Some Other Time: Music for Cello and Piano

Some Other Time: Music for Cello and Piano performed by Zuill Bailey (cello) and Lara Downes (piano)... Steinway & Sons label, catalog number 30025 

Simply put, there are no sufficient adjectives to describe this album: If you want to call it perfect, that might be the best description...

Here we have not only a CD of 20th Century American music, but also one where we could call it Lenny and Friends and Sam Barber, music (obviously) of Leonard Bernstein, his friend Lukas Foss (from their days as students at Curtis and Tanglewood) and Bernstein's friend and mentor Aaron Copland. Samuel Barber was at Curtis before both Bernstein and Foss but was with them at Tanglewood, as was Copland.

I've been a fan of Zuill Bailey for years, ever since his debut album on EMI. After listening to it, I suggested it as one of our Hot Picks of the Week at WQXR, and everyone in the Programming Department immediately agreed, and so it was. Lara Downes is an extremely talented pianist whose solo CD Exile's Cafe was my introduction to her musicianship, and I would have suggested THAT CD for a Hot Pick. If I were at WQXR right now, I'd not only suggest Some Other Time as a Hot Pick but insist upon it. It's more than that good...it's exceptional, and other radio stations have agreed with me!
This is a very well thought out program: The first three tracks are by Leonard Bernstein: Dream With Me from Peter Pan, Some Other Time from On the Town (and title track), and In Our Time, a recently published composition that, as Ms. Downes explains in the notes, a trunk song. Trunk songs were written by composers and basically thrown into a trunk, to be pulled out for a musical when another song was needed. This alone is a BEAUTIFUL find on this album, and I only hope that Zuill and Lara find more of these songs by Bernstein in a future album.

The Barber Cello Sonata follows, and after the Sonata a transcription of Barber's song Sure on this Shining Night. The Sonata is a total change of pace from the three Bernstein selections. Written just after the Overture to the School for Scandal, the Cello Sonata has that same emotional impact: Just listen to the Adagio/Presto second movement, where the lyric Adagio sections are just breath-taking (as well as Sure on this Shining Night which follows) and the Presto shimmers. I can't think of a better performance than this one, no disrespect to Leonard Rose, Matt Haimovitz or Alan Stapansky.

After the Barber comes two works by Leonard Bernstein's close friend Lukas Foss. The first work is the For Lenny, Variations on New York, New York. Foss combines this music from On the Town with a habanera (West Side Story as Lara Downes suggests in the notes?) and jazz/honky tonk in an effective little tribute. The Capriccio for Cello and Piano follows with Foss at his wittiest, writing in effect an encore work in different moods and styles brought off to maximum effect by Mr. Bailey and Ms. Downes. A work that's so much fun that it should be included as an encore for any cello recital!

Back to Lenny for one of two solo piano works on this recording, the Anniversary No. 2, for Lukas Foss. This Anniversary, along with the shorter Anniversary No 1, for Aaron Copland, are exquisite miniatures and Ms. Downs captures the nuances of the two composers very well.

Zuill Bailey arranged Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. The Sonata, according to the notes by Ms. Downes, was Bernstein's first published work and was premiered by clarinetist David Glazer and pianist Leonard Bernstein. Even though the work was written in 1941-42, there are many characteristics of Bernstein to come: The lyricism, the odd meters, hints of New York, New York from On the Town, the dance rhythms, yes, some cantabile sections that might show up in West Side Story, masterworks to come. Yet another wonderful performance! 

Rounding out the program are two of Copland's Old American Songs: First, the Simple Gifts, upon which the bulk of Appalachian Spring is drawn, followed by Long Time Ago. Words cannot describe the way these two songs are played, you have to hear them yourself, especially the Long Time Ago with a melancholy of 19th century America. Simple Gifts is, simply, played so gently and so beautifully. 

Balances are always excellect; musicianship, what can one say except phenomenal? Maybe as close to being as perfect recording as you're ever going to find. I can't get enough of the Simple Gifts, the two Foss works, the Sure on this Shining Night and Lenny's 3 excerpts from his musicals. What are YOUR favorites? Betcha you keep listening as I do and find more and more depth!!! If you have a dad or grad you'd like to buy this for, or would like to have as your own what many radio stations are promoting as THEIR hot pick, go to http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?ordertag=Perfrecom74309-1184130&album_id=1187746&source=VENEZ    

Donald Venezia, June 7, 2014