of Heinrich Heine, including four songs intended for Dichterliebe, but published later as Opp 127 and 142. The Canadian baritone is a little younger, at 48, than Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was when he recorded his comprehensive Schumann song survey for Deutsche Grammophon (1975-77), but, vocally, he is in his prime. He brings eloquence to the text and maturity to his interpretations, but with a still youthful-sounding voice. Darker and more “bassy” of tone than Dieskau, he is especially impressive in the sardonic and bitter songs: Die beiden Grenadiere (The Two Grenadiers), Ich grolle nicht (I Bear No Grudge), Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen - about the wedding of the poet’s beloved to another man - and the concluding Die alten, bösen Lieder (The bad old songs), in which the operatic cutting edge of his baritone, soaring gloriously at the top, brings dividends. Finley is a gripping narrator, too, in the tale of Belshazzar’s feast (Belsatzar), and can refine his voice to the most arresting of internalised confidences in the love songs to Clare Wieck (most of the music here dates from Schumann’s annus mirabilisof songwriting, 1840). Die Lotosblume, Du bist wie eine Blume, Dein Angesicht so lieb und schön and the doleful songs from Dichterliebe are delivered on a thread of tone, yet Finley, aided by his sensitive and forthright pianist, Julius Drake, never sounds mannered. Let’s hope he goes on to record the Heine and Eichendorff Liederkreise as a sequel to this outstanding disc. order... Die beiden Grenadiere - Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen recorded 2008 Katarina Karneus (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) Six poems by Henrik Ibsen’, Op 25 1 No 1: Spillemænd ‘Minstrels’ 2 No 2: En svane ‘A swan’ 3 No 3: Stambogsrim ‘Album lines’ 4 No 4: Med en vandlilje ‘With a waterlily’ 5 No 5: Borte! ‘Gone!’ 6 No 6: En fuglevise ‘A bird’s song’ Sechs Lieder, Op 48 7 No 1: Gruß ‘Leise zieht durch mein Gemüt’ 8 No 2: Dereinst, Gedanke mein 9 No 3: Lauf der Welt 10 No 4: Die verschwiegene Nachtigall 11 No 5: Zur Rosenzeit 12 No 6: Ein Traum Haugtussa ‘The mountain maid’ Op 67 13 No 1: Det syng ‘The singing’ 14 No 2: Veslemøy ‘Little maid’ 15 No 3: Blåbær-Li ‘Blueberry slopes’ 16 No 4: Møte ‘Meeting’ 17 No 5: Elsk ‘Love’ 18 No 6: Killingdans ‘Goats’ dance’ 19 No 7: Vond Dag ‘Hurtful day’ 20 No 8: Ved Gjætle-Bekken ‘By the Gjætle brook’ Hjertets melodier ‘Melodies of the heart’, Op 5 21 No 1: To brune Øjne ‘Two brown eyes’ 22 No 2: En Digters Bryst ‘A poet’s heart’ 23 No 3: Jeg elsker Dig ‘I love you’ 24 No 4: Min Tanke er et mægtigt Fjeld ‘My thoughts are like a mighty mountain’ 25 Prinsessen, EG133 Richard Wigmore, The Telegraph Grieg wrote more than 180 songs, of which only a handful, exasperatingly, remain in the repertory. Language is, of course, the source of both their greatness and their neglect. Grieg's aim was to invest the Norwegian art song with the status - national, as well as aesthetic - of the German lied. That he succeeded is borne out by every track of this beautifully programmed disc featuring Swedish mezzo Katarina Karnéus and pianist Julius Drake. We get to hear old favourites like A Swan and I Love You, in the context of the works from which they were subsequently wrenched, along with Haugtussa (The Mountain Girl), a shattering cycle. Karnéus's performances are thrillingly awash with grand passions and high voltage drama. Drake is faultless. THE GUARDIAN July 08 The lovely Op 48 songs, composed to German texts for the Wagnerian soprano Ellen Gulbranson, sometimes evoke Schumann with a Norwegian accent. Most haunting of all in its melodic and harmonic flavour is the song cycle Haugtussa ("The Mountain Girl"), in which a visionary herd-girl is jilted by her lover and, like Schubert's miller, finds solace in a watery grave. Swedish mezzo Katarina Karnéus is as eloquent and impassioned an advocate of Grieg as she was of Sibelius in her first recital for Hyperion. Her flavoursome voice can soar and flare thrillingly - say, at the nightmarish climax of Spillemænd, or the final ecstatic abandon of Ein Traum; and