Track Listing

1. Toccata And Fugue In D Minor
2. Contradanza
3. Classical Gas
4. Theme From 'Caravans'
5. Warm Air
6. Jazz Will Eat Itself
7. Widescreen
8. Tequila Mockingbird
9. City Theme
10. Red Hot

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50584 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-30
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A touch of the arrogant and the avant garde
Republicans will hate it and Democrats will love it ... just kidding, but in a way, not. The Classical purists will hate this type of album anyway and the fusion/acid jazz/avant garde will get behind it and see its relevance and appreciate it's sound effort. However, Ms Mae is not a an Itzhak Perlman or Nigel Kennedy, she is closer to a volvo mechanic than to a violin virtuoso: I have a number of her recordings both live and studio, where she is trying to be the latter; this album is closer to the former. She has had excellent training, sound finger, bow and string work, and precise mechanics, but an ear for the art in the music? Not quite. It does not "flow" out of her, as if it were a part of her, so much as she tries to master the notes, the key, the transitions, the pitch, etc. What she lacks is a creative style she can call her own. She has the skill without the warmth; the ability without the believability. That said, in this album there are hints of it in such pieces as the Toccata and Warm Air, but the rest are over-produced and so arrogantly, overtly refined that it makes it difficult to actually judge her talent, break-out as it tried to be for her. I'd much rather she focus on her erudite talents (as evidenced in her Johann Sebastian Bach work) and come back to this later. A worthy, but a back shelf, effort.

Innovative music
I have been listening to such contemporary artists as Bond, Yanni, Taleinsin Orchestra,... so I am not a new comer to contemporary fusion classical music. If I had listened to this CD when it first came out almost 10 years ago, I would probably have given it a 5. I am only giving it a four now (maybe a 3.5?) because there are simply other better albums out there - most of the songs here are more classically influenced than its purported to be. Also, while Vanessa-Mae is an accomplished violinist, she is not the most spectacular violnist. At times, she lackes the energy to propell her music to the next level. However, all in all, an enjoyable album, although nothing ground-breaking.

Slop from a slapper
This terrible and dull album launched the career of Über-nothing violinist, Vanessa Mae.

It is hard to describe the depth of the level to which this album stoops to be "popular". Low brow? You bet! Exploitative? Oh yeah! Dumbed down Classical Music? Well, that's what we've got here!

Value of this album? Hard to say. I am sure that Vanessa's parents and agent are happy with this prosaic product.

Very dumbed down dumb music - for the legions of philistines and musically naive of the world.




In one word, a "dud".