Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
High Camp, Low Brow, High Jinks., 26 April 2008
Now where to start?
Ms Brightman has never really been anything more than a peripheral
blip on my musical radar. A leftover sideshow from 1980's Lloyd-Webber
extravaganzas. Never (phenomenal record sales not withstanding) to be taken quite seriously.
An appearance on Jonathan Ross last year confirmed my belief
that she is (in the nicest possible way) decidedly potty.
Quite a gal none-the-less with those stratospherically high
red shoes and deliciously indelicate revelations about the
prolific proportions of Lord L-W's member.
She didn't sing on that occasion but I sat up and took notice.
I couldn't help myself.
Ms Brightman has a sense of humour. Absolutely no doubt about that.
And so to her new album 'Symphony'.
Please buy it. Right now...off you go...I want you to hear it within the next hour.
Really....I do, I do, I do....!
Let's start with that voice.
It's an extraordinary instrument. Not one that could ever have
graced the stages of the world's great opera houses (of course it hasn't)
and not one strong or technically sound enough to sustain a 'true' operatic role.
Nary a Norma nor a Tosca.
However, with a little help from her highly skilled production team,
it scrubs up quite well - even those tentative, bird-scaring high notes.
Ms Brightman's diction and phrasing deserve special mention in their own right.
How can I put this delicately?....errrm....At times her intonation has
a strange, almost Oriental quality (curiously especially when she is singing in Italian) which just avoids being comical by a hair's breadth.
The music displays a sublimely irreverent, cut-and-paste approach to
the 'classics' veering well to the right of the middle of the road.
Bathos and pompous grandiosity rain down on us us at every turn.
(Go straight to track 2 - 'Fleurs Du Mal' for immediate elucidation).
The adagietto from Mr Mahler's Symphony No.5 ('Schwere Traume')
and the Intermezzo from Mr.Mascagni's fine opera 'Cavalleria Rusticana'
('Attesa') are butchered into vocal arrangements of staggering
(and quite beautiful) vulgarity.
Stay with me here. Remember I really am, in a totally perverse way, enjoying this.
The duets with Misters Bocelli, Stanley, Safina and Lima are
more grossly OTT than anything Mr Meatloaf has so-far been able to
muster in his own illustrious career (and none the worse for that).
Mr Bocelli's in particular projects a distinctly bovine quality,
notably when, with Ms Brightman bravely at his side, he approaches
the rousing coda of his allocated contribution.
(Their simultaneous climax deserves our especial appreciation and applause !)
The title track 'Symphony' is, I have to admit, deftly scored and rather lovely.
Perhaps this album's true high point, however, is Mr Peterson's
transformation of one of Mr.Holst's fine interplanetary inspirations
('Jupiter'-uncredited) via the once beautiful jingoistic hymn
'I Vow To Thee My Country' into a cataclymsic Eurovision dancefloor
anthem now and forever to be known as 'Running'. BRAVO MAESTRO !
As for the artwork....countless middle-aged men throughout the Shires
are doubtless tossing and trembling in their beds as I write!
All in all this extraordinarily exotic concoction is likely to be
the greatest feast of overblown high camp tom-foolery that you will
be fortunate enough to experience this side of Christmas.
SUSPEND DISBELIEF !
A must for Broadway Babies, Friends Of Dorothy and Serious Musical Scholars everywhere.
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13 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Symphony is terrific and the album artwork is top drawer too., 19 April 2008
On listening to this for the first time, my attention was immediately grabbed by the bombastic opening tracks 'Gothica' and 'Fleurs du Mal'. With stirring percussion and swirling strings from the orchestra and accompanying keyboard players, there's a gothic feel to this album. And then of course, the enchanting melodies of the ballads are delightful.
Even the duets, there are four of them, are exceptional as well. One of the duets is with the formidable Andrea Bocelli. The whole album is terrific in my humble opinion but if I was to choose a single favourite track, I think it would have to be 'Sanvean'. It's so calming and relaxing in a sea of crescendo tracks.
I would highly recommend this album and looking at the album design, I am completely taken with that as well. The accompanying booklet opens like a calendar and the images inside show of a gothic castle with Sarah Brightman, resplendent in a flowing red dress, in among the grey background. This album took 3 years to record from 2004 to 2007. Was this studio album worth the long wait? I would have to say yes definitely.
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9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A long wait, was it worth it? Yes!, 3 April 2008
After waiting for so long for a new studio album from Ms Brightman, the release of Symphony has garnered a mixed reaction (even from die-hard fans) and probably the reason for this is not the content, bur the sheer expansion of expectation that has been evolving amongst the fans for the last few months since the announcement of a new album and the releasing of three songs as singles.
Since three of the songs have been available elsewhere (even though one of them has a different duet partner) you're only left with 9 new songs, (track 1 is an instrumental) and what the ever talented songstress - that Ms Brightman is - tries to do, is cram as much variety and encompass as many styles as conceivabley possible. And she does. Successfully. So what's the whole problem with it? There isn't a problem. The songs are fine, the duet partners have good credentials (although there are four, yes four, duets) and the album does seem to have a coherent theme, like a symphony blending different themes into an audible whole. For most people merely aquainted with Brightman, the album is a real delight, and die hard fans, well what were you really expecting?!!!! A beautifully well crafted album comprising of soaring melodies and deliciously controlled vocals. That's what this album is!
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