Saturday, 11 January 2020

Maya Beiser & Evan Ziporyn - Bowie Cello Symphonic: Blackstar, album review

Instrumentally Speaking

What to say of this cello/orchestral cover? Listen to David Bowie’s album first – in the unlikely event you haven’t already – and I can’t imagine Maya Beiser would disagree.

But covers are covers and judged for their own worth, though the better the original… and as long as the original hasn’t been butchered and abused [there are many ways to do this]. Well, the strength of the originals shines through on these, and the interpretations are themselves faithful as well as independent – ‘independent’ as in the scorching – as in scorching – start to Prelude to Sue.


Bowie’s melodies on Blackstar are often pretty, as one would expect, and this melodicism is evident here, but I wouldn’t call the whole a melodic album and that is because the interpretation often has menace and dissonance, this through amplification as much as playing style. So after the Prelude just mentioned, the scorchio returns at the end of the whole Sue (Or in a Season of Crime). But also check out the beautiful playing on closer I Can't Give Everything Away, this leading to a rousing rise of cello and horns, just before the sweetest ending.

Perhaps Blackstar and Lazarus stand out because they are the radio plays of the original, but the whole of this covering of the original whole is certainly atmospheric and emotive, instrumentally speaking.


No comments:

Post a Comment