Ray Chen: Player 1 - an album of unsung heroes
A beautiful album of video game and film music, with its composers, orchestra and conductor as its unsung heroes
Ray Chen is a young, Australian violinist who initially ascended to world fame by winning First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin (2008) and Queen Elizabeth (2009) Violin Competitions. He (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, expertly conducted by Cristian Măcelaru) has recently released Player 1, an album which explores the link between the classical music world, and the video gaming world.
The album opens with the beautiful music from the video game How To Train Your Dragon: Romantic Flight. The short, two minute piece featured some beautiful, soaring lines above the orchestra - and some beautifully written music which (as someone who has very seldom played video games) pleasantly surprised me.
The second piece, Sadness and Sorrow, takes us into Naruto's world of anime'. Mr Chen simply soars above the orchestra's sensitive playing, with principal harpist Suzy Willison-Kawalec a particular highlight.
The third piece on the album is the more uptempo Main Theme (Arr. Skeet for Violin & Orchestra) (From "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom"), by Manaka Kataoka. Here, the orchestra took centre-stage, with grand, sweeping musical gestures, reminiscent of American western film music. Mr Chen played his violin part impeccably, but this is nevertheless music where the soloist takes somewhat of a back seat.
To follow, the somewhat more "traditional" music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, namely his Violin Concerto. Mr Chen grabbed my attention from the first phrase of his playing, with a bold, cutting attack to his playing. I found his phrasing beautiful and tasteful, and his virtuosity unquestionable - however, I did wish for a little more nuance in his tone colours ... his tone seemed to have the same shade of colour throughout. His dynamics, however, were varied and beautiful. Oh, for a more mature approach to this concerto, though ... such as is present in the version that James Ehnes, for example, presents us with, in his Barber/Korngold/Walton recording. The RPO continued to regale us with some incredibly sensitive playing, under Mr Măcelaru's exceptional guidance.
Stunning, shimmering textures from the orchestra, soaring notes and passionate playing from Mr Chen and his violin welcome the listener into the second movement. Passionate, in fact, is a good adjective (I find) to describe Mr Chen's playing, throughout this movement, and in general. I just wished, again, upon listening to his playing in this movement, that there would have been more variation, in his vibrato as well as in his dynamics and tone colour ... it felt a little too one-dimensional, too much full of only one kind of passion - the one with plenty of vibrato in it and almost anxious tone colours.
Cutting edge attack from Mr Chen's bow arm brought us into the third movement. I absolutely loved and adored the orchestral playing, here ... full of colour, zest and wit. Mr Chen, for his part, displayed some fabulous virtuosic playing, with plenty of fireworks. I just, to be honest, felt that he still struggled to match the level of excellency of the orchestra in the more musically demanding passages, although he was at an incredible level in the technical ones.
Back to video game music, after the foray into the film music that the Korngold Violin Concerto brought ... with I Remember My Name (Arr. Langley for Violin & Orchestra) (From "Squid Game"). This is a calm, beautiful piece, evoking to my mind natural landscapes, such as a beautiful lake, with shimmering reflections upon it. Mr Chen brings out the soul of this music wonderfully, even as I wish that his approach to the accents in this music was just a little less harsh and more tender. This, however, is (most probably) only a matter of taste.
The Serenade, by Eunike Tanzil, brought us a nostalgic, wistful, folkloric waltz, which both Mr Chen and this wonderful orchestra and conductor evoked the spirit thereof in a passionate, melancholic manner.
Pallet Town (Arr. Skeet for Violin & Orchestra) (From "Pokémon Red") the penultimate piece on the album, follows. Mr Chen's duet with cellist, Jonathan Ayling stands out, as do his soaring lines and dance-like interactions with the orchestra.
Isabella's Lullaby (Arr. Rimmer for Violin & Orchestra) (From "The Promised Neverland") , by Takahiro Obata, is the last piece on this originally thought out album. This warm piece, full of desperate yearning, brings out the very best of Mr Chen, who renders the required passion and longing of the piece in a truly impeccable manner. The orchestra is also at its sensitive best, with its principal harpist, Suzy Willison-Kawalec, once more in top form.
The perhaps main unsung hero of this album (apart from, of course, the magical but largely unknown composers of these wonderful video game inspired pieces of music) seems to me to be conductor Cristian Măcelaru, and his nothing short of exquisite guidance of the incredibly responsive and sensitive Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout the recording, they play with incredibly dynamics, variation of colours and timbres, and with a joie de vivre which made me truly enjoy the music they played.
Mr Chen, for his part, is superb technically, and, to a point, musically ... his problem seems to me to be that he is a little one-dimensional in his sound colours and vibrato, and that shows nowhere more strongly than in the Korngold, where the musical challenge is (in my view) the greatest. However, he is to be highly commended for bringing us this new, seldom performed, but stunning video game music to our ears (I, for one, would not have heard it, otherwise). As with other musicians, the colours and variations in timbre, vibrato, etc., may well come with maturity and time.