| More originality please, Sarah & Frank! |
Having eagerly purchased this rather over-glossy CD - all silver and red - and as an ardent fan of Sara Brightman,I am totally disappointed. Just because the whole album is just a rehash of already existing music, both crossover and operatic classical.
Why does Sarah need to ape Emma Schapplin brand of cross over melodies and instrumentations (Fleurs Du Mal) or familiar Lloyd Webber resembling tunes (Symphony) or "Time to say Good Bye" type duets, once again with Bocelli? No doubt this particular duet "Canto Della Terra" is the saving grace, with the other 3 duets also helping the album from going under as a total disater.
But the blatant "lifting" of one of Richard Strauss's greatest works for soprano voices - replace "lock, stock and barrel" with melody, chords and style!- for "Schwere Traeume" and crediting the music composing to Peterson and Soltau is something shocking! Great reviewers should have pointed out this - but I have so far not found a single mention anywhere! This song is nothing but a new "avatar" of Strauss's 4th song in his cycle "FOUR LAST SONGS" and is titled "Beim Schlafengehen". Classical music lovers have been hearing this rendered by great voices - Kiri,Renee Fleming, Jessey Norman, Schwarzkopf etc.
Why had the production team to stoop down to something low like this? Sarah,as a soprano singer herself, should have pointed this out.
So,in all a disappointing album, in spite of all the hype!
Mohan Narayanan
Composer, Musicologist and Music Teacher
Chennai, India
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2 Rating
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| Grows on you... |
One of the things I really admire about Sarah Brightman is her willingness to experiment with new directions in her art. Every single project she undertakes is different from the last, and every album she releases is very carefully put together on a specific theme and/or to produce a particular mood. Because of this, it's best to listen to each new album without any preconceptions of what to expect. I've also found that I usually have to listen to her new albums a few times before I can decide whether I like them or not. The first listening is just to get an idea of what her latest sound is like.
SYMPHONY is basically the unexpected I've come to expect from Sarah. Once again, she has daringly put together something very different. This is perhaps her most personal album to date. It's not quite like anything else she's ever done; it reminds me most of a combination of FLY and TIMELESS, somehow (counterintuitive though that sounds). This one is darker, rawer, and more difficult than any of her previous albums. As others have noted, the songs don't flow together as seamlessly as they do on her other albums; I'm not sure if that is the point or if she had recorded a lot of material and wanted to release it some way. On first listen it was jarring, but the more I listen to it, the more sense it starts to make. There *is* a theme here, but it's more subtle than the others have been. The theme of SYMPHONY seems to be the range of human emotions - particularly the darker ones - like the range of themes in music.
This isn't, and will never be, my favourite Sarah Brightman album. The biggest problem with it, I think, is that the orchestration is too overdone. Other reviewers have noted this as well: Sarah has a delicate, ethereal voice, and on a lot of the tracks, her voice is totally overpowered by the music and hard to hear.
The other things that make it not my favourite are more a matter of personal taste: I prefer her soaring bel canto soprano to her pop voice, and she sings more in her pop voice here; she's much breathier than I like most of the time, and often when she's not breathy, she's belting. Also, though I enjoyed most of the duets on this album, I was left feeling like I hadn't heard as much of Sarah herself as I'd have wanted. However, I don't think that any of this makes it a bad album; it's just not so much my taste.
I had to listen to this three or four times before deciding whether I liked it or not - and in the end, it's started to grow on me. I like it better each time I listen to it. "Fleurs du Mal" is positively hypnotic; "Symphony" and "Let It Rain" are good in a very raw, soul-searching sort of way; "Running", which I didn't think I'd like, is surprisingly rewarding; and a lot of the duets are good. I particularly enjoyed "Pasion" and "Canto della Terra" (though in the latter Sarah does get drowned out a lot). Fernando Lima and Alessandro Safina were new and welcome discoveries for me.
Overall, I would say that the album *is* flawed, in terms of the overall sound quality, but ultimately it is worth it. It's not as approachable as some of her others, and requires some patience; and yes, most of it is not my favourite style. But if you get used to it, there's a lot of very rewarding stuff here. It may not be my favourite SB album (and yeah, I do hope the next one has less of her breathy pop-voice), but it's added to my respect for her as an artist. She's always experimenting with her craft. |
4 Rating
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