Customer Reviews

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Not many people have a musical written around their voice, but that's what Andrew Lloyd Webber did for ex-wife Sarah Brightman, by creating the classic "Phantom of the Opera" musical. And in "The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection," Brightman sings various songs from Webber's works -- some mesh with her voice, and some don't.

It starts off on a strong note with the gothic "The Phantom Of The Opera," a duet with Michael Crawford. Following that is the ethereal "Unexpected Song," the rich but forgettable "Chanson D'Enfance," and the enchanting "All I Ask Of You," a duet with Cliff Richards. Following a few dud songs are the warm "Love Changes Everything," the Latin-tinged "Amigos Para Siempre (Friends For Life)" with Jose Carreras, and the entertaining duet with John Gielgud, "Gus the Theatre Cat."

Brightman starts to falter with "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," "Another Suitcase in Another Hall," and "Memory." Her voice sounds restricted and uneasy, and at times her crystalline vocals sound shrill. "Maclivity: The Mystery Cat" is perhaps the lowest point of "Collection," with Brightman sounding completely weird. But the album rises again with the gently melancholy "Tell Me on a Sunday," soaring "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," and finishing up with the majestic "Music of the Night."

Certain voices are best suited for certain songs, and Brightman's vocals are clearly suited for songs from "Phantom of the Opera" and "Aspects of Love." Some of the songs sound astounding and heartfelt, but some of them just sound strange coming in her rich soprano.

Brightman's voice is given a good range -- she can sing in a little high girlish voice, soar like an operatic diva, or just sound sweet. At her best, Brightman can give you goosebumps. In many of the songs, she emotes subtlely, as if she really feels the heartbreak, joy and fear behind the songs. But when her voice is poorly used, as in the "Evita" songs, she just sounds confused.

The selection itself can't be faulted -- there's stuff from "Cats," "Phantom," "Evita," and other Webber musicals. And Webber's writing is just beautiful, simple and heartfelt: "In all your fantasies/You always knew/That man and mystery/ Were both in you..."

Sarah Brightman is not in top form in the "Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection," but in several songs she is simply astounding. Flawed but definitely worth checking out.

Anything with "Phantom" music is great. This cd shows Sarah's multi-talented career back in the 80's. All the material on the disc are original versions of her songs.

Every one of the 16 tracks are unique. The moods change from playful broadway to sad and gloomy. Sarah sounds so different, you just have to like her. The tracks from "Cats" are two very original tracks. "Gus the theatre cat" is solemn. "Macavity" is broadway. "Love changes everything" is the only track on this compilation that actually made it to a Brightman album. You'll find it on the import album "As I came of age". It's sung in her whiny, little girl voice.

The "Phantom" tracks are great, especially "The phantom of the opera", used as the opening. There are 4 tracks from the said musical.

When I purchased "The A.L.W.collection", "Time to say goodbye" was already out. Although I thought I wasted my money, I took it home anyhow, expecting the worst. Considering there were many tracks I previously did not know, I had made a great choice. The compilation is definitely a best seller, not to mention a great addition to anyone's collection.

My Sarah collection started with "Dive" back in 93. I wasn't sure what she'd come out with next, if anything at all. Even though she played the leading role as Christine in "The phantom..." I never was able to believe that she was the same person as in 93. I've bought every disc from then on. Go out & buy the disc, or buy it on the net. You won't regret it.

Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd Webber are no longer married to each other, but as I stated above, she's still happily married to his music. I was raised during the Rodgers & Hammerstein era nd it took me time to grow to apprciate Webber's influence on musical drama. Sarah Brightman's performances of Webber's music has been instrumental in my tastes maturing with the development of Broadway musical plays. No matter how often I listen to them, "Phantom of the Opera", "All I Ask of You", "Music of the Night", "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina", "Memory", all remain fresh while the less familiar works become more precious with repeat listening. Also outstanding is the theme song Webber wrote for the Barcelona games and sung by Sarah and Jose Carreras, "Amigos Por Siempre". And don't overlook the devout rendition of "Pie Jesus", a duet with Paul Miles-Kingston, from "Requiem". Other notable voices on the CD are: Michael Crawford, Cliff Richard, and Sir John Gielgud.

There are those who might not like this CD which is one of my favorites, but the only people I would advise not to buy this are those who just don't like the modern theater music as represented by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I first heard Sarah Brightman on the Original Recording of Phantom of the Opera, and I thought her voice was beautiful. This CD is totally awesome, because it has some of my favorite songs from ALW's musicals. Sarah Brightman's voice is REALLY sexy in "Macavity the Mystery Cat." She was fabulous in my favorite song "Memory" from Cats. When Brightman sang the lines Touch me. It's so easy to leave me all alone with the memory," my eyes were filled with tears and my heart was pounding A must have for all Sarah Brightman fans.

Sarah Brightman is famous for her flexibilty in vocal style. One moment she can go pop, another moment she can go broadway and another moment she can go opera.

Although this album is all of Andrew Lloyd Webber's works, she amazingly presents all the songs in the different vocal styles.

She did wonderfully for songs like "Phantom Of The Opera", "Music Of The Night", "Pie Jesu" and "Chanson D'Enfance".

"Phantom Of The Opera" is a very unique song. Before she sings an opera melisma at the end of the piece, she is actually using her broadway voice! The song grips me and some credit of it should go to Michael Crawford who sang the duet with her too! He also sounds great!

I had seen and heard Sarah Brightman sing in the concert for Andrew Lloyd Webber's birthday in a VCD. Her "Pie Jesu" sounded more trained and mature in the concert than it is in this CD. However, I still prefer the version in this CD because it is sort of an original recording of Sarah Brightman many years ago. It sounded more innocent, more sweet!