her darkly resinous lower register comes into its own in songs such as Borte! ("Gone!") and the anguished Goethe setting Zur Rosenzeit, where she and the ever-responsive Julius Drake vindicate their daringly slow tempo. Karnéus is a singer of natural warmth and spontaneity who possesses what Grieg called the gift of "reading between the lines" and "interpreting a half-told tale". She despatches Lauf der Welt with a nonchalant chuckle, is insinuatingly seductive in Med en vandelilje ("With a Waterlily"), and brings an intense poignancy of phrasing and colouring, with no false pathos, to the last two Haugtussa songs. A glorious disc. order... Princessen recorded 2008 Ives Songs, vol 11 Gerald Finley (baritone) Julius Drake (piano) 1. On the Counter 2. The Circus Band: 3. Two Little Flowers, and dedicated to them 4. Ilmenau 5. A Night Song 6. Down East 7. Premonitions 8. The See’r 9. Songs my mother taught me 10. In the Alley 11. Mists 12. They are there! 13. In Flanders fields 14. The South Wind 15. My native land 16. Watchman! 17. The Children’s Hour 18. Evidence 19. The World’s Wanderers 20. Slow March 21. Omens and Oracles 22. Those evening bells 23. Allegro 24. Evening 25. The Last Reader 26. To Edith 27. At the River 28. A Christmas Carol 29. The Light that is Felt 30. Romanzo, di Central Park Sarah Unwin Jones, The Times January 26, 2008 ***** Five Stars The first collection of Charles Ives’s songs by Finley marked him out as a vibrant interpreter of the American iconoclast. This second collection confirms the accolade. Ives had an eclectic palette, from the stomping, mismatched march of The Circus Band to the quiet Ilmenau, a setting of Goethe. Finley has everything and more in his darkly full-bodied voice to match the often formidable technical and expressive requirements of Ives’s songbook – reinforced by Drake’s elastic, expressive piano. There may be the merest hint of a vocal wobble, every now and then, but it’s all done in quest of interpretation. This is a must-buy album. Daily Telegraph 'This is a highly successful follow-up to Gerald Finley and Julius Drake's first Ives recital from 2005. Here there is the same sort of mix, from familiar songs such as The Circus Band and Watchman! to an early requiem for the family cat and the intriguing title song, Romanzo (di Central Park), with its obbligato violin part atmospherically played by Magnus Johnston. Finley is his usual charismatic self, at home as much in the hymnody as the parody, and he is careful not to over-sentimentalise the more homely numbers while injecting pathos into the war songs. Drake projects Ives's often complex accompaniments with clarity and style' BBC Music Magazine 'Outstandingly well sung and played, equally well recorded, and highly recommendable to all lovers of fine songs and fine singing' order... The Circus Band recorded 2007 Christian Poltera (cello) Julius Drake (piano) I. Allegro moderato 00:14:08 II. Andante tranquillo – Piu lento – Tempo I III. Presto 00:02:37 IV. Lento – Molto allegro00:06:47 Cello Sonata, Woo 47 I. Fliessend II. Schnell III. Andantino 6 Songs transcriptions (arr. for cello and piano) 3 Lieder, Op. 7: No. 3. In der Herberge No. 3. Winternacht No. 7. Nachklang No. 9. Nacht 5 Lieder, Op. 31: No. 5. Epigramm (arr. for cello and piano) Das stille Leuchten, Op. 60: No. 19. Der Reisebecher (arr. for cello and piano) order... recorded 2007 Gerald Finley (baritone) Julius Drake (piano) 1. There’s nae lark 2. The Beggar’s Song 3. In the dark pinewood 4. Three Songs, Op 2. No 3: Bessie Bobtail Hermit Songs, Op 29 5. No 01: At St Patrick’s Purgatory 6. No 02: Church Bell at Night 7. No 03: St Ita’s Vision 8. No 04: The Heavenly Banquet 9. No 05: The Crucifixion 10. No 06: Sea Snatch 11. No 07: Promiscuity 12. No 08: The Monk and his Cat 13. No 09: The Praises of God 14. No 10: The Desire for Hermitage Three Songs, Op 10 15. No 1: Rain has fallen 16. No 2: Sleep now 17. No 3: I hear an army Mélodies passagères, Op 27 18. No 1: Puisque tout passe 19. No 2: Un cygne 20. No 3: Tombeau dans un parc ‘Dors au fond de l’allée’ 21. No 4: Le clocher chante ‘Mieux qu’une tour profane’ 22. No 4: Départ ‘Mon amie, il faut que je parte’ Three Songs, Op 2 23. No 1: The Daisies 24. No 2: With rue my heart is laden Four Songs, Op 13 25. No 4: Nocturne 26. No 3: Sure on this shining night 27. Dover Beach, Op 3 (Barber) ‘The sea is calm tonight’ Gramophone Jan 2008 Recording of the Month Barber Songs A Wonderful reminder of Barber's skill as a songwriter, in ideal performances The Beggar's song. Dover Beach,Op. 3. 