Search - et al Francois Francoeur (Composer) :: Zuill Bailey

Zuill Bailey is an extraordinarily talented up-and-coming young cellist. For this impressive debut recording, he has chosen an adventurous wide-ranging program well designed to display his brilliant virtuosity, his warm, pure, variable tone, his noble expressiveness and his fiery, unbridled temperament. Indeed, it must be his headlong impetuosity that tempts him to tear off all final notes with a violent accent. In the rarely-heard Francoeur Sonata, the slow movements sing in long, sustained phrases; the fast movements, taken at hair-raising speeds, burst with unrestrained exuberance. Splendidly partnered by pianist Simone Dinnerstein, Bailey brings out the grace, humor and delicacy of Beethoven's popular "Variations on a Theme by Mozart," and the romantic ardor and flashes of brilliance of Mendelssohn's "Variations concertantes." Chopin's "Introduction and Polonaise" was originally a bravura piano piece with a back-up cello, but various cellists have made "revisions" annexing the lion's share of the fireworks. The performance seems the last word in all-out reckless virtuosity, but is surpassed by that of Bailey's own transcription of Vieuxtemp's "Souvenir d'Amerique," originally for violin. A set of variations on "Yankee Doodle," it exploits every imaginable, and some unimaginable, technical tricks, tossed off with gleeful abandon; however, the piece ultimately sounds like its own parody. Bach's unaccompanied Suite No. 1 is least successful: over-phrased, broken up by too many accents, ritards and stops; besides, it sounds a bit rough, as if it had been too closely miked, a suspicion confirmed by very audible breathing. --Edith Eisler