Tag Archives: O Mio Babbino

Cello Diva – Bed of Roses

Sally Maer, cello

Sinfonia Australis

William Motzing, conductor

ABC  476 6291

TPT: 56’ 51”

reviewed by Neville Cohn

This is ideal material to relax to after a tough day at the office. It’s a charm laden compilation that provides unpretentious, laid back interpretations of music from Bach to the present day.

Unruffled calm informs an account of the Sinfonia (Arioso) from Bach’s Cantata BWV156. Deft, delightful pizzicato makes a gem of the Cantilena from Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No 5. Britney Spears’ Everytime is gently lulling material.

Genevieve Lang: step forward and take a well deserved bow for splendid harp playing in O mio babbino caro from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in an arrangement by Lang and Maer. And in Motzing’s arrangement of Jon Bon Jovi’s Bed of Roses, the backing has a most agreeable yearning, lilting quality. There’s more delight in Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga from Rinaldo, informed, as the playing is, by a mood of restrained melancholy.

Recorded sound is uniformly fine. And there are eye-catching illustrations as well as an eminently readable essay on the soloist by Martin Buzacott.

Sally Mae spent some time in the cello section of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra as well as playing part time in the cello sections of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra – and she enjoys busking.