Vanessa-Mae The Violin Player Review
Vanessa-Mae, vehemently opposed to any "compartmentalising of music", describes the material on this album as "techno-acoustic fusion". As far as instrumentation and recording techniques go, that's a pretty fair description. But when the subtitle is "The Classical Album" , Vanessa-Mae and her producer/composer Mike Batt (of Wombles fame) stand accused of misleading their audience. Apart from the opening "Toccata in D", one of the prodigy Vanessa-Mae's favourite show pieces, all tracks are original compositions, most of them by Batt. What we hear are contemporary, poppy pieces, rock drum and keyboard-based, and tailor made for Vanessa-Mae's high-energy yet delicate virtuosity. The fact that the talented Batt is audibly influenced by Michael Nyman does not make his compositions more "classical", but thankfully steers them out of the tedious realm of "Classic Rock". "Widescreen" is a track where the Mae-Batt synthesis works very well; both violinist and producer making the most of the technology-meets-tradition concept. Some of this is film score material, some shopping-mall ear drum fodder, other tracks yet again, revisit Mike Oldfield's old pastures--it is a matter of discussion whether this album "defies all labelling" or simply makes a point of wooing them all in pursuit of the widest possible audience. Hence the "wet T-shirt", sorry, "glistening Sea-Nymph" photo of Vanessa-Mae on the sleeve. --Yngvil V.G.
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