Vanessa-Mae’s first “Classical Album” (on EMI) has been a world-wide best seller and was still, at the time of writing, in the UK Classical Top 10. Now she returns to give us a compilation very much reflecting her maternal ancestry (although her father is British). The idiom of the main piece is ‘classically’ Chinese, with a direct popular appeal, its narrative line having much in common with Chinese ‘opera’. The Butterfly Lovers Concerto is certainly a vivid, often touching, and at times spectacular concertante work which illustrates an old Chinese legend about a pair of star-crossed lovers who can only achieve a “happy musical ending” when, after their earthly affair has been hopelessly thwarted, they are united “in after-death as butterflies”. Their fluttering is represented by a delicate figure on the flute at the opening of the first and third sections of the score, and the piece is dominated by a striking Chinese theme, which is later transformed, but is charmingly fragile when first presented, gently and seductively by the soloist, against piquant woodwind. A light-hearted, spring-like scherzando section follows, before the mood of optimism evaporates.
The orchestral Westernization of the material does not dilute its character, with tenderly melodic writing for violin and a solo cello when the lovers first meet, which is to return very touchingly in the central section (there are no breaks). If the loose structure of the piece brings just a series of episodes – some melodramatic (with rumbustious brass) – to fit the narrative, the solo violin holds the music together until the passionate return of the principal theme, presented expansively by the full orchestra. With the death of both characters, the finale is in the nature of an epilogue, with the violin once again nostalgically singing the secondary love theme. This solo line, with its occasional touches of Eastern portamentos, is ravishing on Vanessa-Mae’s bow, its delicate nuances wholly idiomatic, and though the work is loosely structured, its melodies are effectively used and beguiling.
The Fantasy on Puccini’s “Turandot” which follows on quite naturally shows how well Puccini created a musically idiomatic Eastern atmosphere for his opera. But the effect of Vanessa-Mae’s arrangement with its sumptuous orchestration is to transform this luscious pot-pourri into a kind of film score, with an opulent “Nessun dorma” as its ‘title’ theme. Happy Valley turns out to be a somewhat ingenuous celebration of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control, and after its exotic virtuoso opening display, the juxtaposition of violinistic fireworks with infectiously folksy choral singing is undoubtedly winning in its unashamedly populist style, based on a repeated, very catchy folk-song. (I was reminded of “It’s a small world”, which anyone who has ever been to the Californian Disneyland will surely remember well.) No translation is provided, but in her autobiographical note Vanessa-Mae suggests that she is optimistic for the further liberalization of the country from which her grandfather angrily emigrated. He briefly went back just before he died, returning with much more hopeful feelings towards his homeland. Certainly the pervading mood of Happy Valley is upbeat. Throughout, the recording is warmly atmospheric with the violin naturally balanced, and this whole collection makes agreeably easy listening. '