It is not Sam who is being addressed, nor does Baillie play As time goes by; but what he does play is otherwise a formidable selection of encores indeed. Formidable, in at least two senses: firstly in the variety of the demands made on the soloist, and secondly in the demands made on the listener, the quoted 74 minutes being an astonishing duration for the encore process from anybody's point of view.
The duration does, however, allow the inclusion of some longer pieces which would not normally be held to fit the particular mould: Janacek's three-movement Pohadka is a particularly rewarding one, and Schumann's Adagio and Allegro (the horn one, which transfers readily to the cello) will also have its adherents. It certainly will in the present performance, because Baillie, with the considerable help of Peter Evans, manages to play Schumann, as well as everything else, nothing less than marvellously: a living demonstration of all that is best in cello-playing.
Thus different listeners will pick out different tracks for their own favourite encore, for somewhere every facet of cello encore-playing is shown. Cellists themselves might vote for the staccato bowing of Davidov's The fountain, others might vote for the beauty of Faure's Apres un reve reckoning that no singer (or, if you like, hardly any singer) ever sang it so beautifully as this. Even Busoni is at his most human, or made to seem so, in the probably unfamiliar Kultaselle variations.
Good, well-balanced recording, and an informative note are both on offer. Among the byways of information offered is that the English use of the French encore in this context dates from the early eighteenth century. One certainty is that in earlier days there was never such a comprehensive response to the call as this present one!'