Daniel Hope: Escape to Paradise - The Hollywood Album
The great violinist sets off for Hollywood to explore the music of the great, exiled European movie composers who settled there. John Suchet's Album of the Week, 18 August 2014
British violin virtuoso Daniel Hope is on a widescreen musical journey, seeking out the echoes of exiled European composers.
This album came in at No.5 in Classic FM's Album of the Year 2014. See the full chart here >
The luxurious violin concerto by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is this album's centre piece and, in addition to such golden age classics as Ben Hur, El Cid, Spellbound and As Time Goes By, Hope has included contemporary soundtrack classics including Schindler´s List, American Beauty and Cinema Paradiso to reflect on the strong influence the exiled composers had and still have on today's masters of movie music.
The selection of music is conceptually innovative and fascinating, and the playing is, as you would expect, masterly throughout. Listen out also for the legendary Sting on Hanns Eisler's The Secret Marriage and the German vocalist Max Raabe singing Kurt Weill's Speak Low.
