Among the many cherished memories and precious souvenirs that I brought home from the CMSA's convention in Baltimore was a CD titled Praeludium by Chris Acquavella. It certainly merits both praise and interest, so I thought it would be a good thing to start a thread on that very topic.
First off, I will demur on "reviewing" Chris' performance of my own work on that album; that, I leave to others. This recording has SO many things to like that I must cherry-pick a couple of them, simply in the interest of brevity; others may wish to single out their own favorites.
While I am no early music expert by any stretch of the imagination, I was hopelessly charmed by the O'Carolan piece, played on a most magical mandolino— again, I defer to the experts on what sort of instrument it is. To me, it sounded like a most enchanted, ah... mini-lute? micro-harp? Anyway, the sonority was truly angelical. That one take is worth the price of the entire CD, IMHO.
My heart was warmed by the performance from Bach's Partita BWV 1004. Chris' playing is uniformly excellent and, somewhere "backstage", I could hear Ali humming along... But Chris is his own person, his own artist, with his own interpretation; I would not wish to slight him by some "reminds me of" faint praise. In this, and in ALL works performed on this CD, there is artistry of the highest caliber, and mandolin-playing of the highest order.
Enthusiastically recommended! [By way of the usual disclaimer: NFI. For full disclosure, considering the minuscule market for mandolin recordings, those so called "mechanical rights" that would inure to my benefit by the sales of this CD, as written into U.S. law, would amount to, uhm... a cappuccino at Starbucks or something. But this is what full disclosure means, so I speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.]
Three cheers for Chris Acquavella!
Victor
Bookmarks