Solo Vocal Award

Schumann
Dichterliebe and other Heine Settings
Gerald Finley (bar), Julius Drake (pf)
Hyperion CDA67676

Gerald Finley might well be considering moving into the Dorchester Hotel’s ballroom, so often does he mount its stage to pick up his latest Gramophone Award! This is a bass-baritone at the height of his powers, fully inhabiting whatever repertoire he happens to be exploring. Richard Wigmore reviewed Finley’s disc of Dichterliebe and assorted other Heine settings last November: “One of the most beautifully sung and intensely experienced performances on disc of Schumann’s cycle of rapture, disillusion and tender regret,” he wrote, going on to praise it in terms as glowing as the recording itself.