10 Hermit Songs,Op. 29. In the dark pinewood. Mélodies passagères,Op. 27. 3 Songs,Op. 2 - No. 1, The Daisies (wds. Stephens);No. 2, With Rue my Heart is Laden (wds. Housman);No. 3, Bessie Bobtail (wds. Stephens) 3 Songs,Op. 10. 4 Songs,Op. 13 - No. 3, Sure on this shining night (wds. Agee);No. 4, Nocturne (wds. Prokosch) There's Nae Lark. Gerald Finley bar Julius Drake pf Aronowitz Ensemble Hyperion New CD F CDA67528 (62 minutes : DDD) This is a pretty stunning achievement. At his most mellifluous and focused, Gerald Finley has beauty of tone to spare. But he is also at his most expressive – hollowing out the voice for the hopelessness of the song “Bessie Bobtail”, letting it splinter with anger at the climax of the brief, furious “Sea Snatch”. Throughout, Julius Drake proves a predictably accomplished, thoughtful partner. The pair move easily and logically from the prettiness of the very early songs through the complexities of the Hermit Songs and the pensive Mélodies passagères. The overwhelming feeling here is of idealism tainted, though never quite shattered, by war, by poverty, by human nature. Finley only gains in power, attaining at points the kind of bitter life-force so well remembered from his performance in Turnage’s anti-war opera The Silver Tassie. It’s also a canny move to place Dover Beach as the final track. It may be an early work, but the introduction of the string quartet (the excellent Aronowitz Ensemble) to close the disc shifts the mood, sending us off in another direction. It comes as a hopeful reminder of the wonder of love, even with a sting in its tail. Entirely appropriate for a bittersweet, marvellous collection. Classic FM Magazine (Dec issue) - 5 stars "Having served the songs of Charles Ives with enormous distinction, the partnership of baritone Gerald Finley and pianist Julius Drake shift artistic gear to explore works by one of America's greatest tunesmiths. Samuel Barber's lyrical writing and subtle feeling for expressive shading were matched in his songs by a Britten-like aptness for word-setting, which ideally suits Finley's compelling blend of emotional conviction and vocal flexibility. On the strength of his interpretation of the Hermit Songs alone, regardless of his majestic readings of Barber's Rilke settings and Dover Beach, Finley enables this album to command its price as one of the year's finest vocal releases. Unmissable." Andrew Stewart order... I hear an Army - There's nae a Lark recorded 2007 Songs of Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc, Peter Warlock Schubert 1. Der Wanderer 2. Wandrers Nachtlied 1 3. Rastlose Liebe 4. Wandrers Nachtlied 2 Wolf 5. Der Feuerreiter 6. Der Gartner 7. An die Geliebte 8. Fussreise 9. Der Rattenfanger Debussy 10. Romance 11. Les cloches 12. Mandoline Duparc 13. L’invitation au voyage 14. La vague et al cloche 15. Phidylé Warlock 16. The Fox 17. The Singer 18. Captain Stratton’s Fancy ENCORE 19. announcement 20. Flaners & Swann Misalliance "A tour de force of baleful intensity, in which Maltman was superbly aided by his pianist Julius Drake" The Guardian order... Schubert: Der Wanderer recorded 2007 Joyce DiDonato (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) SPANISH SONG Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Xavier Montsalvatge, Fernando J. Obradors, Gioachino Rossini 01. El Vito 02. La mi sola, Laureola 03. Al amor 04. Corazon, porque pasais ? 