Barber - Songs - Hyperion: CDA67528 - CD or download

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As on his 2005 Ives collection, the Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is golden in tone, persuasive in phrasing, and unfailingly responsive to the sound and sense of the words. Julius Drake once... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Oct 2007
Catalogue No: CDA67528
Label: Hyperion
Length: 62 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

December 2007

Choral & Song Choice
Gramophone Magazine

January 2008

Disc of the Month
Gramophone Awards

2008

Winner - Solo Vocal

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Barber: There's Nae Lark

Work length1:40

$1.10

$1.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

Barber: The Beggar's Song

Work length2:12

$1.10

$1.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

Barber: In the Dark Pinewood

Work length2:00

$1.10

$1.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

Barber: Three Songs, Op. 2

Work length2:59

$1.10

$1.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

III. Bessie Bobtail

Track length2:59

$1.10

$1.50

Barber: Hermit Songs, Op. 29

Work length19:00

$11.00

$15.00

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

I. At St Patrick's Purgatory

Track length1:31

$1.10

$1.50

II. Church Bell at Night

Track length1:03

$1.10

$1.50

III. St Ita's Vision

Track length3:31

$1.10

$1.50

IV. The Heavenly Banquet

Track length1:26

$1.10

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V. The Crucifixion

Track length2:28

$1.10

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VI. Sea Snatch

Track length0:42

$1.10

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VII. Promiscuity

Track length0:38

$1.10

$1.50

VIII. The Monk and his Cat

Track length2:50

$1.10

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IX. The Praises of God

Track length1:02

$1.10

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X. The Desire for Hermitage

Track length3:49

$1.10

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Barber: Three Songs, Op. 10

Work length7:38

$3.30

$4.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

I. Rain has fallen

Track length2:28

$1.10

$1.50

II. Sleep now

Track length2:36

$1.10

$1.50

III. I hear an army

Track length2:34

$1.10

$1.50

Barber: Mélodies passagères (5), Op. 27

Work length9:46

$5.50

$7.50

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

I. Puisque tout passe

Track length1:29

$1.10

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II. Un cygne

Track length2:40

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III. Tombeau dans un parc

Track length2:08

$1.10

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IV. Le clocher chante

Track length1:25

$1.10

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V. Départ

Track length2:04

$1.10

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Barber: Three Songs, Op. 2

Work length2:24

$2.20

$3.00

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

I. The Daisies

Track length1:07

$1.10

$1.50

II. With rue my heart is laden

Track length1:17

$1.10

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Excerpt, Barber: Four Songs, Op. 13

Work length6:12

$2.20

$3.00

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

IV. Nocturne

Track length3:26

$1.10

$1.50

III. Sure on this shining night

Track length2:46

$1.10

$1.50

Barber: Dover Beach, Op. 3

Work length8:11

$1.10

$1.50

Gerald Finley (baritone)
The Aronowitz Ensemble

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Favourites, Samuel Barber

David listens to some great recordings of Samuel Barber, one of the finest American composers of the Twentieth Century.

The wonderful Gerald Finley, described recently as the best living baritone currently at the peak of his powers (The Globe and Mail), brings his glorious sound and great dramatic instinct to this fascinating selection of songs, sensitively accompanied by Julius Drake. Barbers songs are among his greatest musical achievements, demonstrating above all his sustained lyric impulse and graceful melodic writing. Another aspect was his well-developed literary taste. He unfailingly selected texts of high quality, including English Georgian poets, Irish bards, the French Symbolists and poets writing in English who were affected by them, such as James Joyce, as well as some of his own American contemporaries. Throughout his song output, he found ways of embodying the poets thought in musical correlatives that were never merely decorative, and developed an instinctive knack for embodying words in a memorable vocal shape. Presented here are a range of early and later songs including Barbers first success for voice, Dover Beach, which the composer sang on its first recording in 1935.

The wonderful Gerald Finley, described recently as ‘the best living baritone currently at the peak of his powers’ (The Globe and Mail), brings his ‘glorious sound and great dramatic instinct’ to this fascinating selection of songs, sensitively accompanied by Julius Drake.

Reviews

December 2007

As on his 2005 Ives collection, the Canadian baritone Gerald Finley is golden in tone, persuasive in phrasing, and unfailingly responsive to the sound and sense of the words. Julius Drake once more proves a strong and imaginative partner, and a quartet from the Aronowitz Ensemble makes a promising recording debut.

2010

Performances of this calibre emphasise Barber's stature in the mainstream of 20th-century song composers. The tradition is Anglo-American and There's nae lark, written when Barber was 16 to a poem by Swinburne in imitation Scots, could even be by Quilter.
But Barber soon gets into his stride and by the time he reached his Three Songs, Op 10, there's a rare kind of intensity as impressive as anything on this CD. The poems are from James Joyce's Chamber Music; Barber set a few more, such as Inthe dark pinewood included here; but what a tragedy he never set the whole cycle that could have been an American Winterreise. The Hermit Songs, fey and whimsically amusing, are probably the best-known set.
'Sure on the shining shore' is vintage Barber, and Finley and Drake are impeccable (as are the Aronowitz Quartet in Dover Beach). The French songs, to poems by Rilke, who did write in French, have less character, but the single songs are all gems. An outstanding release.

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.
It’s a canny move
to place Dover Beach
as the final track. The introduction of the string quartet 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.

Janurary 2008

Performances of this calibre emphasise Barber's stature in the mainstream… The immediate comparison is with the Gramophone Award-winning Thomas Hampson… Most I prefer Finley, and the recording is warmer.

Barber - Songs

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Favourites, Samuel Barber

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