Various Composers - Romance Of The Violin [Bell/Stern-Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields]
Here's a bunch of 'sugary' lollipops for Violin and Orchestra, all of the items are chosen from the Classical repertoire, they are transcriptions by Craig Leon, and though none of them are composed this way, they really work well, on the whole it's a disc of slow numbers, the instrumentation has a tendency to be 'simple', and Joshua Bell certainly takes centre stage, on first listen i felt it was too 'crossover', but on subsequent listening i've enjoyed this album for what it is.
The booklet photography by Timothy White is wonderful, shots taken late in the evening, they really stand out with the black background, and the graphics on the front cover are lovely too.
The tracks i like the most are 1, 6-9 & 11-12, i suppose if i were to plump for a highlight, it would be track 7, the Andante middle movement from Mozart's Piano Concerto 21, very much keeping to the original, but of course with Violin instead of Piano, it's good to hear what the Violin can do, and it causes you to hear this well known piece dressed up in some new clothes.
Here's track 6, Bellini's Casta Diva, from his Opera Norma, played by Joshua Bell on YouTube.
