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