Charles Ives

The song recital recorded here brings together five composers of vastly different persuasions. Ives, the inspired maverick, the first composer who captured the "feel" of America in music; Weill, who began life composing important "classical" scores and spent the last ten years of his life writing for movies and Broadway; Rachmaninoff, whose piano concerti and symphonies are known the world over; Strauss, Germany's last all-around genius; and Hugo Wolf, the only one among the five who devoted himself to song, to the exclusion of almost everything else. This recording was made early in Dawn Upshaw’s career after she took the First Prize of the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Vocal Competition. Since then she has performed all over the world in works from Mozart to Messiaen, on both the opera and concert stage. She has championed contemporary music, giving first performances of over 25 works in the last decade. She has made over 50 recordings and won 4 Grammys.

Considering that Ives lived to be 80 years old the period during which he was most active as one of the most innovative of American composers was remarkably short. His earliest works date from the mid-1890s and by 1930 he was virtually silent.

This late inactivity was possibly engendered by the fact that his works were largely ignored during his lifetime and it wasn't until the mid-1960s that his music gained any kind of recognition. By then he had been dead for ten years.

This is the second Ives disc in this series and the programme here comprises some of Ives's instrumental and vocal music.

Charles Ives wrote almost two hundred songs. Although his reputation rests on orchestral, chamber and piano music, it is Ives's songs that represent the heart of his creative thinking.

The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives’s songwriting is analogous to the wider evolution of American music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This new edition includes all the songs that Ives completed. The alphabetic approach ensures that each volume contains a representative cross-section. This is the sixth and final volume.

Gerald Finley writes: “It is with great sense of pride that this disc becomes the 25th release of the Wigmore Live series, in a musical partnership I have enjoyed for many years with Julius Drake. Performing at the Wigmore is always a highlight of any career. The others in the series are distinguished performers I have admired for years and the performances are wonderful. The audiences at the Wigmore are always welcoming and knowledgeable, and this atmosphere is captured perfectly. Already a fine catalogue, I hope the Wigmore Live series continues its honour roll”

Critically praised for his performances both on stage and in concert, this recital of American and Russian song by Gerald Finley offers listeners the rare opportunity to hear one of today’s most in-demand baritones within the beautiful, intimate setting of the Wigmore Hall.

After a recital at Carnegie Hall in March, 2007, Finley was praised by New York Times critic Bernard Holland as having a "bass-baritone of easy luxury" and that his "sensibilities begin with the pre-eminence of words."

His recording of Stanford's Songs of the Sea and Songs of the Fleet with Richard Hickox and the BBC NOW for Chandos received the Editor's Choice Award at the 2006 Classic FM Gramophone Awards.

Press acclaim for Gerald Finley & Julius Drake at Wigmore Hall

“Gerald Finley is one of the few baritones before the public today with whom it's virtually impossible to find fault” Music OMH

“No other baritone can touch him for declamatory expressiveness” The Independent

“Finley and Drake paced them all tactfully, precisely mediating between relaxed storytelling and rapt introspection. Here was very fine singing of truly great songs” The Guardian

“For my money this inspired pianist is now the best in the business” New York Magazine

Charles Ives wrote almost two hundred songs. Although his reputation rests on orchestral, chamber and piano music, it is Ives's songs that represent the heart of his creative thinking.

The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives’s songwriting is analogous to the wider evolution of American music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This new edition includes all the songs that Ives completed. The alphabetic approach ensures that each volume (of which this disc is the fourth of six) contains a representative cross-section

“These songs, with all their quirks and flights of fantasy, [are] among the most important of the 20th century in any language.” The Guardian

Charles Ives wrote almost two hundred songs. Although his reputation rests on orchestral, chamber and piano music, it is Ives's songs that represent the heart of his creative thinking.

The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives’s songwriting is analogous to the wider evolution of American music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This new edition includes all the songs that Ives completed. The alphabetic approach ensures that each volume (of which this disc is the fourth of six) contains a representative cross-section.

“These songs, with all their quirks and flights of fantasy, [are] among the most important of the 20th century in any language.” The Guardian

Charles Ives wrote almost two hundred songs. Although his reputation rests on orchestral, chamber and piano music, it is Ives's songs that represent the heart of his creative thinking.

The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives’s songwriting is analogous to the wider evolution of American music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This new edition includes all the songs that Ives completed. The alphabetic approach ensures that each volume (of which this disc is the first of six) contains a representative cross-section.