Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA67644

They are there!

First line:
There's a time in many a life
composer
1917; revised 1942
author of text

Gerald Finley (baritone), Magnus Johnston (violin), Julius Drake (piano)
Recording details: February 2007
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: February 2008
Total duration: 2 minutes 53 seconds

Cover artwork: Early Spring Afternoon, Central Park (1911). Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925)
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘Outstandingly well sung and played, equally well recorded, and highly recommendable to all lovers of fine songs and fine singing’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘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’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘The programme has been selected and sequenced with care … the booklet includes not just texts but also comments by Calum MacDonald about every single song. Hyperion always gets these things right; even the cover art is a bull's-eye. Finley and Drake give no cause for complaint either … the engineers have done their work well. Finley and Drake are perfectly balanced and they perofrm in an environment of intimate warmth’ (International Record Review)

‘Finley is a wonderfully assured interpreter … perfectly registering their switchback changes of mood and presenting their occasional lapses into sentimentality with total conviction. More than any other performers on disc, Finley and Drake establish these songs, with all their quirks and flights of fantasy, among the most important of the 20th century in any language’ (The Guardian)

‘Gerald 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 … this is a must-buy album’ (The Times)

‘The variety of songs recorded here is extraordinary … Gerald Finley's warm baritone sits right inside Ives's soundworld, while Drake refuses to be fazed by the idealistic piano writing’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Listening to a collection such as this reveals genuine delights of phrase and harmony. These are, by and large, not songs for 'showy' singers, yet several of the numbers more citational of popular song do demand some verbal panache, which the Canadian bass-baritone can certainly supply, along with fine-honed dynamic control and a warm, solidly delineated tone … Drake, very sensitive as to tempo and mood, proves willing to haul out the trombones when needed’ (Opera News)

‘It's the best kind of fun. The astonishing range Ives exhibits in the 30 songs on the disc—some comic, others serious—is astonishing. Finley, in even better voice than on the Barber CD, and Drake, relishing Ives' complexities, dig deep into them all’ (Bay Area Reporter, USA)

‘Gerald Finley's second disc of Ives songs is every bit as wonderful as the first. Finley is the perfect song recitalist … he can sound dreamy, tender, raucous, heroic, and serene, all without ever disfiguring his timbre or letting the pitch waver. Julius Drake offers accompaniments that are as perfect and knowing as the singing, and the engineering couldn't be better … this is magnificent—vocal recitals don't come any better’ (Classics Today)
When the USA entered the Great War in 1917, Ives wrote a number of ‘war songs’. The barnstorming They are There! (subtitled Fighting for the People’s New Free World) is composed to a text of his own. (Strictly speaking, in 1917 the song was He is There!: They are There! is the revision Ives made of it in 1942 for use in World War 2.) This is a quick march in 4/4 time, and over a dozen patriotic songs are quoted in the piano part and voice, including The Battle Cry of Freedom, The Star-Spangled Banner and Reveille. For all his pacificism, Ives was pugnacious in his defence of democracy, which shines through in his own privately recorded performance of this song, singing to his own accompaniment.

from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2008

Quand les États-Unis entrèrent dans la Grande Guerre, en 1917, Ives écrivit plusieurs «chants de guerre». They are there! («Ils sont là», sous-titré Fighting for the People’s New Free World) se fonde sur un texte de son cru. (À strictement parler, la mélodie de 1917 s’intitulait He is there!; They are there! est la révision qu’Ives en fit en 1942, dans l’optique de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.) C’est une marche rapide, à 4/4, qui cite une bonne douzaine de chants patriotiques (piano et voix), notamment The Battle Cry of Freedom, The Star-Spangled Banner et Reveille. Malgré tout son pacifisme, Ives défendit avec pugnacité la démocratie, comme l’atteste un enregistrement privé sur lequel on l’entend chanter cette mélodie en s’accompagnant au piano.

extrait des notes rédigées par Calum MacDonald © 2008
Français: Hypérion

Als die USA 1917 in den Ersten Weltkrieg eintraten, schrieb Ives eine Anzahl von „Kriegsliedern“. Das mitreißende They are there! (mit dem Untertitel Fighting for the People’s New Free World) ist auf einen seiner eigenen Texte komponiert. (Genau genommen hieß das Lied 1917 He is there!They are there! ist die Revision, die Ives zum Gebrauch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs machte.) Es ist ein Schnellmarsch im 4/4-Takt, und in der Klavier- und Singstimme werden über ein Dutzend patriotischer Lieder zitiert, darunter The Battle Cry of Freedom, The Star-Spangled Banner und Reveille. Trotz all seines Pazifismus’ verteidigte Ives die Demokratie kampflustig, was in seiner eigenen Privataufnahme dieses Liedes durchscheint, in der er selbst zu seiner eigenen Begleitung sang.

aus dem Begleittext von Calum MacDonald © 2008
Deutsch: Renate Wendel

Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...