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Title: Nigel Kennedy: There Really IS a Musician Beneath the Hype
Review: Even if he had not written a great deal of other brilliant music, Elgar's concerti for violin and violoncello assure him a place among music's immortals. Nigel Kennedy does a great job here; he and Simon Rattle work so well together here, it is a shame that Kennedy's famous temperament doesn't permit him to work with Rattle more (but maybe Rattle is temperamental too, who knows?)The one time I heard Kennedy live, my shoulder was tapped to turn pages for his accompanist in the Elgar violin sonata. Before that afternoon, I hadn't realized Elgar ever wrote a violin sonata. The brilliance of that piece, and the brilliance of Nigel's performance that day (he also played his heart out in the Bartók solo sonata) are captured unfailingly in all this disc, for all its being a different occasion and different music.Had never heard the Vaughan Williams before; marvelous, gossamer, magical.
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