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Track(s) taken from CDA67516

'1, 2, 3'

First line:
Why doesn’t one, two, three
composer
author of text

Gerald Finley (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)
Recording details: November 2004
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: September 2005
Total duration: 0 minutes 31 seconds
 

Reviews

‘Finley is always essentially a singer—his tone and command of the singing line are a pleasure in themselves. But he also has the absolute mastery of the composer's idioms and, with Julius Drake, his fearless and totally committed pianist, the technical, virtuosic skills to realise his intentions with (amid all the quirks) complete conviction of naturalness’ (Gramophone)

‘I cannot praise Gerald Finley’s performance too highly. It takes a very special artist to bring such unembarrassed fervour to General Booth Enters into Heaven and to encompass all its extraordinary changes of mood. What a contrast with the intimate and poetic setting of his own words in Berceuse and the magical Tom Sails Away. The whole disc is a revelation of beauty and owes much to Julius Drake’s equally perceptive playing of the piano accompaniments’ (The Sunday Telegraph)

‘Outstanding. Gerald Finley has a voice of great beauty, but it's always under the control of his penetrating intelligence: he risks bending pitches for expressive effect, and he adapts his golden timbre and almost English diction to the childlike tones of The Greatest Man and the cowboy drawl of Charlie Rutlage. Julius Drake is an equally versatile pianist, adept alike in simplicity and complexity … overall, a disc offering sustained illumination and enjoyment’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘This range calls for a voice of great flexibility, which Finley exhibits in singing that at will can be wickedly humorous, touchingly heartfelt or transcendentally awed. Julius Drake is an ever resourceful accompanist, matching Finley's ability to span Ives's breadth from Victorian ballad style to polytonal modernism’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Gerald Finley and his accompanist Julius Drake are fully able to convey the expressive range of these songs … Finley brings an refreshing refinement to many of these songs, and always cleans his boots thoroughly after tramping around in the great Ivesian outdoors’ (International Record Review)

‘Listening to this disc is like walking into the perfect bookshop; with reams and reams of unusual volumes to leaf through at leisure, and no one to disturb you … Finley's singing is communicative, assured and colourful, Drake's playing neat and proper. Absolutely brilliant’ (The Independent on Sunday)

‘Gerald Finley's magnificent, burnished baritone is the ideal instrument for the generous selection presented here … the Canadian baritone's superb diction in three languages is an especial pleasure. A triumph’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Gerald Finley and Julius Drake flourish in Ives's complex, often contradictory, never dull musical world. Listen to Swimmers and the extraordinary General William Booth, and I swear you'll be hooked’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Gerald Finley, Julius Drake, and Hyperion here give us the best-ever male-voice selection from one of the most astonishing volumes in vocal history … we ordinary citizens have the right to hear the whole Ives songbook, from these artists. So don't stop now, Hyperion’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘The perfect match of singer to song’ (Financial Times)

‘Brilliantly sung by Canadian baritone Gerald Finley, it has become the gold standard by which all future recordings of these pieces will be measured. Finley meets the daunting vocal and dramatic challenges with total commitment and superb musicianship’ (The Scene Musicale, Canada)

‘Ives, an insurance man for whom composing was an avocation, deserves wider recognition as one of the art-song greats. It's flawless, arresting performances like Finley's — and his supremely elegant accompanist, pianist Julius Drake — that will help make this happen’ (Toronto Star, Canada)

‘As the program unfolds, there's always what you're not expecting next—moments of piety or exultation, sarcasm or simple grief. When you're done, you've heard one of the most stimulating and provocative of song recitals, as well as one of the most varied and difficult’ (Opera News)

‘Gerald Finley's ebony-rich voice and lively imagination gets a workout in this wide-ranging program … Finley is superb throughout, with alert support from Julius Drake’ (Time Out)

‘Baritone Gerald Finley combines a glorious sound with great dramatic instinct. At the climax of General William Booth Enters Heaven, you feel he's holding nothing back. But his voice has an exquisite lightness too, and the moments of lyrical ecstasy are beautifully handled. With some great accompanying from Julius Drake, it's a disc crammed with colour and variety’ (Metro)
‘1, 2, 3’ (1921) seems to have originated in a 1906 ‘take-off’ for chamber orchestra, entitled Rube trying to walk 2 and 3!!. ‘Written as a joke, and sounds like one! … at 2.45 A.M.’, Ives wrote on the sketch. This music became the basis of his scherzo Over the Pavements, and in 1921 he adapted it for voice and piano in 114 Songs. In this rhythmic and metric study of two-against-three, the 3/8 time signature is continually subverted by the two-quaver figures in the bass, which tend to walk all over the bar lines. (The song might be regarded as a comic counterpart to Walking.)

from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2005

À l’origine, ‘1, 2, 3’ (1921) semble avoir été une «caricature» pour orchestre de chambre intitulée Rube trying to walk 2 and 3!! [«Le péquenot essayant de marcher 2 et 3!!»]. «Écrite comme une blague, et elle en a bien l’air! … à 2 heures 45 du matin», nota Ives sur l’esquisse. Après en avoir fait la base de son scherzo Over the Pavements, il l’adapta, en 1921, pour voix et piano dans 114 Songs. Cette étude rythmique et métrique du deux-contre-trois voit le signe de la mesure à 3/8 constamment subverti par les figures de deux croches à la basse, qui tendent à marcher sur les barres de mesure. (Cette musique peut être regardée comme le pendant comique de Walking.)

extrait des notes rédigées par Calum MacDonald © 2005
Français: Hypérion

„1, 2, 3“ (1921) scheint 1906 als eine „Parodie“ für Kammerorchester entstanden zu sein und hieß damals Rube trying to walk 2 and 3!! [„Rube versucht, 2 und 3 zu gehen!!“]. „Als ein Scherz geschrieben, und klingt auch wie einer! … 2.45 Uhr am Morgen“, schrieb Ives auf das Skizzenpapier. Diese Musik bildete die Grundlage für Ives’ Scherzo Over the Pavements [„Über die Bürgersteige“]. 1921 verwandelte der Komponist das Scherzo in ein Lied für Gesangsstimme und Klavier, das er seinen 114 Songs beifügte. In dieser rhythmisch-metrischen Studie, in der ein Zweier- gegen ein Dreiermetrum läuft, wird der 3/8-tel Takt ständig durch Zweiachtelgesten im Bass untergraben, die sich nicht um die Taktstriche zu kümmern scheinen. (Man könnte das Lied als ein komisches Gegenstück zu Walking interpretieren.)

aus dem Begleittext von Calum MacDonald © 2005
Deutsch: Elke Hockings

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