A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

This is a classical guitar album and not progressive rock, but, if it were, it would be called an epic! A whole album devoted to one story, with twists and turns, fast and slow bits, amidst an often orchestral backdrop. (Sounds like an epic, doesn't it?) Based on Shakespeare's famous play, it brings all the main characters together - Oberon, Titania, Puck, Helena etc and provides them with some excellent music. Yes, it belongs in the classical section, and deserves to be highly rated there. It is certainly highly rated by me. Hackett's playing is fluent, plaintive, evocative and filled with an atmosphere only he can provide. Dissecting it to comment on individual tracks is pointless, this needs to be heard in its entirety. It sounds great through headphones, and should be listened to in the evening, with the lights turned low. The Royal Philharmonica Orchestra gets many chances to shine here, and Steve, as usual, never lets his guitar dominate too much, or get in the way of the storytelling. Roger King puts in an appearance, playing organ on 'Celebration' (he also helped to arrange the album with Steve, and he recorded and mixed it too!) Also, brother John appears on three tracks, with his ethereal flute playing only adding to the beauty of it all. This is a wonderful, relaxing album, and well recommended to both Hackett fans, and fans of classical music in general. Steve has that wonderful knack of making classical music sound just that bit more interesting, and has probably made many people investigate further the world of classical music. Bravo!