Nigel Kennedy

New album from well-known & best-selling classical violinist Nigel Kennedy. His virtuoso technique, unique talent & mass appeal bring fresh perspectives to the classical & contemporary repertoire. Recorded @ Abbey Road Studios & includes repertoire from JS Bach, Fats Waller, Dave Brubeck, Celtic music & some of Kennedy's own arrangements - a real mix of classical & jazz.

Jules Massenet, who died 100 years ago in 1912, was a French composer best known for his operas, and was widely considered in his day to be one of the greatest melodists of his time, alongside Puccini.

The Best of Massenet includes his most popular music, performed by a starry cast of artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Jonas Kaufmann, Renée Fleming, Joseph Calleja, Angela Gheorghiu and Marilyn Horne.

Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and today he is best known for the popular violin showpiece Méditation from his opera Thaïs (performed here by Nigel Kennedy), and is unfairly regarded by many as something of a one-hit wonder.

Opera and ballet aficionados have known otherwise for some time and that he is in truth one of classical music’s best-kept secrets. 2012, the centenary year of his death, is the perfect opportunity time to introduce a wider audience to the exquisite charms and beauty of his music.

“Kennedy is an unstoppable force of joy, and his playing gladdens the heart of any with swing in their soul.” THE INDEPENDENT

For over twenty-five years, Nigel Kennedy has been acknowledged as one of the world's leading violinists and is, without doubt, one of the most important violinists Britain has ever produced. His virtuoso technique, unique talent and mass appeal have brought fresh perspectives to both classical and contemporary repertoire. He is the best selling classical violinist of all time, his iconic recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons alone has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

The Four Elements, written for violin, orchestra, band and voices, is a suite of pieces which Kennedy conceived as his own 21st century response to Vivaldi's baroque masterpiece Four Seasons, a work with which Kennedy is intrinsically linked, in the sense of creating some programmatic, pictorial music based on an underlying theme.

Damon Reece, who has worked with Massive Attack and Goldfrapp provided the electronics and drum programming for this, and singers featured on the album include Zee Gachette and Xantoné Blaq, a former member of Amy Winehouse's band.

Classics is proud to announce the release The Very Best of Nigel Kennedy. This 2-CD set celebrates the multiple facets of the award-winning, multi-million record selling violinist, featuring works from his twin passions, classical and jazz.

The first disc focuses on classical music, featuring Kennedy’s iconic recordings of the best-loved violin repertoire: movements from the great concerti including Bruch and Beethoven; stand-alone works such as Zigeunerweisen and Lark Ascending; and from his landmark recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Kennedy’s 1989 release of the baroque masterpiece, named the best-selling classical recording of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records, topped the UK Classical Charts for over a year, reached #3 on the UK Pop Album chart and has sold more than two-million copies world wide. At one point, Nigel was selling more records a week than the combined total of the other 19 records in the UK Classical Sales Chart.

The second disc features tracks from his award-winning and critically acclaimed jazz and pop recordings: standards from his Blue Note Sessions album, performances of his own pop and fusion compositions with the Nigel Kennedy Quintet and with Polish klezmer trio Kroke, as well as tracks from his most recent EMI Classics release Sssh!, including his collaboration with Culture Club singer Boy George.

This is the sixth release in EMI's American Classics series, a series devoted to releasing the Company's extensive catalogue of American music of the 19th and 20th centuries.

It was Ellington's long-term ambition to extend the jazz form into something more substantial and one of the first examples was Black, Brown and Beige, a jazz symphony from 1943. Ellington gave it's first performance at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943. Four tracks on this disc are taken from a Simon Rattle album devoted to the music of Ellington. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra play Ellington's music as to the manner born: Take the 'A' Train, Sophisticated Lady, Harlem and Isfahan have never been better played except, possibly, by Ellington himself.

2010 re-package of the famous recording of Bach's Violin Concertos and the Concerto for Oboe Kennedy made together with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Most of us think of Kennedy as a rebel with a musical cause: a people's violinist, master of Elgar and Ellington, provocative in spirit but musically astute. In both Johann Sebastian Bach and Nigel Kennedy we have free-ranging spirits with huge appetites for their music .

Such is the beauty of Bach's music that Nigel claims he finds something new to explore, to understand everytime he raises his violin and performs Bach's work. Interestingly, he sees many comparisons between the best of jazz compositions and much of Bach's repertoire.

Bach loved the dances of the day: not only those of his native Germany, but also the varied forms that originated in England, France, Italy and Poland. Many of the movements in his instrumental works are in fact musically sophisticated dances and you can hear elements of that keen rhythmic sense throughout the four concertos recorded here.

Nigel Kennedy was the recipient of the "Outstanding Contribution to Classical Music" award from the UK 2000 Classical Brit Awards the same year he recorded this album.

To this day, Kennedy still declines to play by any one set of rules. Over the past decade or so, as well as recording Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Mlynarski and Karlowicz, he has laid his personal instrumental stamp on the songs of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Kate Bush; performed the violin intro to Baba O'Riley on stage with the Who; invited Jeff Beck onto the Prom stage with the NKQ; explored traditional klezmer music with the Polish band, Kroke, and dug deep into the roots of modern jazz on the Blue Note Sessions, an album he recorded in NYC in 2006 with legends Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette.

Now dividing his time between homes in London and Krakow, where he lives with his Polish-born wife of 10 years, Agnieszka, Kennedy has never felt more free to pursue his boundary-free musical objectives. "I'm enjoying my music much more than ever as I’m playing exactly what I want - it’s become a deeper experience and enjoyment for me, savouring the moment more, not thinking about the future or the past but thinking about now."

This latest Nigel Kennedy Quintet album confirms the maverick status and omnivorous musical taste of one of Britain's finest and most unpredictable musicians. Boy George is featured as guest vocalist on lead track 'Riverman'.

