Customer Reviews

Strad To Strat

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Like his "Exotic Extremes" which brings music from the former
Ottoman Empire to electric guitar, "Strad to Strat" brings us
some of the boldest music for violin to the electric guitar
for the first time. Virtuosi Paganini, Wieniawski and others
wrote music that has been seemlessly adapted on this CD.
I'd agree with other reviews here that the orchestra does not
have the best sound ("Exotic Extremes" came later and has much
better fidelity overall). But the guitar is in the spotlight
and sounds great. As for comparisons to Malmsteen, this is
like comparing apples and oranges. Malmsteen is a rock
guitarist who hasn't recorded any actual classical piece short
of a few measures here and there, certainly none of these,
although he has raved about Paganini's Caprice No 5 in many
interviews and columns. As for vibrato, the use is appropriate
for the music on this CD and Ferguson has demonstrated his
ample ability for vibrato as required on tunes in
"Exotic Extremes." I'd highly recommend this CD to anyone who
wants to hear electrical guitar version of the actual music,
note for note written by the original clasical composers
(as opposed to a feeble imitation you hear from so many "neo-classical" guitarists).

These pieces would have sounded much better with less distortion, and perhaps played on a Jazz guitar instead of a Strat. Also, the accompaniment is a really cheesy sounding synthesizer that doesn't vary from track to track. As a guitarist though, and a lover of classical music, I'd LOVE to have this much technique - the guy wails. Wonder what he's up to today. I'd love to hear this with a real orchestra.

This cd is EXELENT, buy it now, you are going to listen to it forever. Kevin is one of the greatest players ever BUY IT NOW!

Este cd es imprecionante. Kevin tiene une stilo de tocar exelente, y las conversiones de las boras de violin ala guitarar electrica son muy fieles, la verdad que es uno de los mejores albumes de guitarra instrumental que he escuchado compralo ahora, no te vas a arrepentir jamas!

One good thing about this guy - he sure has lots of guts...
I wouldn't dare playing like that in front of my grandma!
very very DRY and with a tremendeous lack of feel, the guitar's too much in your face and the arrangements are just [no good] and sound like they've been taken out of a ... portable casio organ.
But seriously, a few facts you just can't ignore:
The guy has no rhythm - listen to vivaldi's summer to understand what I'm talking about.
He's got no feel - and you can check it out on every other song incl. vivaldi.
Where is the vibrato? didn't he hear about such an invention?
Just another shredder wannabe...

Like his "Exotic Extremes" which brings music from the former
Ottoman Empire to electric guitar, "Strad to Strat" brings us
some of the boldest music for violin to the electric guitar
for the first time. Virtuosi Paganini, Wieniawski and others
wrote music that has been seemlessly adapted on this CD.
I'd agree with other reviews here that the orchestra does not
have the best sound ("Exotic Extremes" came later and has much
better fidelity overall). But the guitar is in the spotlight
and sounds great. As for comparisons to Malmsteen, this is
like comparing apples and oranges. Malmsteen is a rock
guitarist who hasn't recorded any actual classical piece short
of a few measures here and there, certainly none of these,
although he has raved about Paganini's Caprice No 5 in many
interviews and columns. As for vibrato, the use is appropriate
for the music on this CD and Ferguson has demonstrated his
ample ability for vibrato as required on tunes in
"Exotic Extremes." I'd highly recommend this CD to anyone who
wants to hear electrical guitar version of the actual music,
note for note written by the original clasical composers
(as opposed to a feeble imitation you hear from so many "neo-classical" guitarists).

The technique, phrasing, and selection on this album are superb and easily in the league of shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani. My single complaint is about the synth accompaniment; it just can't compete with the sound of a full orchestra. Other than that the CD is excellent; you will not regret this purchase

For the love of the electric guitar (which I have been playing for 20-years), Paganini, music, and Truth, I respectfully dissent with those who praise this guitar playing.

Praise for this CD is most likely the result of either the profound rift between the world of classical music and the world of the electric guitar, or an ignorance of the worthwhile things that have been accomplished on the electric (sustained) guitar.

The playing on this CD demonstrates serious deficiencies in the two most important aspects of good guitar playing: tone and vibrato. If any reader would like to know what the guitar is truly capable of, I would refer them to the early works of Yngwie Malmsteen and Eric Johnson (Yngwie having the by far the better vibrato, but Eric's tone is more consistent and both players are excellent). And, BTW, it is a complete travesty to put the player in question in the same league with Yngwie.

Sadly, I think some are embracing this stuff purely because it is novel - they do not really take the instrument seriously.

In Kevin's defense, he does have some agility and accuracy in the right hand, but he will need to dramatically increase the quality of his tone in order for this to be effective. I appreciate Kevin's efforts, and don't mean to discourage him, but he will need a considerable amount of work to become "world class" (e.g. Malmsteen, Johnson, or Holdsworth). I'd say 6 years of practice, minimum, but even with this amount of work one must keep in mind that vibrato (as well as tone) is partially something you are born with.