It’s easy to forget that tank-top wearing “techno-acoustic
\nfusion” artist Vanessa-Mae was a certifiable child prodigy a la
\nSarah Chang before the days of shoving an electric violin into your
\nface. In her new series of classical albums, three so far, she goes
\nback to a familiar territory of timeless pieces, backed by one or
\ntwo techno-acoustic tracks to boost commercial interest.<\/p>\n
This one is the first and arguably the best.
\nChina Girl – Classical Album 2<\/i> was marred by a conceptually
\nintriguing but ultimately passionless violin arrangement of
\nPuccini’s “Turandot” (so who was it that said the violin was the
\nclosest instrument to the human voice?).
\nThe Original Four Seasons – Classical Album 3<\/i> included a
\nnondescript cover of the well-known classic (unless you’re a
\nVivaldi afficionado; I’m not) and a very, very bad techno-acoustic
\nfusion track.<\/p>\n
But back to the beginning. By some coincidence all the composers
\nfeatured are German; Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Max Brunch. Music
\nfrom right between the Baroque and Romantic periods so the styles
\nlean more towards the technical, which may be all the better for
\nVanessa-Mae who isn’t too big on Pearlman-like bleeding. The
\nexception is “Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra Op. 46”, a
\nromantic fantasia which deftly weaves several Scottish folk
\nmelodies into a full-blown, cinematic violin suite.<\/p>\n
Bach’s “Partita Number Three in E for Solo Violin” is done with
\na light bow and not a hint of wavering from the original notation.
\nEvery horsehair (and catgut) is in place without being too obvious,
\njust as it’s supposed to be. Which is more or less the same for
\nBrahms’ “Scherzo in C Minor for Violin and Piano” and Beethoven’s
\n“Romance Number Two in F for Violin and Orchestra Op.50”, done
\nwithout overdramatic aggression or gargantuan arrangements. Overall
\nthe sound is cerebral and pleasing like the end of a well-taught
\ncalculus lesson.<\/p>\n
But the vibrato and soaring low strings are let loose for
\n“Scottish Fantasy”, which brings some beautiful Celtic melodies to
\nanother level of clarity and brilliance. Vanessa-Mae converses
\nbeautifully with the orchestra to make a world-building sound
\nsomewhat like Dvorak’s “New World” symphony.<\/p>\n
The featured techno-acoustic fusion track is “I’m a Doun for
\nLack O’Johnnie (A Little Scottish Fantasy)”, the best one she’s
\never done. Instead of frantic fiddling fixed on a mindless
\nelectronic beat like most of her pop efforts, “I’m a Doun” is the
\nsynthesis of a simple but heartbreaking Celtic tune with soulful
\nAfrican voices and drums bringing to mind the exotic places a loved
\none has left for. It somehow sounds better following Brunch’s
\nprofound arrangement than it does on her pop album
\nStorm<\/i>.<\/p>\n
If you’ve never liked classical music, this album isn’t right
\nfor you. It isn’t overtly crossover as the arrangements are largely
\ntraditional and there’s only one pop track. But if you should ever
\ndecide to try violin music, this is the album to take an evening
\noff with to draw the blinds. Almost as good as calculus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5657],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38764","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-vanessa-mae","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38764"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}