Gerald Finley, Julius Drake - Ravel: Songs (2009)

The award-winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake continues their musical explorartions with this beautiful and thought-provoking disc. Finley's lustrous tones, extraordinary gift for characterization, and direct, unaffected utterance make him an ideal and revelatory performer of Ravel's songs. These works, somewhat under-appreciated in the composer's oeuvre, demonstrate the endless variety and vast emotional scope of Ravel's musical sphere. Charming folk-song settings contrast with the almost surrealist world of Histoires naturelles, which caused outrage at its first performance. In the words of Roger Nichols, who provides the fascinating booklet notes, From the sepulchral gloom of 'Un grand sommeil noir' to the final exclamation ' Je bois/ A la joie,' Ravel's songs embrace a whole world.