iTunes Festival: London 2011 - EP

The 2CELLOS experience is elevated to another level of excitement in a live setting. This set actually opens up in a more traditional manner, with Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser performing Tchaikovsky’s gentle “Nocturno” with piano accompaniment. With a piano, a trio performance of nuevo tango maestro Astor Piazolla’s “Oblivion” follows. That impassioned display perfectly sets up an understated yet emotive (and clearly welcome) reading of U2’s “With or Without You.” The aesthetic isn’t nearly as “classical-like” on a version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which features processed effects to give the four-stringed instruments a thrashed-out electric guitar sound at times. This set closes with a kinetic version of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” the song that originally made 2CELLOS viral video stars.