05. El majo celoso 06. Con amores, la mi madre 07. Del cabello mas sutil 08. Chiquitita la Novia 09. Elegia eterna- Tonadillas 10. La maja dolorosa I – Tonadillas 11. La maja dolorosa II – Tonadillas 12. La majo dolorosa III – Tonadillas 13. No lloreis, ojuelos – Canciones amatorias 14. Dedicatoria (Poema en forma de canciones – Joaquin Turina) 15. Nunca olvida 16. Cantares 17. Los dos miedos 18. las locas por amor 19. El pano moruno (Siete canciones populares espanolas- Manuel de Falla) 20. Seguidilla murciana 21. Asturiana 22. Jota 23. Nana 24. Cancion 25. Polo 26. Cuba denttro de un piano (Cinco canciones negras – Xavier Montsalvate) 27. Punto de Habanera 28. Chevere 29. Cancion de cuna para dormir a un negrito 30. Canto negro 31. Canzonetta spagnuola (Rossini) Gramophone Oct 07 DiDonato relishes the richness of her voice and spins some gorgeous, purely vocal moments in Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs. She is aided by deliciously playful accompaniment from Julius Drake. order... Obradors: Del Cabello mas sutil - Obradors: Chiquitita da Novia - Granados: Elegia Eterna recorded 2006 URLICHT GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) Christianne Stotijn (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) Des Knaben Wunderhorn and other songs 1 Frühlingsmorgen 2 Erinnerung 3 Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz 4 Der Schildwache Nachtlied 5 Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen 6 Scheiden und Meiden 7 Rheinlegendchen 8 Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? 9 Ich ging mit lust durch einen grünen Wald 10 Nicht Wiedersehen! 11 Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt 12 Urlicht 13 Das Irdische Leben 14 Um Mitternacht 15 Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen The Telegraph - Richard Wigmore 25.11.06 Christianne Stotijn here confirms the promise of her CD debut disc with an even better recital of Mahler. Her warm, rounded mezzo is a lovely instrument, marred just occasionally by an over-intrusive vibrato on high notes; and, throughout this wide-ranging collection, mainly from the Knaben Wunderhorn, songs of parted lovers and doomed soldiers, tender whimsy and religious exaltation, her characterisation is vivid and true. Stotijn is smiling and affectionate without winsomeness in those idealised Landler, Rheinlegendchen and Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht, chillingly dramatic in the anguished mother-daughter dialogue of Das Irdische Leben. Most moving of all are the two final songs, Um Mitternacht, coloured by the deep, crimson glow of her lower register, and a rapt, withdrawn Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Here and elsewhere pianist Julius Drake is wonderfully imaginative in his one-man evocations of a Mahlerian orchestra. Sunday Telegraph - Michael Kennedy 19.11.06 The young Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn proves herself an extraordinary Mahler singer with this disc of 15 Lieder. She imparts theatrical drama to the Wunderhorn songs, finding an impressive palette of tone-colour with which to illuminate the texts. She comes to each song with a freshness of approach that is as invigorating as it is unusual. There is no lack of humour in Rheinlegendchen while hte great set-pieces Urlicht, Ich bin der Welt and Um Mitternacht - are thrillingly performed, not only by the singer but by the pianist Julius Drake. This is the first recording to be made in the new Menuhin Hall at the Menuhin School, Stoke D'Abernon and the sound is splendid. One of my discs of the year, for a certainty. BBC CD Review - Hilary Finch 11.11.06 This splendid new Mahler release . [Stotijn's voice is].. sheer joy.. full of wide-eyed childlike sense of wonder. ***** Five stars Independent on Sunday - Anna Picard 30.10.2006 Christianne Stotijn's second recital disc for ONYX shows just what a difference a matter of months can make in a still developing mezzo-soprano voice. The first song in her all-Mahler programme, Fruhlingsmorgen, gives little indication of the emotional and artistic marathon ahead. Stotijn's voice - rich and suggestive, sly and sorrowful as required, with shades of Janet Baker's gravitas, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's candour, and Anne Sofie von Otter's playfulness - is tailormade for Mahler's Ruckert Lieder and Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Julius Drake's accompaniment is perfectly judged, both artists' colouration of these intensely