Violinist Ray Chen is not the first musician to perform video game music in a classical context, but this 2024 release may be the most thoughtful effort so far. The sense of the album title is that Chen is Player One in a video game, and the listener is Player Two. The booklet notes suggest various deeper parallels, stating that "oth [genres] involve interaction and multiplayer experiences. Both have their parameters set by a 'games-master' or composer: one dictates the rules via code, the other via black squiggles on paper. Both bring delight and joy. And both conjure rich worlds in which players can roam, discover, and grow." Whether or not this is stretching a point, Chen's program is innovative indeed. What he manages has been suggested but never realized in this detail, namely, that video game music has strong links to earlier forms of dramatic music. Chen and the Royal Philharmonic under Cristian Măcelaru delve into film, animation, and television, and there is an original composition by Eunike Tanzil from Indonesia, a country with a strong orchestral tradition not much heard outside its borders. The centerpiece, Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto, is a work that might be regarded as an apotheosis of the classic Hollywood language, and Chen delivers a brilliant performance of this on a Stradivarius violin that once belonged to Jascha Heifetz. The most impressive thing is that the whole program holds together nicely, which suggests that although Chen may be the first to offer an album like this, he will not be the last.