UPC 724355634825

This suite of pieces, by the former lead guitarist of Genesis, are less incidental music for Shakespeare's play than meditations for guitar and orchestra inspired by various lines and characters from it. The emphasis is very much on the play's classical setting and dreamy qualities rather than on the more rumbustious world of Bottom and his rustic fellow actors--the musical portraits are of fairies and young lovers, and there is no sense here of the play's occasional menace. The sound world of the guitar writing is crisp, clear, attractive and unadventurous, rather more in the vein of Joaquin Rodrigo's works for guitar and orchestra than that of the pomp rock with which Hackett made his name.