personal songs highly sophisticated. Urlicht indeed! **** The Times - 13 October 2006 - Geoff Brown She's Dutch, in her late twenties, and with a mezzo voice this expressive, flexible, and free of faults no wonder her star is rising. After her CD debut with Schubert, Wolf and Berg she plunges into the Wunderhorn Mahler of nature's wonders, darkness and light, and soldiers trembling at midnight. The lyrical radiance of her Urlicht is typical; so is the attention to character in the narrative songs. Julius Drake's piano cradles her skilfully. ***** Five Stars BBC Music Magazine - December 2006 - David Nice Hot on the heels of the young Dutch mezzo’s debut disc – warmly welcomed by Hilary Finch in the April issue – comes a Mahler recital of astonishing range and sophistication. Go straight to ‘Rheinlegendchen’ to catch the lighter essence of Stotijn’s approach: every word is coloured and inflected with natural musicianship, but never gets in the way of line or phrasing. Her rock-solid alto range is equally adaptable to the gruff sentinel of ‘Der Schildwache Nachtlied’, an unforgettable withdrawal to a private world in the last verse of ‘Ich bin der Welt’ and the calm assurance of ‘Urlicht’ (programmed here to follow an intriguingly steady treatment of the song which, reworked as the Scherzo of the Second Symphony, also precedes its orchestral incarnation). If there’s a fault, it’s that at the top of the range the vibrato can be tight under pressure, but characterisation overcomes it in the repeated ‘ades’ of ‘Scheiden und Meiden’. Like her pianist Julius Drake – a subtle impersonator of the birds, bugles and alphorns that haunt the naïve folk world of Mahler’s youthful forays – Stotijn makes every song a gem; it helps that the composer is always himself even in the early settings. The new concert hall of the Yehudi Menuhin School, making its recorded debut, lends warm support to the subtly varied recording. order... recorded 2006 SONGS of VENICE Recorded live at Wigmore Hall, January 16 2006 JOYCE DIDONATO JULIUS DRAKE ROSSINI REGATA VENEZIANA HEAD SONGS OF VENICE FAURE CINQ CHANSONS DE VENISE HAHN VENEZIANA Such force, such lustre! Joyce DiDonato’s mezzo-soprano is very impressive … over the 66 minutes there’s enough quiet silky legato and subtle phrasing to delight lovers of the intimate. The jewel is the Venezia set by Reynaldo Hahn. And Julius Drake at the piano spins his own magic” The Times order... recorded 2005 Lynne Dawson (soprano) Julius Drake (piano) Mélodie Francais Fauré; Poulenc; Hahn; Satie; Chabrier 01. Les Chamins De L’Amour 02. Nr.8: Quand Je Fus Pris Au Pavillon 03. Nr.2: C’est Ainsi Que Tu Es 04. A Chloris 05. Nr.3: Chanson d’Ophélie 06. Nr.1: La Dame d’André 07. L’Île Heureuse 08. Hôtel 09. Nr.4: Mon Cadavre Est Doux Comme Un Gant 10. Nr.6: Hébé 11. Nr.5: Violon 12. Nr.1: Mandoline 13. Le Temps Des Lilas Et Le Temps De Roses 14. Chanson d’Amour op.27 Nr.1 15. Lamento 16. Fancy 17. Villanelle Des Petits Canards 18. Nous Voulons Une Petite Soer 19. To His Guitar 20. Aprés Un Rêve op.7 Nr.1 21. Le Rossignol Des Lilas 22. Nr.4: Voyage À Paris 23. Nr.1: Chanson d’Orkenise 24. Le Secret op.23 Nr.3 Gramophone Aug 2005 – editor’s choice – Patrick O’Connor Here isabit of surprise. And a delight. A disc from Berlin Classics of essentially Parisian songs, with – Lynne Dawson, more often associated with – the classical repertory, proving herself totally at home with music of the belle époque and the 1930s. She is accompanied by Julius Drake in splendid form. He seems to find an original way with each song, so that even something as familiar as Chabrier’s L’ule heureuse emerges fresh, and the tiny touches of rallentando and unexpected soft echo effects make one listen to the song as if for the first time. In one or two of the big, dramatic settings such as Chausson’s Le temps des lilas one might ask for a fuller sound than Dawson produces, but her feel for the texts, silvery tone and completely unfussy way with the language bring rewards in every track. Poulenc gets the lion’s share here. Three of the melodies are to poems by Louise de Vilmorin. In ‘C’est ainsi que tu es’, Drake and Dawson