Music : Wild Swans

Rating: - How can anyone think this is rubbish!!!!!!!!
This album is absolutely fantastic and you actually feel what is happening in the fairy tale.

The problem is that people do not know that Elena Kats-Chernin composed this music for a ballet "The Wild Swans" and every piece of music relates to something in the fairy tale. Eliza Aria (the music on the Lloyds advert is the piece composed about the Princess) who was turned mute after a spell was cast upon her by her wicked Stepmother.

In a faraway kingdom, there lives a King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked Queen who is actually a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans and forces them to fly away. They carry their fifteen year old sister Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harms way of her stepmother. There, Elisa labors mutely day and night knitting magic shirts from nettles to help her brothers regain their human shapes, as this is the only way to break the spell their stepmother forced them under. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elisa and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting and eventually crowns her as his Queen and wife. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a graveyard. She is spotted by the evil Archbishop who is looking for an excuse to accuse her of witchcraft. He convinces the King that Elisa is a witch and sentences her to death by burning at the stake. At the place of execution, the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The magic shirts are donned and the brothers return to their human forms. Elisa regains her voice and explains the reason for her mysterious work to the king. Elisa's courage prevails and she is forever reunited with her brothers. (taken from Wikipedia).

I hope this helps!

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Rating: - Wild about "Wild Swans"
I would agree with Pual Lofthouse; "Anyone who bought this on the strength of it being used for a TV advert is making an all too frequent mistake." but that said, I found the Wild Swans Concert Suite fascinating and most enjoyable. The Piano Concerto No.2 is energetic and a piece I have listened to over an over again and Mythic certainly grows on you the more you listen.
In short I would certainly recomend this CD to any lover of Contemporary Classical music and am sure it will not dissapoint. It has left me wanting to hear much more of Elena Kats-Chermin.

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Rating: - Try before you buy....
Anyone who bought this on the strength of it being used for a TV advert is making an all too frequent mistake - often compounded by radio stations such as Classic FM who give minor extracts of major works.

It is misleading and you really need to check out the whole thing before spending your money.

With regard to Wild Swans etc. this CD rewards extended listening with open ears and I cannot possibly agree with a 1 star review as above. Give it extended hearings and you will move closer to the 5 star rating the other reviewer here gave it.

We are no longer in the "classical" composition age. Let's move forward and encourage young composers like Kats-Chernin, Erk Tuur and others who dare to offer something different.

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Rating: - Excellent
I was really delighted with this CD and have been recommending it to friends. The Wild Swans suite features a lot more of the wordless soprano lines that are so striking in Eliza's Aria, the segment used on the TV ad. And the piece as a whole, adapted from a ballet score, has a lot of range and variation. I am also enjoying the two other pieces on the CD.

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Rating: - Oh......
This album is disappointing beyond belief.
I admit I really only bought it for the music off the Lloyds advert, but expected to like some of the rest - I do like classical music as well as Heavy and Industrial metal.
The advert track on the album is probably shorter than that on the TV advert. I'm afraid the rest of the album, in my opinion, is not worthy of note. The Piano Concerto No.2 could have been done by anyone, and is not a particularly oustanding piece anyway. If Amazon had put clips of the tracks up 'listen before you buy' I might have not bought it. Sorry, thumbs down for this one. Ace