It's kinda funny, the changes that popular music has gone through over that past 80 years or so. Think back to the era of the Brill Building. There were writers of music, and there were performers of music...with almost no intersection between the two. The Beatles (at least in my mind) changed all of that. They had the musical chops and the songwriting skills.
Modern pop music tends to split the difference. There are sing/songwriters as performers of others' material. I tend to lean toward the former, though in some cases (jazz singers, for one) it's the instrumental virtuosity that's the center of attention.
But then there's the ProducerWroteMostOfTheTunes™ phenomenon. This on makes me a little queazy...and I'm not sure why. I mean, is it all that different than the Brill factory (which, by the way, produced some spectacular stuff)? Heck, you would think that the use of the cheesecakey cover art would be enough to set off a few warnings (though I used to have a subscription to the classical collectors' magazine "Fanfare", with each issue displaying many examples of HotClassicalChick™). Nah, despite my fears, I figure it's only fair to let the music have a say. It's not like my ears can see or anything.
So here we have the lovely and talented violinist Lucia Micarelli. She has played in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and has more recently been featured at Josh Groban's live shows (which means that when my mother gets wind of this I will never see the CD again...which the wife will appreciate because the liner "art" is not making her happy). Let us ignore the Paul Schwartz/Josh Groban/David Foster trio and get to the actual vibrating air molecules.
"Samarkand" opens with a sorta-worldbeat vibe containing a sweeping melody line. It's layered with bits of percussion not unlike some of Sting's more recent eastern stuff. OK, nothin' stuffy about this.
Next the great Astor Piazolla is represented with "Oblivion". Any Piazolla composition is worth a listen and Micarelli does the winding melody proud. I could have done without the orchestration but that's just me.
Guest pianist Lang Lang shows up to duet with Micarelli on "Meditation from 'Thais'", by Massenet. This is some serious stuff. Very pretty. Very sparse.
Though I'm not all that impressed with chops, those who are will have fun with "Aurora", an excerpt from Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 by Sibelius. Holy note-fairy, this is a beauty. Skip ahead to track #9 (a Ravel string quartet) for similar fun.
OK, now things get a little weird.
First, there's a trip-hoppy take on Bowie's "Lady Grinning Soul" that turns into a full-on orchestra with band thing. It's been so many years since I've had a listen to Aladdin Sane that I don't know what to make of it.
After the Ravel thing (which is quite good), my favorite tune appears: a version of the traditional "She Is Like The Swallow", featuring the justabout angelic voice of Leigh Nash. Had ta use the 'repeat' button on this several times.
The world probably doesn't need another rehash of "My Funny Valentine", but, what the hey, have you ever heard it done as a piano/violin duet? Me neither.
The program closes with the Paul Schwartz-penned "Nocturne"...which morphs into the middle section of (I'm not kidding) "Bohemian Rhapsody"...which then almost goes all Trans-Siberian Orchestra on us before slipping back into "Nocturne".
So, from this experiment, an attempt to ignore easy preconceptions...what have I learned? That tablas sound good in nearly all types of music (probably wouldn't work with country though). That I still don't like orchestration all that much outside of film music. That My Funny Valentine sounds great as a violin/piano duet. That Lucia Micarelli played this stuff on a Hannibal Fagnola Turin violin. That I will miss this CD after my mother swipes it.
(I'll miss the liner "art" too.)
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
Article comments
1 - Carl Strohmeyer
All I can say is her music is both beautiful and haunting. She was great with Jethro Tull too