manage to suggest the lover whispering at ‘Voila, c’est ton portrait’, while the solemn ‘Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant’ has a definite foretaste of Carmélites. ‘Violon’ is taken very slowly, bringing out all the erotic tension. In ‘Les chemins de l’amour’ the final verse has just the right mixture of nostalgia and mystery. As for the outrageous ‘Nous voulons une petite soeur’, I suspect this is one of Julius Drake’s favourite songs; many years ago he gave an explosive performance of it with Hugues Cuénod at the Wigmore Hall. The Hahn songs are all well known, the sprightly rondel ‘Quand je fus pris au pavilion’ contrasting with the reflective A Chloris and the ecstatic Le rossignol des lilas, a poem by the enigmatic composer! writer Leopold Dauphin. Chausson’s Hébé is something of a rarity, a beautiful evocation of ancient Greece. The three Fauré songs are like episodes in a love story, two Armand Silvestre poems framing Après un réve by Romain Bussine. There are too many good things here to detail: the entire programme is a celebration of the best in French song. order... recorded 2004 Ian Bostridge (tenor) Julius Drake (piano) and the Belcea Quartet Debussy, Claude Fêtes galantes II L 104 Fauré, Gabriel La bonne chanson op. 61 Nr. 1-9 Mélodies op. 8 Nr. 1-3 Nr. 1 · Au bord de l´eau · (Prudhomme) auch instr. Mélodies op. 18 Nr. 1-3 Nr. 1 · Nell · (de Lisle) auch instr. Mélodies op. 23 Nr. 1-3 Nr. 1 · Les Berceaux · Le long du quai (Prudhomme) auch bearb. Mélodies op. 39 Nr. 1-4 Nr. 2 · Fleur jetée · Emporte ma folie (Sylvestre) Mélodies op. 46 Nr. 1-2 Nr. 2 · Clair de lune · Votre âme est un paysage choisi Mélodies op. 83 Nr. 1-2 Nr. 1 · Prison · Le ciel est Poulenc, Francis Poèmes de G. Apollinaire FP 94 Nr. 1-2 Poèmes de G. Apollinaire FP 127 Nr. 1-2 Nr. 1 · Montparnasse Poèmes de L. Aragon FP 122 Nr. 1-2 Tel jour telle nuit FP 86 Nr. 1-9 EMI Records order... recorded 2003 Alice Coote (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) Mahler: Lieder aus ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ Rheinlegendchen Nicht wiedersehen! Das irdische Leben Urlicht Haydn: Arianna a Naxos Largo e sostenuto Aria – largo Recitativo Andante Adagio Aria – larghetto Presto Brahms: Frauenliebe und -leben Op. 42 Seit ich ihn gesehen Er, der Herrlichste von allen Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben Du Ring an meinem Finger Helft mir, ihr Schwestern Süsser Freund, du blickest An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan Mahler: Rückert Lieder Liebst du um Schönheit Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft Um Mitternacht Ich bin der Welt Gramophone - Alan Blythe, Dec 2003 "Sung in idiomatic German, it is already a lovely interpretation, one to which pianist Julius Drake contributes much." EMI 2003 order... Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen recorded 2003 Annette Bartoldi (viola) Julius Drake (piano) Cello Sonata, Op. 40 (arr. for viola) I. Allegro non troppo 00:12:02 II. Allegro 00:03:09 III. Largo 00:09:01 IV. Allegro 00:04:24 Viola Sonata, Op. 147 I. Moderato 00:11:20 * II. Allegretto 00:07:32 III. Adagio 00:15:38 Naxos Records order... recorded 2002 Britten Canticles Ian Bostridge (tenor) David Daniels (counter tenor) Christopher Maltman (baritone) Julius Drake (piano) Timothy Brown (horn) Ailine Brewer (harp) CANTICLE 1: My Beloved is Mine for high voice & piano, Op. 40 with Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake CANTICLE II: Abraham and Isaac, for alto, tenor & piano, Op. 51 with David Daniels, Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake CANTICLE III:Still Falls the Rain, for tenor, horn & piano, Op. 55 with Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake, Timothy (i) Brown CANTICLE IV: The Journey of the Magi, for countertenor, tenor, baritone & piano, Op. 86 with David Daniels, Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake, Christopher Maltman CANTICLE V: The Death of St Narcissus, for tenor & harp, Op. 89 with Ian Bostridge, Aline Brewer The Plough Boy, folksong for voice & piano The Salley Gardens, for voice & piano The Foggy, Foggy Dew, for voice & piano with Julius Drake, Christopher Maltman There's None to Soothe, for voice & piano O Waly, Waly, for voice & piano with David Daniel, Julius Drake The Ash Grove, for voice & piano Greensleeves, English folk song with Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake order... Britten: Canticle 1 recorded 2002 Katarina Karneus (mezzo) Julius Drake (piano) Hyperion 2002 6 Songs,Op. 17 - To evening (1898: wds. A. V. Forsman-Koskimies) 6 Songs,Op. 36. 