The Finley Finesse:

Baritone Gerald Finley returns to the BSO as soloist in the premiere of Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow

Click photo above (by Michael J Lutch) for performance details and a Youtube clip

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Without doubt, Canadian Gerald Finley is one of the leading baritones of his generation. Renowned for his dramatic interpretations of a vast range of repertoire, Finley recently appeared as Marcello in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. In reviewing the performance, the New York Times describes Gerald Finley as “an immensely gifted and versatile artist” who sings with “robust sound, honesty, [and] intelligence.” As he prepares to return to Boston for his fourth engagement with the BSO at the end of March, Finley shares some thoughts about the BSO’s artistry and this long-awaited collaboration with composer Peter Lieberson.

Gerald Finley remembers well his first performance with the BSO in February 1996. Having performed the work, Haydn’s The Seasons, all over Europe, he says that he “was very much looking forward to singing with the BSO for the first time. But I picked up a bug on the plane and by the third performance, I could barely sing. I remember being disappointed not to hear the orchestra very well because my ears were so blocked up!” However, there was a silver lining: “Chinese medicine and acupuncture got me through the performance and I’ve been convinced of the merits of complementary medicine ever since.”

The last time Boston audiences had the opportunity to hear Finley sing was in January 2008 when his performance in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the BSO was described by the Boston Globe as “pure-toned and eloquent.” A long-time admirer of the BSO, Finley enjoys performing with the orchestra because of its “amazing flexibility” – marked by the enormously different sounds achieved in such stylistically diverse repertoire as Haydn, Debussy, and Elgar. He adds that “the lush string sound and excellent wind playing are a joy to experience up close” – all enhanced by the beauty and remarkable acoustics of Symphony Hall.

It was at the Santa Fe Opera in 2002 when performing in Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, recounts Finley, that “I first met Peter Lieberson and his late wife, the great mezzo soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.” From the beginning, it was clear that there was a mutual interest in working together. Lieberson concurs.

Peter Lieberson and the BSO have enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration that goes back to the early 1980s when Lieberson was the youngest of 12 composers commissioned by the BSO for its centennial. At the time of the premiere of this first BSO commission, Piano Concerto (written for Peter Serkin), the longtime music critic of the Boston Globe, Richard Dyer dubbed Lieberson, “a composer who makes music talk.”  The New Yorker described the piece as a “major addition to the modern concerto repertory.” A short symphony, Drala, was commissioned by the BSO following the success of Piano Concerto.  In 1999, Red Garuda, for piano and orchestra was commissioned by the BSO and premiered with Peter Serkin as soloist. During these years, Lieberson’s reputation flourished worldwide and today he is considered to be one of the most influential composers of our time.

Described by the Los Angeles Times as “pure, guileless, timeless, transcendent, expressions of love,” and by the Washington Post as “charged with the same appreciative ripeness that pervades Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs,” Neruda Songs was co-commissioned by the BSO with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and written for Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who premiered the songs in L.A. and in Boston.  Her recording of the work with the BSO was released on the Nonesuch label in 2007.  For this deeply moving song-cycle, based on the poetry of Nobel Prize-winning Pablo Neruda, Peter Lieberson won the University of Louisville’s 2008 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

With the premiere of his fifth and latest BSO commission, Songs of Love and Sorrow, now only days away, Lieberson says that he is looking forward to hearing Finley’s interpretation of the songs and working together to bring the piece to fruition.  Songs of Love and Sorrow is also set to Neruda texts – sung from a male perspective.

As Finley set about learning the songs, he notes being immediately struck by how “melodic and lyrical they are….Peter has taken their passion and imagery and given real character to Neruda’s poetry.”  He continues, “While going through the songs very slowly with a good pianist, small things arise such as words that need to be adjusted or note values that need clarification. Peter and I will work on these during rehearsal.” Another part of the learning process is to see “how the composer emphasizes certain words and phrases through melody, harmony, and rhythm to come up with my own reaction to the ‘why has he set it like this?’ question.  If I’m baffled, I’ll ask Peter!”

When composer, singer, orchestra, and maestro finally come together, there will be three days of rehearsal for Songs of Love and Sorrow (and part of the time will be spent on the other parts of the program – Debussy’s Jeux and Schubert’s Symphony in C, The Great). “I must know the music exceedingly well,” Finley acknowledges. “Then we’ll probably rehearse by osmosis, which means orchestra and conductor hear me sing the songs for the first time, and I hear how they play – the sounds they create.  From there, we delve into our ‘artistic collaboration’ – all working together to get the best from everyone.” Although he has performed several times previously with the BSO (and sung a number of roles at the Metropolitan Opera), Finley adds “I’m delighted to say that this is the first time I have performed with Maestro Levine.  But we have said “hi” to each other at the Met!”

Gerald Finley says that he is “deeply honored to perform this new Lieberson commission with the BSO” and offers a final observation when asked how he imagines the audience will feel as they listen for the first time to Songs of Love and Sorrow:  “We all have deep love within us that waits to be touched. Peter Lieberson has offered a profoundly beautiful score to reveal the poignant beauty of these poems and that love which transcends everything else.”

Boston Symphony Orchestra audiences can choose from four performance dates (and one open rehearsal) to hear the world premiere of Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow with Gerald Finley and the BSO under the direction of James Levine.