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ELVIS COSTELLO
Il Sogno Deutsche Grammophon
***

Elvis Costello's flirtation with classical music - remember The Juliet Letters or the album of songs with mezzo Anne-Sofie Von Otter? - blossoms into a full-blown affair with this hour-long instrumental score for the ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream, recorded by DG in the aural equivalent of glorious technicolour, with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the LSO. Like any lover, Costello is bewitched by his new mate, so there are lots of dreamy nods to Copland and Stravinsky, baroque-esque bits and snatches of Chopin-like waltzes. Like any romance, though, it all gets much more interesting when he threatens to stray. Some metallic flashes of cembalom and some extraordinary improvisatory stuff with a saxophone suggest that if, at some future date, Costello were to really let his classical hair down, the musical earth might move - for the rest of us.