Tina Guo's 2011 release, The Journey, is a crossover album of a few familiar classical selections and a majority of original pieces by the cellist herself. The Introduction and Polonaise Brillante by Frédéric Chopin, Le grand tango by Astor Piazzolla, and the Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (retitled and rearranged here as an electrified rock version, Queen Bee) are the most immediately recognizable, and Guo's performances are flexible and free, in keeping with her dynamic and changeable persona. But the ...
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Tina Guo's 2011 release, The Journey, is a crossover album of a few familiar classical selections and a majority of original pieces by the cellist herself. The Introduction and Polonaise Brillante by Frédéric Chopin, Le grand tango by Astor Piazzolla, and the Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (retitled and rearranged here as an electrified rock version, Queen Bee) are the most immediately recognizable, and Guo's performances are flexible and free, in keeping with her dynamic and changeable persona. But the lion's share of the program is devoted to her own music, and the tracks Winter Star (with an alternate arrangement, Winter Starlight), The Awakening, Lacrimosa, Sunlight, The Journey Home, and Forbidden City all have lavish production and an expansive, nearly cosmic feeling, merging elements of classical, adult contemporary, and world music into tableaux that set dreamy moods, rather than focus on Guo's technique. Washes and sprays of sound blend with ethereal choirs and synthesizers...
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