Wigmore Hall

16th June 2008

Gerald Finley is one of my favourite singers because he’s such a good communicator. I could tell a lot of what he was singing just from looking at him even though the whole recital was in German. Would never have guessed German was such a musical language as it really doesn’t sound that way in speech, but it always sounds good except in Wagner. The other Primi Divi say Gerald Finley also has really good diction, and they’re probably right. If Gerry sang a line and I was asked to repeat the line, I could probably do that even though I might not know where one word ends and the next word begins, all the sounds he made were really clear.

GF’s first two songs were by Robert Schumann, called Tragodie. It was about two lovers eloping. I liked it, but maybe it was quite low-key as an opening. After that he sang a group of songs called Die arme Peter about a guy who really likes a girl who belongs to someone else. This one was easier to get into, I thought because even if it hasn’t happened to you, you still know people who have been in Peter’s position, although luckily no-one I’ve ever known as taken it quite so badly as Peter. I thought this one was quite exciting and dramatic, maybe this would have been better for the opening songs? To end the first section, GF sang four other songs by Schumann. These didn’t seem to be connected, but they were really interesting. I did feel like it was time for some happy songs after that though!

GF returned to the stage after a short break and sang some more Schumann, Three Songs from Myrthen. They weren’t happy songs exactly, but there was still a contrast with the other songs, they seemed less violent, and no-one actually seemed to be dying. The words were a bit soppy, but GF made it sound really powerful and quite sexy really. I found the music very accessible. I’m sure I’ve heard ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’ before, it was nice to hear a song I recognised.

After that he sang 5 songs by Grieg, I wasn’t looking forward to this part because I didn’t think I liked Grieg, but they were actually all really nice songs, very tuneful and GF really put a lot of meaning into them. There were some happy songs and sad songs mixed together. I don’t know what made Grieg or GF or whoever it was decide to put these songs together, but it really worked well. The words don’t really tell a story, the individual songs do, in a really interesting cryptic way, but there’s not really a story that continues in each verse as far as I can make out, but it was almost like the music was telling a story because one verse led on from the next in a really satisfying way, and part of that was probably Grieg, but a lot of it was GF.

The last section was all Schumann again. I never really realised it before, but it probably would have been possible to do a whole recital on Schumann without making people bored with him. After all, when you go to an opera, you’ve got the same composer for the whole evening, and I don’t think any of the others have ever halfway through a Mozart opera and wished there was a bit of Puccini in the middle. Maybe the other way round, though. The programme said GF was going to sing the song called Belsazar first, but then someone came onstage and said he would be singing that last instead. But GF actually sang in the order written in the programme. That was quite confusing. Barry reminded me Belsazar would be last, so I was looking at the last page, but he started singing and Vixen was mouthing that he was singing Belsazar which was a problem because we’re not supposed to turn the pages over in the middle of a song, but to be honest, as GF is one of those singers you can’t help looking at, I forget to follow the words half the time anyway.

Belsazar was really dramatic, GF is a great storyteller, and I couldn’t help thinking it would have made a great piece to finish off with. Even though it didn’t have a happy end, it wasn’t a sad piece, it seemed very colourful in a way. Then he sang a song about two brothers fighting over a woman. Even if I hadn’t known it was about a fight, I think I’d have guessed. It was another death song, but it was very exciting. GF sang a quieter song after that called Evening By the Sea, that was a really good song too and made a bit of a contrast. The last song was Die beiden Grenadiere and it wasn’t long before I decided that even though Belsazar was brilliant, this made an even better ending piece. It could have been quite a gloomy song, but it was actually quite stirring, and the audience gave GF a big cheer at the end of it all.

The encore was in German. The pianist Julius Drake announced it, I really should have talked about him more because he was great, he and GF fitted so well together as performers it was almost like he wasn’t an accompanist, they were performing together. The encore was Ich grolle nicht by Charles Ives, JD said it had the same text as a much better-known song by Schumann, but I have to say I don’t know the Schumann at all but I know the Ives song really well. I’ve listened to an Ives CD, some of his songs are very strange and you need to listen to them lots of times in order to understand where he’s coming from, but Ich grolle nicht is lovely and makes a really good introduction to his music.

Madam Caterpillar

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