Bryn Terfel - If Ever I Would Leave You (Songs from My Fair Lady, On a Clear Day, Camelot, The Little Prince, Brigadoon)

Alan Jay Lerner (Artist), Frederick Loewe (Artist), Bryn Terfel (Artist), Paul Daniel (Artist), English Northan Philharmonia (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 6, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00000DBTO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For crossover, very good, February 24, 2001

By 

"pspa" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bryn Terfel - If Ever I Would Leave You (Songs from My Fair Lady, On a Clear Day, Camelot, The Little Prince, Brigadoon) (Audio CD)

I usually hate the crossover genre, because the material almost always ends up overdone and not at all true to the idiom and mood of the original. That said, Terfel on this disc is about as good as crossover can get, using his fine voice to render pretty convincing and powerful versions of a number of Broadway classics. While he occasionally goes over the top, he is pretty faithful to the songs, and on those numbers that call for a rousing rendition (They Call the Wind Maria, for example), he really is splendid. Great sound quality and fine orchestral accompaniments.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great voice, a bit over-done, February 7, 1999

By 

R. Ley "robertl39" (Aptos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bryn Terfel - If Ever I Would Leave You (Songs from My Fair Lady, On a Clear Day, Camelot, The Little Prince, Brigadoon) (Audio CD)

I bought this CD as soon as I knew it was out, having thoroughly enjoyed his Rodgers&Hammerstein disc, and having heard him sing the most heardrending version of "Herr, lehre doch mich" in Brahms' Requiem that I have ever heard or could ever hope to hear. In the R&H I thought he sang sublimely. He gave great readings of songs which were familiar to me, and ones which I had never heard before. Some of my favorites from that CD are songs with which I was not familiar. I felt there was a hint of oversinging on some songs, but was willing to overlook those for the sheer beauty and unbelievable power of his other interpretations. On this CD [the Lerner and Lowe] some of the songs are overdone. It's almost as though he followed the R&H too quickly and didn't really LEARN these songs, didn't take them into his heart and caress them, feel them, the way he did the R&H. Emotion is a wonderful thing, particularly in singing, but it can seem artificial, and that's the way I feel about some of these. Listen to the way he sings some words that start with "b", almost popping them out of his mouth or gliding into them when it really isn't appropriate at that point in the song. I think he oversings on this one and it should have been more nuanced. He loves loud, he loves soft, but there can be an exquisite middle that sometimes eludes him here. That said, I'll still buy his next one in a heartbeat. A voice, and heart, of the quality we are not likely to ever hear again in our lifetime.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well it IS Bryn Terfel, after all..., January 31, 1999

By 

Thistle Brown (Bellefontaine, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bryn Terfel - If Ever I Would Leave You (Songs from My Fair Lady, On a Clear Day, Camelot, The Little Prince, Brigadoon) (Audio CD)

As a voracious fan of Terfel, I have almost every CD in which his voice sounds. This new effort is less pleasing than the Rogers and Hammerstein, as if Mr. Terfel's heart isn't quite so enchanted with Lerner and Lowe as the first two gentlemen. Having said that, I feel rather bad about it -- in much the same way that I feel bad for not liking his interpretation of Erlking on the An Die Musik CD -- more so because it's my current favorite album of ANY sort (were it an LP, it would have worn out long ago).