Tribute
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Tribute
Don
Bailey,
flute
Donald Sulzen,
piano
The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
July/August 2005
...a delight from beginning to end...real musical substance...performances are impressive, enjoyable, and satisfying... Don Bailey boasts a brilliant technique and a bristling sense of excitement. Donald Sulzen is an adept and vigorous accompanist. The performance is excellent, highly charged, and exciting. The Poulenc Sonata is played brilliantly. The program is leavened by three works of lesser dimensions, each of which is performed beautifully. ~ Walter Simmons
Performance Anxiety Coach
October 23, 2007
Tribute is beautiful and interesting. Don collaborates this time with pianist Donald Sulzen. My favorite pieces on this CD were the Boulanger Nocturne which is played with the quiet yet lush romanticism it deserves, Ravel's always gorgeous Piece en forme de Habanera, and Martinu's First Sonata, which came through with great joy and energy.
New York City is so lucky that this great flutist/great person has recently moved back there. We're all lucky that these CDs are available to listen to, learn from, and enjoy.
This recording pays tribute to the long standing friendship between the performers, to composers of the 20th Century, and to great chamber music.
Donald Sulzen and I have been friends for more than twenty years. We were both graduate music students at the University of North Texas until we completed our degrees and our careers led us in separate directions – his to Europe, mine throughout the United States. We have never performed together — until now.
Before committing to the recording project, Donald and I asked ourselves whether the music world really needed another CD of flute works already on disc. What could we say that others had not, and how would we go about choosing the repertoire? After much discussion and careful consideration of our musical strengths and interests, we concluded that we could indeed add something of value to the ever growing collection of recorded music.
We chose works composed during the 20th Century. Not only does each piece stand on its own merit, but we believe the collection as a whole displays a range of compositional style and dramatic diversity that makes for an interesting and enjoyable recording.
Three days before recording the album, we performed the selections to an enthusiastic audience at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich’s Gasteig. A matching concert at The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City had been canceled with only an hour’s notice due to the power blackout on August 14, 2003. In concert settings, the repertoire proves almost too ambitious — four complete sonatas, plus interludes — but the result is a well-balanced and enjoyable program.
Repertoire includes: Poulenc's Sonata, L. Boulanger's Nocturne, Ravel's Pièce en Forme de Habanera, Gieseking's Sonatine, Martinu's First Sonata, Hoover's Kokopeli, and Muczynski's Sonata.
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His extensive concert activity includes tours through the most prestigious recital halls of Europe, the USA, South America and Japan. He has amplified his personal appearance schedule through numerous performances on radio and television and more than twenty CDs. From 1988-1994 Donald taught at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst “Mozarteum” in Salzburg. He then began instructing Lied interpretation classes at the Münchener Hochschule für Musik (1994 - 1998) and the Richard Strauss Conservatory, where he presently teaches in Munich. Currently among the artists accompanied by Donald Sulzen are such well-known names as Anna Caterina Antonacci, Laura Aikin, Julie Kaufmann, Ofelia Sala, Marilyn Schmiege, Doris Soffel, James Taylor, Thomas Cooley and the flutist Don Bailey. Since 2001 he is the official pianist of the renowned Munich Piano Trio. |
"Scherzo" from Muczynski's
Sonata for flute and piano
from Tribute (Genuin Musikproduktion Records)
