Gerald Finley - In the Stream of Life: Songs by Sibelius (2017)

As well as being one of the 20th century's supreme orchestral composers, Sibelius produced around 100 songs. Yet he wrote very little original music for voice and orchestra. The shining exception is Luonnotar, for soprano and orchestra, which is one of his greatest achievements in any genre, but nothing else in his vocal output comes close to matching that work's dramatic power and originality. As a result, the 14 songs with orchestra that bass-baritone Gerald Finley sings with the Bergen Philharmonic include just one, the rather ballad-like and melodramatic Koskenlaskijan Morsiamet (The Rapids-Rider's Bride) from 1897, that was conceived with orchestra. It s also the only song here with a text in Finnish; there are single settings of German and English, but the great majority are in Swedish, Sibelius's first language. Finley also includes three songs the composer did orchestrate himself, one a haunting setting of Shakespeare's Come Away, Death, from Twelfth Night (in Swedish), which Sibelius arranged a few months before he died in 1957. There are arrangements by others, too, but the centrepiece is The Stream of Life, a sequence of seven songs that Einojuhani Rautavaara arranged especially for Finley, who gave the first performance in Bergen in 2014. The subtle, respectful orchestrations wrap around his voice like a glove. Some of the songs are sinuously chromatic, a reminder of how close Sibelius came to Schoenberg's world in the early years of the 20th century, while others rely more heavily on the 19th-century German lieder tradition, going right back to Schubert. Finley sings them all with his usual finesse and careful shading, reserving his full power for the few genuinely climactic moments, while alongside the songs Edward Gardner and his orchestra include very fine performances of three orchestral works. There's the strings-only Romance Op 42, and two of the most strikingly original of the tone poems, Pohjola's Daughter and The Oceanides the first dark and fiercely brooding, the second buoyant and poised. They complement the songs perfectly. CD OF THE WEEK *** –Guardian, 04/01/17

TRACKLIST
01. Pohjola's Daughter, Op. 49 - Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
02. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 1. Die stille Stadt (The Quiet Town), Op. 50, No. 5 - Gerald Finley
03. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 2. Jagargossen (The Young Sportsman), Op. 13, No. 7 - Gerald Finley
04. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 3. Hjartats morgon (The Heart's Morning), Op. 13, No. 3 - Gerald Finley
05. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 4. Alven och snigeln (The River and the Snail), Op. 57, No. 1 - Gerald Finley
06. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 5. Nacken (The Elf King), Op. 57, No. 8 - Gerald Finley
07. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 6. Jag ar ett trad (The Tree), Op. 57, No. 5 - Gerald Finley
08. In the Stream of Life (Arr. E. Rautavaara): No. 7. Svarta rosor (Black Roses), Op. 36, No. 1 - Gerald Finley
09. Koskenlaskijan morsiamet (The Rapid-Rider's Brides), Op. 33 (version for voice and orchestra) - Gerald Finley
10. Romance in C Major, Op. 42 - Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
11. Hymn to Thais, the Unforgettable, JS 97 (arr. J. Jalas for voice and orchestra) - Gerald Finley
12. 6 Songs, Op. 36: No. 6. Demanten pa marssnon (The Diamond on the March Snow) (arr. I. Hellman for voice and orchestra) - Gerald Finley
13. 8 Songs, Op. 57: No. 6. Hertig Magnus (Baron Magnus) (arr. P. Helasvuo for voice and orchestra) - Gerald Finley
14. The Oceanides, Op. 73 - Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
15. 5 Songs, Op. 38: No. 2. Pa verandan vid havet (On a balcony by the sea) - Gerald Finley
16. 5 Songs, Op. 38: No. 3. I natten (In the Night) - Gerald Finley
17. Twelfth Night, Op. 60: No. 1. Kom nu hit, dod (Come Away, Death) (version for voice and orchestra) - Gerald Finley