CD+DVD Digipack

EMI RELEASES 20TH ANNIVERSARY LUXURY EDITION OF LANDMARK RECORDING

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Nigel Kennedy’s landmark recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, EMI Classics presents the 20th Anniversary Luxury Edition. The set includes the original recording, award winning film, images not previously issued, memorabilia and a specially written account of the unfolding event.

Nigel Kennedy’s recording was released 25 September 1989 on vinyl, cassette and CD and went on to become the biggest selling classical album in the illustrious history of EMI. Originally recorded in November 1986 in the Church of St John-at-Hackney, London, it was a recording that would achieve unprecedented public and media attention and change the course of music history. It wasn’t until March 1989, after the slow movements had been recorded, that the master was completed. Vivaldi’s work, 12 movements in short three-minute bursts, was tailor-made for commercial radio. It was the first time that commercial pop marketing techniques had been used in the classical world and the first time that Nigel was unleashed on the media.

The album went on to:

> sell over 2 million copies around the world

> top the UK Classical chart for over a year

> reach number 3 in the UK Pop Album Chart and enter the Guinness Book of Records as the bestselling classical recording ever

At one point, Nigel was selling more records a week than the combined total of the other 19 records in the UK Classical Sales Chart.

The public loved Nigel’s sheer energy, his flair, his youth, his strength and his determination. Audiences were sitting on the edge of their seat when he played. You were “monster” or “monstrette”, music was “damage” and, when he said “kill”, he meant it…musically, of course.

It started with the Prince’s Trust concert in the summer of 1989, attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Nigel played the final movement of Summer, with the CBSO, conducted by Sir George Martin. After the performance, BBC Radio 1 presenter, Annie Nightingale, presented Nigel to the attending Royals and asked if Nigel should teach William and Harry violin. Diana smiled. “I wouldn’t let you within a million miles of them”. Nigel, unperturbed, replied, “shocking, your Royal Monstrette”.

Nigel went on to appear on countless high profile BBC radio and TV programmes in the build up to release, notably with Terry Wogan and Gloria Hunniford, and their enthusiastic support provided that all-important platform for Nigel, the entertainer. As in concert, TV showed Nigel to be the Charlie Chaplin of the violin, the cheeky chappie, the tramp with a heart of gold and a profound and natural talent to communicate via his music with a skill rarely seen in classical music.

The album shot to No.1 in the UK classical chart but, more importantly it punctured the Top 75 pop album chart. Typically for an international classical artist of his stature, Nigel was obliged to fulfil a concert tour of the USA, booked two years previously. The artist was out of the country and EMI needed to support the album in his absence. Manager, John Stanley and famed producer, Chips Chipperfield, contacted director, Geoff Wonfor, and the innovative, award winning film was made. Its TV broadcast in the Christmas break catapulted the album to the top end of the album charts.

Within weeks, Nigel and his Four Seasons could be heard and seen everywhere. It was reported that a copy was bought every 30 seconds of every day. A sell-out UK Four Seasons tour gave audiences the first chance to see Nigel, accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, in person. These were no ordinary classical concerts. Here, the virtuoso spoke to his audiences - younger and more diverse than usual - and genuinely engaged them every step of the way.

Such was Nigel’s hold on the UK market, he was invited twice to appear on The Royal Variety Show, honoured by Spitting Image, lampooned by comic impersonator Bobby Davro, became the subject of “This Is Your Life” and named TV Personality of the Year.

Nigel’s mixture of genius, cheek, novelty, energy and fun translated abroad. He bucked the system. No conservatoire could take away his unique charm and individuality. Sometimes juvenile, even stubborn and difficult, he was always engaging and challenging. He saw no boundaries in life just as in his music making. Through Nigel, the enjoyment of classical music became the domain of all, not just the elite.

1989 saw a world in a state of flux. The Berlin Wall came down, Emperor Hirohito died after 62 years of his reign in Japan, George Bush Senior succeeded Ronald Reagan as the 41st President of the United States and the Chinese government declared martial law in Beijing amidst the Tiananmen Square protests. In June, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini died but it was the death of Herbert von Karajan that not only shook the classical music world but symbolised the change from the world of Maestro to that of Mega-Star. The classical music world had no idea what was about to hit it. Pundits had predicted a major classical music boom, courtesy of the revolutionary new digital sound carrier, the compact disc, but no-one could foresee an album of 18th Century music threatening to make Number 1 in the pop album chart.

“Floppy hair for the 1984 Elgar Concerto sessions, spikey and gelled for Vivaldi some years later. The trademark yee-haw footstamp, already part of Nigel's Vivaldi roadshow was, however, yet to make its recorded debut - for which the engineer Mike Clements and I breathed a soft prayer of thanks. Nevertheless there were fireworks. At Nigel's request, we returned to the un-soundproofed St John-at-Hackney one evening some months after the original sessions to record his new thoughts on the slow movements, and industrial-strength bangers and catherine wheels in a nearby park vied with Nigel's sul ponticello and distant dive-bomber effects. We just about managed to work around the firework noises, though one got under the wire to achieve everlasting life on the finished disc. Since then, radical takes on Vivaldi's hardy perenniel have hit us from all sides. But Nigel's new look was among the first. Like it or loathe it, the cobwebs didn't know what had hit them. Wish I'd thought to bid for a producer's royalty”. Andrew Keener, producer

“Thanks whoever bought it because you’re helping us do something with music which shouldn’t be allowed” Nigel Kennedy, Royal Albert Hall, April 1990

“Nigel Kennedy’s version of The Four Seasons is like a breath of fresh air which is bound to blow away a few cobwebs around this well known work. It is sure to appeal to the young people. A thrilling performance.” George Martin, 1989