The Ultimate Most Relaxing Music for Strings in the Universe may look like a double-disc collection of popular short pieces and excerpts from larger works for bowed strings, but a substantial portion of the program is actually filled with guitar music, a fact not suggested by the appearance of a violin on the cover. Listeners who expect mostly orchestral or chamber music for strings can find some here, but 10 of this twofer's 22 tracks are guitar music, which Denon has sufficiently covered in several of its compilations already. In the universe of classical music, there is a vast wealth of great works for violin, viola, cello, and bass -- not to mention string quartet, quintet, sextet, on up to string orchestra -- so this unnecessarily mixed program is poorly planned and deficient in key works from the repertoire; since even arrangements of piano music have been included, the serious fan of string music may well pass this collection by. For those who do give it a try, this album provides respectable performances by skilled artists, such as guitarist
Sharon Isbin, violinist
Chee-Yun, the Festival Strings Lucerne,
I Solisti Italiani, and others, so the selections are played well and are serviceable as pleasant background music.