Customer Reviews

The Classical Album 1 / Vanessa-Mae [Enhanced CD]

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Unlike Edith Eisler, I am not a great (or even minor) scholar of classical music. I simply enjoy it. Sure, I can hear that some recordings are better than others, but when it comes to the subtelties that Eisler is concerned with, I can not distinguish them, or talk about them with much intelligence. I spend my time studying other things.

However, listening to Vanessa-Mae gives me great pleasure. She puts a fresh and exciting spin on music that has always been great, and has been performed greatly by others before. But I enjoy Vanessa-Mae's interpretations. I cannot say much on the process of technique, I have never played the violin, nor am I articulate on its subtelties. However, from experience with other things in life, I realize that if life were to be a never-ending university exam on the medium each artist chooses to express themselves, than we would lose great poetry, great writing and great music - because it is the mastering of the technique and the the sometimes refusal of it that oftentimes infuses pieces with tone, variety and, yes, passion.

I would recommend the cd to anyone. It made me cry in some places and skip in others. I especially enjoy Vanessa-Mae's modernized interpretation of Scottish Fantasy. For those of us uneducated in the arts of the violin, it moves the heart and challenges the mind.