"Music Of The Night" is thumbs-up! Although many people say that Sarah Brightman has a small voice, it is not true! She sounded all powerful in "Music Of The Night"!

I bought this CD after hearing Sarah Brightman in a concert. She sounded good! And the CD is definately not a disappointment!

I know that Ms. Brightman does not want to be pigeonholed as a singer of show tunes. Nevertheless, she shines like a diamond in this area. If like me, you adore that marvelous voice but can only listen to a limited amount of opera in one sitting, then you will love this CD. The "Webber collection" gives Sarah the opportunity to be more expressive and dramatic in her singing that pop songs generally permit, yet the melodies and lyrics are probably more appealing to today's listeners than the classical works might be.

These tracks comprise a well-chosen selection of Andrew Lloyd-Webber songs from his collection of modern musicals. Nearly every one of them is a gem. Thanks to Sarah's pure, soaring soprano voice, there's never a reason to skip over a track in order to get to the next good song. The varied program includes beautiful love songs such as "Tell Me on a Sunday" and "All I Ask of You"; production numbers like "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Music of the Night", the touching "Pie Jesu" from Webber's version of a requiem, and livelier tunes such as "Macavity" from Cats.

Again, I can't imagine a program better suited to show Sarah's wonderful talent in its best light. As far as I'm concerned she can sing anything; I own most of her CD's. But I believe it's a close call between this CD and "Eden" for the designation of her best to date. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This is my first Sarah CD, and I bought it because of hearing her on the Andrea Bocelli CD. THIS IS AMAZING. If you are a musical fan, this is a must have. She is truly spectacular. It is making my christmas shopping easier because everyone is getting this album....

Sarah Brightman has three different voices. One is her pop voice, which predominated on Fly and Dive. The second is her classical music/opera voice, which shot her to fame on Time To Say Goodbye. The third is her theatre/stage voice, which is stronger than her pop voice, but rich and resonant nevertheless.

It is this third which reigns supreme on this compilation of songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, her mentor, former husband, and still very good friend. One exception is "Pie Jesu" from Requiem.

She does justice to all the tunes here, including the song that put her on the top of the UK charts in 1986, "All I Ask Of You," from Phantom of the Opera.

I bought this soon after Time To Say Goodbye and it was an extra treat. She shines triumphant on uplifting tracks like "Love Changes Everything" and "Amigos Para Siempre" and on more sadder ones like "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," "Memory," "Tell Me On A Sunday" and "Music Of The Night," which I list as my favorite cuts on this collection. Her voices resonates with such beauty and power on "Memory" from Cats.

The string accompaniment on these songs are a welcome enhancement. "Tell Me On A Sunday" has become a favorite with heartfelt words like "Don't leave in silence with no word at all/Don't get drunk and slam the door/that's no way to end it." And she is incredible on the bridge: "Don't drive off in the pouring rain/don't call me as they call your train/take the heart out of all the pain." (Hope I got that right.)

With Sarah veering more into the realms of classical and pop, I hope one day she'll do a collection of songs done in this third vocal style, before it's too late for her to do so. Cheers again!

If you would like to purchase an anthology of Lloyd Webber works performed by Sarah Brightman, I suggest buying "Surrender: The Unexpected Songs". It was recorded with the oversight of Mr. Lloyd Webber and showcases both the singer and the orchestrations much more beautifully. The song list is better and more varied.

The only advantage this album has is the presence of "Anything But Lonely". Brightman's performance of this role (Rose in Aspects of Love) was a critical success and her recording is brilliant. However, this same recording can be found on "The Premiere Collection Encore" anthology along with Striesand's recording of "Memory".

My advice: buy "Surrender: The Unexpected Songs" and also buy "The Premiere Collection Encore". Don't buy this.

This CD is - wow! I have so much to say about it and so little time! This album features three pieces from "The Phantom of the Opera" - Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, The Music of the Night, and The Phantom of the Opera theme. They're all beautiful. The second piece on the album is "Unexpected Song". It has beautiful octaves and orchastrations. Chanson d'Efance is an amazing French piece with vibrato - and then some. I forgot to mention that there is another piece from The Phantom of the Opera - All I Ask of You - except that the song is not sung by the original cast from the musical. The next few pieces are fairly decent, until you get to Memory from Cats. WOW - is it spectacular! Then we get to two other pieces from Cats - Gus: The Theater Cat and Macavity: The Mystery Cat. Gus is a song that just tells about a cat and his history. A man speaks the lines that Gus would say in the actual musical - and it makes the song interesting. Macavity is AWESOME! I know that I said that I didn't prefer this song for Brightman on her album "Surrender". I finally listened to it more carefully, and found that it's really interesting to listen to! My favorite song on the whole entire album - however - has to be "Tell Me on a Sunday". Beautiful lyrics, orchestrations, and overall spectacular voice talent ties the whole song together. Pie Jesu is a fairly nice piece from both Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston - the 16 year old boy soprano. His voice is pure and straight with minimal vibrato. However, Brightman's voice shows a little bit TOO much vibrato! Overally, it's a good piece from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requium. THIS CD IS AMAZING! If you love Sarah from the Phantom of the Opera, then this collection of Lloyd Webber's work is just for you.

I also recommend Charlotte Church - (in her earlier career) - including Voice of an Angel and her self-titled album. I also recommend Love Changes Everything - The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection Vol.2 - just another grouping of Webber's classics. I also recommend Andrea Boucelli - he's awesome!