5 Songs,Op. 37. 6 Songs,Op. 50. Belshazzar's Feast,Op. 51 - The Jewish Girl's Song Katarina Karnéus mez Julius Drake pf Gramophone 2002/7 A superb recital of Sibelius’s unjustly neglected songs Sibelius’s songs have taken a long time to come in from the cold. After all‚ the few that are relatively well­known (Black roses and Op 37 No 5‚ ‘The Tryst’) are passionate enough to have come from Italian opera‚ and others which over the years have found a place in the repertoire have a span of phrase and a melodic surge that encourage the voice to rise thrillingly‚ as in ‘The Tryst’s’ predecessor‚ ‘Was it a dream?’. The tingle of a Nordic chill in among this is in fact a further excitement of the blood. Given a voice that can combine the sparkle of sunlight on snow with the dark splendour which lies at the heart of those black roses‚ an entire programme of Sibelius’s songs offers not an austere pleasure but almost a rich indulgence. To those specifications concerning the singer there needs then to be added others about the pianist; and from both artists there must be a ready supply of imagination. Katarina Karnéus and Julius Drake answer these calls magnificently. The voice is firm and resonant‚ purest in quality in the upper D­to­F region and of ample range in both directions. In Julius Drake she has a pianist who extends the normal field of vision‚ and the two work together to great effect. This is now an area where the record catalogue provides plenty of choice‚ and it has been good to see how well the Karnéus­Drake combination survives competition. In the opening song‚ To evening (‘Illalle’)‚ Karita Mattila‚ Soile Isokoski‚ Anne Sofie von Otter and their respective pianists come up for immediate comparison and none is half so good in ‘building’ the verses. Where Mattila‚ golden in tone as she is‚ gives the line simply as repetitions in a sequence‚ and Isokoski‚ with shading and additional refinements‚ does much the same‚ von Otter adds a freedom nearer to the spoken word‚ but still does not ‘build’. Karnéus and Drake work on it with such effective graduations of power and intensity that everything is enhanced – the vocal line‚ the piano’s tremolandos‚ words‚ mood‚ the poem­as­painting‚ the song as miniature epic. In some others – ‘Little Lasse’ in Op 37 and the remarkable ‘Tennis in Trianon’ of Op 36 are examples – von Otter and Bengt Forsberg bring a further sophistication‚ more rightfully placed in the second example than the first. I still wouldn’t hesitate to make this new issue a prime choice if looking for a single disc of 25 to represent Sibelius’ output of roughly 100 songs. Not all the best are here – but in such matters do you really want all the best? Suppose you take to them ‘in a big way’: isn’t it far more satisfying to know that some of the best still remain to be heard? order... Illalle - Var det en drom recorded 2002 Ian Bostridge (tenor) Julius Drake (piano) 01 La Belle Dame Sans Merci 02 Sleep 03 I Will Go With My Father A-ploughing 04 The Cloths Of Heaven 05 To Gratina Dancing And Singing 06 To Lucasta, On Going To The Wars 07 Twighlight Fancies 08 Orpheus With His Lute 09 Jillian Of Berry 10 Cradle Song 11 The Dance Continued 12 Linden Lea 13 Silent Noon 14 My Love’s An Arbutus 15 The Death Of Queen Jane 16 No Longer Mourn For Me 17 Since We Loved 18 The Salley Gardens 19 Rest, Sweet Nymphs 20 Come Away, Death 21 Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal 22 Bold William Taylor 23 Brigg Fair 24 The Little Turtle Dove EMI 2002 order... Browne: To Gratiana singing and dancing recorded 2001 Ian Bostridge (tenor) Julius Drake (piano) 6 Gesänge aus dem Arabischen: I. Selim und der Wind II. Die Gottesanbeterin III. Ein Sonnenaufgang