Once it might have been called new age music, folk-classical, or simply sophisticated ambient. Now it's being promoted, far more grandly, as "the new face of classical music in the 21st century". Whatever you want to call it, there's already a sizeable market for classy, folk-based fusion styles in the US, where Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor are based.
There is growing demand for crossover work here, too. For this concert - Appalachian Journey (also the name of their new album, featuring input from Alison Krauss and James Taylor) - the trio packed out the Barbican. The audience was surprisingly young, although this was a midday, midweek event.
It was a pleasant, if sometimes soporific, way to spend the lunch hour. These are all very classy musicians, with a long history of playing, and mixing, different styles. Yo-Yo Ma, the cellist, is known both for his classical work and exploration of Asian styles. Mark O'Connor, the Grammy-winning violinist, has recorded folk and jazz pieces as well as his own compositions. Double bassist and composer Edgar Meyers has played with anyone and everyone from orchestras to bluegrass bands and country rockers like Garth Brooks.
They looked suitably "new classical" (neat dark shirts and T-shirts) and their compositions had homely titles . Many of the pieces were based around Appalachian fiddle tunes. Yo-Yo Ma's cello managed to follow O'Connor's delicate, rapid-fire playing, before veering off into elaborate arrangements in which the lead moved between all three players. There were dance tunes and hornpipes given a gentle string-trio work-over, slower lyrical pieces, passages that would make great atmospheric film music and even a little humour.
It was all gently classy stuff, though comparisons with the folk-influenced work of Bartok and Vaughan Williams in their programme notes seemed fanciful. What "new classical" seems to offer is high quality, easy listening together with passages of truly virtuoso playing, and an often intriguing mix of styles with limited emotional range. Fine for a dozy lunchtime, but I wish they'd brought Alison Krauss or even James Taylor with them.
