Customer Reviews

Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just couldn't wait for this CD to be released and now I can't share all the enthusiasm I read about. I am highly disappointed because I consider it one of the most boring collections in years. There isn't one song in there that I haven't heard the original recording artist do better. I don't know what all the hoopla is about. I love R&H and BP, but this just doesn't cut it for me. (Reminds me of Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley's recording of "The King and I". What a shame ... for all of us!)

Bernadette Peters gets it: in musical theatre the words are as important as the music. If you like your standards crooned like warm butter and spun silk, this may not be the cd for you. This incomprable musical theatre star gets to the heart of these classic songs and dispels the notion that Rodgers and Hammerstein shows are just fluffy musical-comedy.

Bernadette Peters is usually associated with Sondheim. And I loved her in Webber's Tell Me On A Sunday. This BP loves R & H is quite something.

Miss Peters' unique talent comes right through the "live" recordings. The phrasing is not practised like Miss Streisand would in her studio recordings. Mind, I do adore Miss Streisands' talents enormously. BP oozes fun and frivolity in some of the cheeky numbers like The Gentleman is a dope and Mr Snow.

Her guts and emotions are so intact for the performances of these songs here, that she sounds like she's in character on stage!! Only without the usual distractions of a live stage recording. Although at times, her voice is too forwardly placed, but it works as I listen to it again and again. She is right here on stage in my home!! Brilliant!

Miss Peters' rendition and choice of There is nothing like a Dame is rather audacious but appropriate. Do listen to this and enjoy what she is trying to say.... a howling, glaring, gutsy telling of R & H music and lyric!!

The treatment of It Might As Well Be Spring and Something Good is most exquisite. The latter, as pointed out by others here, is a mostly over-looked gem from The Sound Of Music.

In Weber's Tell Me On A Sunday, BP delivered the most individual performance I've heard. And here, now doing R & H, I am in love with Miss BP again....

Jonathan Tunick of course, has come up with some stunning arrangements and never sounding like he is repeating himself even though he has arranged these tunes many times for other artistes. Great work.

Other pieces to really note are, If I Loved You,Out Of My Dreams, So Far....I Haven't Got A Worry In The World, Something Wonderful.... well, the whole CD recording!!!!!!

Get it, a wonderful collaboration of all involved..and of course the fabulous Miss Peters. Don't forget to check out the TATTOO.

I have every BP CD and was another person anxious to get this release. Ms. Peters has a distinctive voice, and simply doesn't have the range to tackle these songs. R & H wrote for legit voices with true soprano or alto characteristics, so it is a bit too much to expect the same person to sing "If I Loved You" AND "Mr. Snow" AND "You've Never Walk Alone" in orchestrations that bring to mind the context of the characters Julie, Carrie, and Nettie in the show Carousel itself. If they had been done as jazz or pop interpretations (as in the "let's have fun with this" cut of "There is Nothin' Like a Dame"), then BP's obvious vocal flaws wouldn't have been so obvious. It is simply painful to hear her reach for some of the required notes.

It is equally painful to not be able to recommend this album. I give it 3 stars only out of respect for a wonderful performer. BTW, I have tried to listen to it more than 3 times, and it depresses me more with each airing. BP needs a producer who leads her down the right path instead of allowing her to present herself in a bad light. That path has more cuts like "The Gentleman is a Dope" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing."

Miss Peters is best when heard in person, either in concert or a stage performance. That said, this album is the next best thing since she sings live, as the orchestra plays, giving each song a spark and a vibrancy that is absent in many recordings. I was sold on this album even before I heard it because the orchestrations were arranged and conducted by Jonathan Tunick, who I first became familiar with via one of my all-time favorite albums (Cleo [Laine] Sings Sondheim). There is depth and clarity and layers of sounds in every song, to which Miss Peters then adds herself. I agree with another reviewer who said that the up-tempo songs are best -- Miss Peters is GREAT with a quick lyric -- but every song on this CD is reinterpreted beautifully. I recommend it highly -- there's nothin' like a dame, after all.

When the artist and the music fit together as well as Bernadette Peters and the music of Rogers & Hammerstein go together, the result is going to be wonderful. Such is the case with Bernadette loves Rogers & Hammerstein.
I will admit at the start that I am a Peters fan, and buy anything by her I can find. Sometimes fans get rewarded for that, and the new CD is such a reward.
The CD features a good variety of R & H songs, tender songs such as Something Right, beautiful songs such You'll Never Walk Alone, and vigorous fun music such as There's Nothing Like a Dame. The great quality of Ms Peters" talent that shows in this CD is that she has the power for the power songs, but can sing the beautiful songs in the way they deserve as well. The more comic songs are just a riot. Anyone who loves show music or enjoys the work of Bernadette PEters will want this CD.

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm really not a R & H fan. As a musical fan, I usually find that this statement makes people think that I'm just a horrible person but hey, I just have never gotten into much of their music. That said, I love this album. Some of the songs I knew, but many I had never heard, and it really didn't matter. Each song is interperted wonderfully, and even the songs I know take on a different meaning with Bernadette telling their story. Short of her cast recordings, it's been many years since Bernadette released a new album, and my only regret is that now that this CD is out, it will doubtlessly be another long wait till the next! Bottom line: whether you love Bernadette, love R & H, or love both, you will love this CD!

This cd has, in my humble opinion, the best recorded version of "If I loved you" I have ever heard. I know that everyone who rates this cd is going to wish she included this song or that song - I'm grateful for the gems she recorded. The one misstep was her new arrangement of 'There is nothin' like a dame' from South Pacific. Miss Peters has a great ability to add comedy into her songs - and I just didn't connect with this one. I see that someone else below liked this song - so maybe it's me.

But now that she is recording, can't someone please lock her in a recording studio so we can enjoy definitive studio recordings of the best of Sondheim (I'd love to hear her versions of songs like 'Happiness' and maybe an updated 'I'm still here' WITHOUT the applause and screams you hear in her concert versions); the best of Kander & Ebb, the best of Rodgers & Hart; the best of Jerome Kern; and maybe even the best on Broadway (the 1990s); and so on.

I received my copy of this CD the day after watching an American Masters bio of Richard Rogers, and I was psyched. I love Bernadette Peters and I adore Rogers & Hammerstein - but I was sorely disappointed in this album. All the way through it I kept having the feeling they had to wake Ms. Peters up between cuts. Even songs like "It's a Grand Night for Singing" had about as much spark as a wet match. The arrangements just did not do justice to either Ms. Peters or Rogers and Hammerstein.

I feel like a traitor, but I just cannot recommend this CD.

Did not think Ms. Peters voice was up to par--she sounded tired and weak. The musical arrangements were mediocre, not exciting, boring. Kept waiting for a song to get better but they never did. The flow of voice and instruments was jerky and hard to listen to. And Ms. Peters is normally one of my favorites!