EMI classics have done their Platinum treatment on Nigel Kennedy, offering 3 of his popular albums at knockdown price.
Two of the albums - Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos from 1988 and 1989 - present Kennedy's traditional classical playing while the 1999 album Classic Kennedy is a collection of classical and folk music, mostly transcribed for the violin from other instruments, which gives the violinist freedom to express his improvisational skills.
The Four Seasons album with the English Chamber Orchestra is played with an edge giving the violin more prominence than is sometimes heard (this is a collection of violin concertos remember). The Bruch / Mendelssohn concertos are often ... Read More:
Rating: - Excellent Kennedy collection
I already had the Four Seasons, the Mendelssohn and the Bruch concertos on tape from the 1990s so I bought this to get them on cd. A wonderful bonus is the Classic Kennedy cd that I hadn't heard before. It is (dare I say) a miscellaneous collection of mostly lively tracks like Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee, and the exhilarating Czardas. Slower tracks like Scarborough Fair are fine (although personally I'm not too keen on Danny Boy - a bit of a whine) but if you got the free Vivaldi cd in the newspaper offer recently and it's got you looking for more Nigel Kennedy this boxset (or just the album Classic Kennedy) is an excellent choice as it has lots of music.
Look out for The Kennedy Experience: ... Read More: