The mononymous
Hauser is cellist
Stjepan Hauser, one half of the wildly successful crossover duo
2Cellos. The other half,
Luka Sulic, made his solo debut in 2019, shortly before the release of
Hauser's album, with an album devoted to transcriptions of
Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos. With
Classic, as promised by the title,
Hauser also moves in the direction of classical repertory as compared with the albums of
2Cellos, which are mostly devoted to cello arrangements of
Michael Jackson,
AC/DC, and the like. Even the crossover items here, by pianist
Yiruma and songwriter
Lucio Dalla (
Caruso), would likely land in the classical bins. The rest consists of famous classical tunes, arranged for cello, including a lot of
Mozart. Yet in a way,
Hauser is closer to the
2Cellos sound than his partner, who delivered a tweaked but recognizable
Four Seasons. Although the album was recorded in London's venerable Henry Wood Hall, producer
Nick Patrick mashes the sound down and removes the dynamics and any trace of an edge; even when the orchestra is replaced with piano accompaniment, the sound is so diffuse that you hardly notice. The advantage of this is listeners wanting a mellow, relaxing sound will get exactly what they want, with
Hauser's warm cello going down very easily. A further positive is that the
Barber Adagio for strings, in an effective cello-and-orchestra arrangement, makes a strong conclusion. The downside is that the overall mood has very little contrast or variety. It's safe to say that
2Cellos fans in the main will enjoy this, but it will be interesting to see whether the styles of the two principals continue to diverge. ~ James Manheim
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