Reviews on Vanessa-Mae's collection albums 'The Best of' and 'The ultimate'

The Best Of

Track listing

- Art Of War (Vanessa-Mae & Youth, original by Prokofiev) - 
- Toccata an Fugue in D minor (J.S. Bach, arr. M. Batt) -
- Destiny (Vanessa-Mae & Youth) -
- Nessun Dorma, from Violins Fantasy on Puccini's Turandot (arr. Vanessa-Mae) -
- I 'M A Doun for lack of Johnnie (Vanessa-Mae) -
- Storm (arr. A, Hill & Vanessa-Mae) - 
- I Feel Love (Summer, Moroder & Bellotte) -
- Bach Street Prelude (arr. A. Hill & Vanessa-Mae) -
- Aurora (Vanessa-Mae & I. Wherry) -
- Winter part 2 from The Original Four Seasons (A. Vivaldi, arr. Pamela Nicholson & Vanessa-Mae) -
- Contradanza (M. Batt) -
- White Bird (David & Linda Laflamme) -
- Summer part 1 from The Original Four Seasons (A. Vivaldi, arr. Pamela Nicholson & Vanessa-Mae) -
- Happy Valley (Vanessa-Mae & A. Hill) -
- Devil's Trill (arr. Vanessa-Mae) -
- Solace (Vanessa-Mae & Youth) -
- bonus video Art Of War (Vanessa-Mae & Youth, original by Prokofiev) - 

General information:
The Best Of was the first collection album of Vanessa-Mae released by EMI in 2002, early summer, and marks the end of Vanessa-Mae's contract at EMI label. EMI and Vanessa-Mae agreed that a short promotional tour of 4 concerts in the far East and Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok) during September of 2002 would finalise the cooperation of which both parties had the obvious benefits since the start in 1995. The version of this Best Of Collection that is presented here is the Hong Kong release. This Hong Kong release is different from the European release that does not have the opening track and the bonus video material. Another enhanced Asian release was available in a limited edition. This enhanced Asian release had an extra photo album of 26 pages with many official EMI promotional photos of Vanessa-Mae, see also gallery 28 of our Collection of photos of Vanessa-Mae to get an impression. The format of the bonus photo album is of a normal cd booklet. We have all 3 editions in our collection.

The art work:
EMI really put some effort in this Best Of release to make it a representative album for anyone interested in a compilation of Vanessa-Mae's repertoire and, of course, for fans who see it as a most have item for their collections. The booklet holds personal words by Vanessa-Mae, an introduction to Vanessa-Mae as an artist, some nice photos and a discography. Scans of all pages as well as of the disc are shown below. The cover photo is a fine close-up of Vanessa-Mae wearing heavy make-up.

The Music:
The track listing of this collection album represents a mix of Vanessa-Mae's classical and techno-acoustic fusion originating from all her official EMI albums. Noticeable missing in the track listing is Red Hot of Vanessa-Mae's debut pop album, a song so typically in the early repertoire that it should be included in this first compilation album. Apart from this, the choice for all the selected songs on this album is defendable. For descriptions of all the tracks, we refer to the reviews of the individual albums.

Concluding remarks
The Best Of gives a representative selection of Vanessa-Mae's repertoire throughout the period 1995-2001, the years she was under contract at EMI. The compilation is therefore interesting  as introduction to Vanessa-Mae's music.
 

The Ultimate

Track listing

- Classical Gas (Manson & Williams) -
- I Feel Love (Summer, Moroder & Bellotte) -
- Picante (Vanessa-Mae & Martin Glover) -
- Red Hot symphonic mix (Vanessa-Mae & I. Wherry) -
- Yantra (Vanessa-Mae & Youth) -
- The Power Of C (Serge Prokofiev, Vanessa-Mae & Youth) -
- Cotton Eye Joe live (traditional Oberg, Ericsson & Edenburg) -
- (I) Can, Can (You?) (J. Offenbach, Vanessa-Mae & A. Hill) -
- Widescreen (M. Batt) -
- Night Flight (Vanessa-Mae & Martin Glover) -
-  Toccata an Fugue in D minor (J.S. Bach, arr. M. Batt) -
- Allegro Spring from The Original Four Seasons (A. Vivaldi, arr. Pamela Nicholson & Vanessa-Mae) -
- Scherzo in C minor (Brahms)

General information:
The Ultimate was released in 2002, after Vanessa-Mae and EMI split their ways. This makes The Ultimate the first released album to which Vanessa-Mae had no involvement at all. This album is an EMI release without Vanessa-Mae's approval and collaboration. Of course, EMI, as copyright owner, is in its full right to issue such a release. The Ultimate saw several special editions released by local record companies under strict license of EMI. Cover photos of the special licensed edition can be found in the discography of Vanessa-Mae at will not be discussed here separately.

The art work:
The booklet has a nice cover photo of Vanessa-Mae dating from around 1996 in black and white. The text pages in the booklet present a nice introduction to Vanessa-Mae in which biographical facts were used. Covers of all Vanessa-Mae's official EMI albums are shown as discography.

 

The music:
The track listing of The Ultimate is for a great part complementary to the track listing of The Best Of. This means, that it is meaningful to buy both the compilations in order to gain a representative cross section of Vanessa-Mae's repertoire. The Ultimate holds a live version of Red Hot Symphonic, a song that was omitted on The Best Of album.For descriptions of all the tracks, we refer to the reviews of the individual albums.

Concluding remarks:
The ultimate and The Best Of combined offer a representative insight into Vanessa-Mae's repertoire of the EMI period, the years 1995-2001. therefore, both albums serve well as an introduction to who Vanessa-Mae is and what she is all about, artistically and musically speaking.

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