This recording is an example of the "best loved musical moments" school of
classical music; nothing controversial or upsetting, just pretty tunes, all
nice and comforting and familiar. As a sampler of great themes from famous
composers, it works fairly well; while it probably wouldn't be of interest
to semi-serious fans of the classics (who would be likely to have most, if
not all, of this music in their collections already) I could see it being
appreciated by older folks looking for background dinner music.
Chen Yi is a fine violinist; she is alternately delicate and subtle or
strong and forceful, as needed. Mr. Hannibal provides a thorough,
professionally competent accompaniment for her. The real trouble here is
that this disc is so poorly recorded and mastered that both of their
performances end up lost in a sea of reverb and bad mixes.