IV. Cäsarion V. Fatumak Klage VI. Das Paradies 3 Auden Songs No. 1, In memoriam L.K.A. (1950-1952) (”At peace under tis mandarin, sleep”) No. 2, Rimbaud (”The nights, the railwayarches, the bad sky”) No. 3, “Lay your sleeping head, my love” EMI 2001 order... recorded 2001 Paul Agnew (tenor) Julius Drake (piano) Gurney: Severn Meadows, Hyperion 1 Epitaph in Old Mode ‘The leaves fall gently on the grass’ 2 You are my sky 3 All night under the moon 4 The folly of being comforted 5 By a bierside ‘This is a sacred city, built of marvellous earth’ 6 Severn Meadows ‘Only the wanderer knows England’s graces’ 7 In Flanders ‘I’m homesick for my hills again’ 8 Even such is time 9 Ha’nacker Mill ‘Sally is gone that was so kindly’ 10 Bread and cherries 11 Most Holy Night 12 Desire in Spring 13 Nine of the clock 14 A cradle song Five Elizabethan Songs 15 No 1: Orpheus ‘Orpheus with his lute made trees’ 16 No 2: Tears ‘Weep you now more, sad fountains’ 17 No 3: Under the greenwood tree 18 No 4: Sleep ‘Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving’ 19 No 5: Spring 20 An Epitaph 21 The fields are full 22 Down by the Salley Gardens 23 The cloths of heaven 24 The singer 25 I will go with my father a-ploughing The Independent - Anna Picard Ivor Gurney, a composer and poet who survived the First World War and returned to his studies at the Royal College of Music only to degenerate into mental illness, died in 1937 leaving a legacy of 200 songs, one of which, Sleep, has become a classic of English song. Pianist Julius Drake and tenor Paul Agnew's recital of his clever, vulnerable songs is a masterpiece of sensitivity. Drake's touch is more defined than ever; a delicate cartography of Gurney's chromaticism. And Agnew has a warm buttery tone that embraces these songs' subtle lines. A perceptive reading. order... Epitaph in the Old Mode - Sleep recorded 2001 with Ian Bostridge, EMI 2001 01 Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren D360 02 Nachtstück (Op.36, No.2)D672 03 Auf der Donau D553 04 Abendstern (Opus.posth.) D806 05 Auflösung (Opus posth.) D807 06 Geheimes (Op. 14 No.2) D719 07 Versunken D715 08 Schäfers Klagelied (Op.3, No.1) D121 09 An die Entfernte D765 10 Am Flüsse 11 Willkommen und Abschied (Op.56, No.1) D767 12 Die Götter Griechenlands D677 13 An die Leier (Op.56, No.1) D737 14 Am See (Op. posth.) D746 15 Alinde (Op.81, No.1) D904 16 Wehmut (Op.22, No.2) D772 17 Über Wildemann (Op.108, No.1) D884 18 Auf der Riesenkoppe D611 19 Sei mir gegrüsst (Op.20, No.1) D741 20 Dass sie hier gewesen (Op.59, No.1) D775 21 Der Geistertanz D494 order... Das Paradies recorded 1999 Sophie Daneman, soprano Julius Drake, piano Schumann Lieder Liederkreis op 39 from Album fur die Jungend op 79 from Myrten op 25 order... recorded 1999 with Ian Bostridge. EMI 1999 order... Schumann: Im wündershönen Monat Mai recorded 1995 Schubert Lieder order... recorded 1995 Schubert Lieder EMI Classics order... Erlkönig recorded 1994 With Nicholas Daniel Virgin 1994 order... recorded 1994 with Victoria Soames Clarinet Classics order... recorded 1987 Derek Lee Ragin, counter tenor Julius Drake, piano Henry Purcell (realised Britten) 1] Alleluia 2] Sweeter than roses 3] The Queen’s Epicedium Britten: Tit for Tat 4] A song of enchantment 5] Autumn 6] Silver 7] Vigil 8] Tit for tat Henry Purcell (realised Britten) Three Divine Hymns 9] Lord, what is man? 10] We sing to Him 11] Evening hymn Britten: Two songs from Friday afternoons Op. 7 12] Fishing song 13] A New Year carol Three British Folksongs (arr. Britten) 14] There’s none to soothe 15] Little Sir William 16] O waly waly … a perfectly placed voice of exquisite artistry, consummate good taste and commanding musicianship. In sum: an extraordinary artist. American Record Guide … Derek Lee Ragin’s thrillingly stylish rendering of Purcell’s The Queen’s Epicedium was lit by an instinctive dramatic life which makes one impatient to see him on Baroque stages in this country … The Times, London order... Purcell Alleluia - Britten New Year Carol recorded 1985 Nicholas Daniel. oboe Julius Drake, piano order... Howells Sonata, 1st movement with Ruby Philogene EMI 1997 order...