Release date: 2nd June 2003
Catalogue No: 557 5122

Kennedy's Eastern Promises…
The world's most famous violinist offers a flamboyant and sensual celebration of music from Eastern Europe and North Africa

From moonlighting in the New York jazz clubs to studying at the Juilliard School to reinventing the music of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, and in between stunning the classical world with repertoire from Bartok to Vivaldi, Nigel Kennedy has always been driven by his passion for musical diversity. Rarely has his sense of adventure been better expressed than on his latest project, East Meets East, in which the prodigious fiddler teams up with the three-piece Kroke Group from Krakow in Poland, to deliver a scintillating exhibition of music drawing on the traditions of Eastern Europe and North Africa.

Nigel now divides his time between homes in England and Krakow, so the Eastern European influence has clearly seeped into his soul. "What better place to make this album than in Kroke's & my home town?", muses Kennedy, "Krakow is such a wonderful place." His appointment as Artistic Director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra in September last year has also had a profound influence on his music-making. This was a role that his teacher and mentor, the late Lord Menuhin, once held. In his strictly classical incarnation, Kennedy has performed with numerous leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Philharmonia and English Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of such luminaries of the podium as Simon Rattle, Andre Previn and Klaus Tennstedt, but rarely has his music sounded as rich and emotional as it does on East Meets East. Audiences at his concerts have often been treated to bursts of folk and gypsy music, as have his after show jam sessions, but this is the first time Kennedy has devoted himself to exploring this music in depth on disc.

Kroke, comprising Tomasz Kukurba on violin and viola, Jerzy Bawol on accordion and Tomasz Lato on double bass, have already established themselves as pioneers in Klezmer and folk styles with a string of their own albums. The addition of Kennedy's violin adds spectacular excitement with each of the 14 tracks offering something fresh and striking, whether it's the electric fiddle that suddenly bursts out of the infectious dance rhythms of Time 4 Time, the hints of pastel-coloured psychedelia amidst the plucked strings and accordion of T4.2, the haunting and highly personal interpretation of the generations old Balkan gypsy song Ederlize, his sheer heart-on-the-sleeve emotion of One Voice or the high energy bonus track, Kukush.

Natacha Atlas's voice lends a hint of Arabia to the compelling rhythms of the opening track, Ajde Jano whilst in the extended lament of Vino, Kennedy engages in an eerie duet with Tomasz Kukurba, the twin fiddles swapping phrases and slow-dancing around each other No Kennedy album would be complete without a show-stopper from just the maestro himself. This time it's his stunning unaccompanied solo, Lost In Time, where Kennedy decorates a haunting melody with tearful cadences and perfectly-intonated harmonics - a composition he has already previewed to 50,000,000 American homes on US television.

It is no doubt significant that East Meets East finds Kennedy reunited with his original manager John Stanley after more than a decade apart, though his time Stanley also shares production duties with rock-star-turned-composer Jaz Coleman. It was the Stanley-Kennedy combination which gave Nigel a multi-million selling hit with his recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons in 1989. East Meets East is certainly daring and innovative enough to make lightning strike twice.

Nigel Kennedy's most recent releases on EMI Classics

557 4112 Nigel Kennedy's Greatest Hits (2CD)
557 0912 Bach: Violin Concertos (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra)
556 9632 Ravel/ Kodály/ Bach/ Handel: Duos for violin/ cello (Lynn Harrell)
556 8902 Classic Kennedy
556 6262 Kreisler: Violin works & String Quartet
556 4132 Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending (CBSO/Sir Simon Rattle)
556 2532 Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

More information on Kroke can be found on www.kroke.krakow.pl
Nigel Kennedy's biography and complete discography can be found on www.emiclassics.com