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| | A Winter Symphony | | | Music Artist : | | Sarah Brightman | | Music Style : | | Broadway & Vocalists | | Record Label : | | Manhattan Records | | Release Date : | | 2008-11-04 | | Store Price : | | $18.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $11.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Arrival
2. Colder Than Winter
3. Ave Maria (duet with Fernando Lima)
4. Silent Night
5. In The Bleak Midwinter
6. I've Been This Way Before
7. Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring
8. Child In A Manger
9. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
10. Amazing Grace
11. Ave Maria
12. I Believe In Father Christmas
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 excellent christmas
Submitted on: 2009-10-16 |
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| On this album very well and accurately convey the mood of celebration and mystery of Christmas is a good director's work and of course a magnificent voice, a decent album for all the New Year:) |
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A brilliant semi-Christmas album
Submitted on: 2009-09-06 |
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Although I was very keen to buy this album as soon as I could, I must declare that there was a time when the very thought of buying Sarah's music was unthinkable to me. My different attitude to her music may partly be due to my more varied musical tastes these days, but my hearing is also not what it once was. As I remember, I always felt that Sarah's very high voice was too piercing for my liking, but I am no longer able to hear the top end of the range, so the part of her voice that annoyed me no longer does so. As such, I am now able to recognize her true brilliance as a singer. If you are unfamiliar with Sarah's voice, maybe you should listen to some samples, particularly to see if you like her voice when she hits those very high notes.
I suspect that there are too many Christmas songs here for people to play when they don't want to hear Christmas music, but it's a great album that includes several songs that aren't heard too often, as well as several famous songs, though they aren't always what you might expect.
The opening track is a cover of Arrival, the Abba semi-instrumental in which the original versions features the women humming and singing la-la along to the music. But Sarah's version features proper lyrics. The credits only mention Benny and Bjorn as co-writers, so whether they wrote these lyrics in the seventies but didn't use them, or whether they wrote the lyrics later, I cannot say, but I've never heard them before and this fully-fledged song makes a great opening track.
Next comes a cover of a Vince Gill ballad, Colder than winter, which is great to find here. I'm a huge fan of Vince's music, but although he once recorded a duet with Barbra Streisand, I wouldn't necessarily expect to find one of his songs on a Sarah Brightman album. Of course, Sarah does an excellent version of it so I'm definitely not complaining.
More predictable repertoire for Sarah follows, with a duet version of Ave Maria (written by Luehrs) with Fernando Lima, which I don't remember hearing before, though I may have done; there are several different songs called Ave Maria and the most familiar one cones later. Meanwhile, this duet is followed by the classic Silent night. Next comes In the bleak midwinter, a wonderful carol (originally just a poem) that sometimes appears on American albums but which seems to be more popular in Britain. After that comes a Neil Diamond song, I've been this way before, followed by a rarely-covered traditional carol, Jesu, joy of man`s desiring. Much more familiar (at least melodically) is Child in a manger. The traditional lyrics may be unfamiliar, by the unmistakeable backing tune is Morning has broken.
This album features covers of two seventies Christmas pop-rock classics, the first of them being I wish it could be Christmas everyday. I was pleased to see this song included but I wondered how well it would work. Of course it was never going to match the original Wizzard version, but Sarah does a fine job with the song. I'm not sure if the original song is familiar to most Americans, so it may be that for most Americans who buy this album, it'll be the first time that they hear this song. In Britain, it is one of the songs that you can't avoid hearing in December, but I don't mind as it is one of my all-time favorites.
Next comes a solo version of the most famous Ave Maria (the Bach-Gounod song), followed by the even more famous Amazing grace. I didn't really need another version of either of them, but Sarah is in top form on both and her versions are better than most versions that you`re likely to hear.
The second cover of a seventies Christmas pop-rock song is I believe in Father Christmas, originally performed by Greg Lake, which is a great way to close an outstanding album. It contains no original material (unless this album marks the debut of those Arrival lyrics) but there is plenty of variety here, mixing the familiar music with some well-chosen obscure material.
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 More like a cat meowing softly
Submitted on: 2009-08-28 |
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I love Sarah Brightman, but her almost-whispering voice in these recordings cannot match the much better and big-sounding accompaniment. I wish she could project her voice more, and just let it flow in a more operatic fashion, especially on Ave Maria. Sarah's new look and photos on the covers might be admirable, but the music sounds cheesy, without much substance, and hastily done job.
I guess I will stick to Harem - her best album i think. |
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A LIGHT BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS ALBUM
Submitted on: 2009-07-02 |
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Most of the songs ARE traditional christmas songs. There are even two up-beat Santa songs. A few of the songs are more contemporary and could be on any album (such as "colder than winter" and "I've been this way before").
Sarah has created a christmas album that is NOT suffocating with 100% of serious traditonal Christmas music. It has a nice variety. She tried to please everybody here!
Personally, I dont't think she could have made a better christmas album. Her silent night is the most beautiful version I have ever heard. You could listen to this album in July.........the music is that beautiful ! If you love Sarah's voice, you will love this album! It is very special. |
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Reforming the Reformed
Submitted on: 2009-06-17 |
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I have in my collection at least two-dozen Christmas seasonal CDs, but this is the best. No. 2 was a 1997 Christmas concert in Vienna featuring Brightman and Placido Domingo.
Brightman has a unique ability to interpret classical music so that it touches exactly the right spot in the human heart. And she can lift popular and even rock music to levels unattained by anyone else, as she does on several well-known tunes in this CD.
As a Protestant, I must admit I was never a big fan of the song Ave Maria until now. Brightman's Ave Maria duet with Fernando Lima early in the CD is surpassed only by her heart-seizing solo performance on a different arrangement of the song later on.
And then there are arrangements of Silent Night, Amazing Grace and Child in a Manger that are absolutely the best.
This woman has it all: The world's best soprano range, superb taste in song selection, and ability to blend so well in duets that she helps make an excellent partner like Lima, for four minutes at least, sound like the best male vocalist in the world.
Astounding performance! |
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