Is the crossover repertoire finite?

[grant]

Hi Martin

Feb 1, 2009 1:00:02 GMT martindn said:

But the danger is her modesty will lead her to underestimate what she is capable of achieving.

And "confidence" in the context in which I meant it referred to her willingness to innovate. She obviously is supremely confident on stage for example.

Yes, I see where you are coming from now, but let's not forget that Hayley herself has always said that she wants to push herself to find new directions. Maybe the lack of confidence you detect is actually a very wiley Hayley waiting for the right moment to do whatever it is she is going to do.

In my experience, Hayley's modesty has always been about her as a person such that she would rather fade into obscurity that come over as a "Look at me, am I fantastic or what?" type of person. She knows she has an amazing gift but she's still very young and has a lot of time to share it in ways that suit her and suits the market/s open to her.

As for the next album, well, I'm not going to get into the 'crossover' debate because I think Hayley is trying to tell everyone that she doesn't want to be labelled either way. My hope would be for an album containing a lot of her own material, plus a few classical songs, but not with the intention of making it a 'classical' album.

Of course, Hayley has surprised us before and she may well do it again and leave many of us pondering "Now why on earth didn't we think of that!!?"

Best wishes
Grant

[fusilier23]

It's only as finite as the artists and composers allow it to become. Russell Watson has certainly done his share of playing it safe with pieces like "You Raise Me Up," but if you look at his last few albums, particularly Amore Musica, he also has plenty of new pieces, some of which, I believe, were written specifically for him. To my knowledge none of those pieces have "caught on," but that's not to say none ever will. It's just a question of how much the artists, the record companies, and everyone else involved are willing to put into innovation and creation vis-a-vis guaranteed moneymaking.

[martindn]

Hi Grant,

Yes, what you say reminds me of Dame Malvina's comment on the "Live in NZ" bonus, where she describes Hayley as "small and gorgeous, but not flamboyant". I think "flamboyance" is something that a lot of successful artists have and need, bu Hayley doesn't.so she needs to make up for it in other ways, basically by being so accomplished technically that she cannot be ignored. Flamboyance can cause a lot of people to be overrated. I don't know if you watched the final of ALW's Eurovision programme on Saturday, but to me there was only one of those three artists that was going to win. She was the most flamboyant, even though I think she was the worst singer technically. But since when was Eurovision about quality.
Hayley will succeed despite lacking that attribute. And many of us love her for that. It is simply a matter of when and how she will do it. Like you, I find it fascinating.

Martin

[postscript]

Feb 1, 2009 19:39:01 GMT fusilier23 said:

It's only as finite as the artists and composers allow it to become. Russell Watson has certainly done his share of playing it safe with pieces like "You Raise Me Up," but if you look at his last few albums, particularly Amore Musica, he also has plenty of new pieces, some of which, I believe, were written specifically for him. To my knowledge none of those pieces have "caught on," but that's not to say none ever will. It's just a question of how much the artists, the record companies, and everyone else involved are willing to put into innovation and creation vis-a-vis guaranteed moneymaking.

Hi fusilier, I want to pick up on your opening remark. On the excuse of making comparison I hope it is accepted I'm 'on topic' still! I attended a completely different gig near Reading last Saturday and what was superb was not just the quartet's technical mastery of their instruments but the imaginative orchestration. One piece, a suite from Cinema Paradiso, including the music to The Big, the Bad and the Ugly they made four instruments sound like an entire small orchestra.

Imagination to use what is there in a different way, accompanied by superb mastery of the instrument(s) used is the key. Since following Hayley, the 'also ran' in the race for recognition simply will no longer do, for me. There has to be imagination in the orchestral presentation or in the use of the instrument. In singing that has to be the uniqueness of the sound itself. Then the way the voice is used or developed.

On development, I recently posted my dislike of Katherine Jenkins' development of an operatic voice. Of course, I don't know relative recording dates, but I recently heard her singing one of the sacred songs, Hayley has recorded and I remember thinking the interpretation Jenkins' was using then made me think again of Jenkins' worth.

During this performance near Reading, the double bass was used in a way i had never seen before, playing higher notes than one might ordinarily ascribe to a double bass.

Imagination, or lack of, I think is the true fault your post highlights.
Peter S.