Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Concerto

This opus generates some pretty intense emotions and mental pictures.

Who would deny that Ingwie J. Malmsteen is intense and passionnate?

Very underestimated as a producer and arranger, Malmsteen has a few tricks in his pockets and composed AND produced a super cd named:

CONCERTO SUITE FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA IN E FLAT MINOR

It's surprinsingly awesome. Spitfire records made a master serie out of it so don't expect to pay too much on it...ain't it great?.

Give this guy a chance, you'll probably wondered where it was all this time.

If you still wonder how it sounds, well think of what could be a good soundtrack for a vampire Van Helsing-style or a Castlevania movie.

Groovy

has anyone heard the Steven Mackey electric guitar concerto? its freaking awesome.

There's no doubting the mans musical prowess..

But, for me Malmsteen always seemed to create really hateful music. Dreadful, cheesy, over the top rubbish. When a friend of mine was learning the guitar, he got Malmsteens 'Rising Force' album, 'Marching out' as well as Malmsteens 'Trilogy' Both had me rolling around the floor in the hysterics. My friend was trying to point out how technically brilliant it was. I pointed out, that despite being technically brilliant, it still sounded like comedy rock, so therefore the artists obvious talent had gone to waste IMO.

Playing 300 notes a second and basing everything you do on classical music may be very clever, but it does little to entertain me, as I hear it as showing off and nothing more. Frankly I'd rather listen to Dave Brock of Hawkwind tuning up.

Certif1ed wrote: Malmsteen displays an understanding of harmony entrenched in the 17th Century (before Bach), and everything he writes is basically a mini concerto, since his guitar dominates.

Whatever understanding he might have about 17th century music he doesn't show very much of it in his music. His reportoire is severly limited in both harmony and scales. While he might race through som minor and diminished seven arpeggios, backed up by 16th note tjugga tjugga tjugga tjugga one string bass and 2 note chords on the guitar, he's not anywhere near the baroque masters of the pre Bach period in applied musical understading.

Besides being a parody of himself he has managed to drag Jens and Anders Johanssen into the mud with him. Two very gifted musicians gone to waste in heavy metal hell. There is hope though, and their talent shines through in Jens Johannson's solo records where he is joind by his brother Anders, Shawn Lane and Alan Holdsworth to mention a few.

As for Malmsteen playing prog he does covers of Kansas and UK on the "Inspirations" album, which might be my favourite record of his (when I need som banging my head against the wall music - what else is it good for?). After all, Malmsteen plays good Heavy Metal, his problem is that most of it sounds exactly the same, and that he should have been limited to release only two albums. That should be more than enough to showcase his diversity and originality for 25+ years in the biz.

I like the excerpts I've heard of the Concerto. It may not be adventurous, it may not be anything special, but there are times when I just want lots of notes squeezed into a small space, and it suffices for that, certainly over the rest of his output.

Svein-Frode wrote: A guitarist that can't shread a few arpeggios across the neck of his guitar should consider playing a different instrument. It's like a photographer that is unable to adjust exposure on his camera.

Except for David Gilmour, Andy Latimer, Steve Rothery...