I saw Daniel Hope perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Koln Symphony about a year and a half ago and it was an event. I had not seen a classical violinist play with such precise recklessness in a long time. I bought this album at the concert and it remains a favourite of mine. The mixture of Indian ragas, Romanian folk dances, and Ravel rhapsodies could have proven an awkward stab at cross-genre appeal, but Hope and his accompanists make it work through sheer will and talent. An eclectic listen that retains a strong unity of themes despite its diverse repetoire.