Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant backdrop
Comment: As a child growing up in the city of Salem, known for it's working class backbone, I was the only kid I knew who had been to Symphony Hall more than Fenway Park. Going in to Boston for the symphony's open practices was what I lived for. It gave me a true appreciative, although untrained ear. The one lasting lesson is that while you may not notice good classical music, EVERYONE notices bad classical music. And this is NOT bad classical.
I have been a reader of the Aubrey Maturin Novels for 8 years (only two a year for dramatic suspense) and while I am a huge fan of Patrick O'Brian's writing, I find that with the addition of the music he scored his work to, I stand in awe. The music is well grounded to the situations and feelings in the book. Either Mr. O'Brian was a very well rounded, or he did his homework.
The CD is a wonderful insight to the author, and the characters he created. Pour a glass of claret, listen to the cd, read the books...
but pay no heed to Killick's "scrape, scrape , scrape..never a song you could dance to.."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Musical soothing of the soul
Comment: I have been a fan of Baroque music since childhood (and I'm not all that old either). But I've only started reading the Patrick O'Brian books in the last few months, since it was announced that my favorite actor, Russell Crowe, was about to star as Captain Jack Aubrey in the Peter Weir movie. I am reading the books in order, and am currently on "HMS Surprise," so what else could be a more perfect accompaniment than this CD? Aubrey is such a multi-layered character, filled with imperfections and bad puns, however he has a great love for music and he plays the violin quite well. Often paired with ship's surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin on the cello, music is a great release for this sea captain, and the pieces on this CD are fine representations of what Aubrey might have played while on assignment or heard when on land. The selections by Hadyn, Locatelli, Handel, Boccherini and Leclair are pleasant, soothing compositions that are complex and varied enough that they are not redundant, and range from peaceful to nimble. While listening to the CD, I could vividly imagine Jack Aubrey below decks in his cabin and asking Maturin to strike up a tune with him. And then they begin an Andante or an Allegro, allowing Aubrey to set aside his absolutely awful puns and jokes so he can clear his mind and relax. Considering some of the battles he's involved himself in so far in the series, he definitely needs it. Reading his adventures while listening to these charming pieces will relax you as well, and definitely take your imagination to some wondrous places in an era of great change.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Afloat on a sea of relaxation
Comment: I like Mozart. I really do, and I used to put on a piano concerto or two over dinner when I had guests aboard.But now I've found the perfect music for a dinner party. Utterly entrancing and relaxing without being too obtrusive. Locatelli is unfamiliar enough with most people that they haven't heard his music, and where they might tune out of Mozart, they listen with an inner ear to the music on this CD.
But dinner parties aside, it is also the perfect accompaniment to a quiet evening at home reading and rereading one of the Canon of the Aubrey/Maturin books. I don't need to imagine the music as Jack and Stephen play together in the great cabin of HMS Surprise - I can actually hear it, and it makes a marvellous difference to my enjoyment of the book.
I was so impressed that I sent away for the second CD in this series, and I recommend that anybody buying one, buy the other at the same time so as to save on postage. Trust me, you'll buy the second, the first is so good.
One minor niggle, and that is the insipid cover art. After enjoying Geoff Hunt's stunning pictures for O'Brian's books, the pedestrian square-rigger sailing over a painted sea looks utterly false.
But this is a feast for the ears, not the eyes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric diversions
Comment: ESS.A.Y has a good idea here: presenting miscellaneous music for violin and 'cello that would have been heard and played at home during the Napoleonic wars around 1800, much as Captain Aubrey and Surgeon Maturin play together of an evening afloat in the Patrick O'Brian maritime novels. It's no knock on the modest claims of this music to say that these pieces are not necessarily the nameless ones played by Aubrey & Maturin (although ones they might have heard), and that they are played to a much higher standard than those worthy amateurs as described by O'Brian, and with keyboard accompaniment simply not available to them aboard ship. The CD Volume II, however, probably does contain several pieces O'Brian had exactly in mind, including the full oboe quartet featured in The Yellow Admiral. Withal, a pleasant meal or evening can be taken in their company, a "noble accompaniment" to late and quiet moments between the thunder and blood of novelistic battle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful CD
Comment: This CD is nearly perfect for relaxation. It is wonderfully soothing, and a perfect companion for the comfort and relaxation that O'Brian's wordsmanship gives me (after being immersed for years). I definitely recommend it to non-POB fans; calm, yet well balanced with some parts that make me want to beat time in the air, but knowing those consequences...
