Product description ------------------- KENNEDY NIGEL AND THE KROKE BA .co.uk ------ One of the first musicians to "crossover" from classical music, Nigel Kennedy continues to blur the boundaries with the release of his Greatest Hits album, a title which is normally the preserve of pop artists. As a whole, the album is essentially a sampler for Kennedy's substantial EMI back catalogue and celebrates his 18-year career with the label. Disc one is filled with sweeteners, such as Massenet's "Méditation", Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending and a couple of movements from his record-breaking recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, while disc two contains one movement each from eight of Kennedy's concerto recordings, namely the Mendelssohn, Bruch, Elgar, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Beethoven as well as the Bach double. Perhaps these tasters will encourage new listeners to fork out for the complete recordings. There is no sign of Kennedy's experiments with the music of The Doors and Jimi Hendrix (which will be a relief to many) but there are a few little gems to be found. A vigorous and very breathy new recording of the fourth movement of the Bach solo sonata in C demands repeated listening while the slightly wayward performance of Monti's showstopping Csárdás with Polish klezmer band Kroke provides a taster of Kennedy's next disc. --Rebecca Agnew