CELLO, I MUST BE GOING
A little bit Celtic, a little bit rock and roll, a little bit classical, a little bit world music, and a lotta schmaltz and you get the idea behind 2Cellos, the duo of youthful, sexy Croatians Luka Å ulić and Stjepan Hauser. who put their skillful playing behind revamps and remakes of a wide array of genres. Sony Classical got behind them following the pair’s YouTube sensation updating Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” The rest since 2010 is arena-filling history. This is the type of instrumental classical crossover music that could easily be the soundtrack for an Irish dancing show or the latest Cirque extravaganza. For Let There Be Cello, the classically trained cellists know their audience: Those adoring screaming, swooning fans who love a gorgeous melody but probably would never set foot in a concert hall. Just as they have done for their past four releases, 2Cellos gives us movie themes (Pirates of the Caribbean; Rocky), classic pop (Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”; John Lennon’s “Imagine”), classical (“Vivaldi Storm”), and original compositions. They set their strings afire while the backgrounds sound as if Vangelis were the music arranger. Torrid and fervent, the boys aren’t going for mere lush romanticism here — they dig in with tons of passion as if to ignite the ardor of tens of thousands of fans at a football stadium. Some of it works alright, some of it is way overblown. They may be out to reinvent music, but these David Copperfields of the cello world aren’t even slightly interested in reinventing their own conventions.
Let There Be Cello
2Cellos
Sony Masterworks
released on October 19, 2018 | 14 tracks | 41:02
available on iTunes and Amazon
