Customer Reviews

Loreena McKennitt: Live in Paris & Toronto

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

That said, this is not her best work (which are: The Mask and Mirror, and Book of Secrets). The first CD here is essentially a repeat of Book of Secrets and while some songs work better live (Highwayman comes to mind) some are not as good (the Mummer's Dance which is "perfect" on the Book of Secrets CD, here it is a bit rushed and the awesome power and sense of "controlled abandon" is lost in this live version. For me, Mummer's Dance on Book of Secrets CD is as close to perfection in music as I ever hope to hear).

The second CD here is well worth owning. Just about every song is better than the studio version. Loreena made a fairly radical shift in her music over a period of several years (starting with "The Visit") and by the time this tour takes place (1998) she was quite comfortable with her new sound (and her band of "idling Porsche's" as she calls them ;-). The result is that all these older songs benefit. Not that the old versions are bad, they were great, just these versions are slightly better.

My only problem (and its minor) with the second CD is that it ends anti-climactically. The real heart of the record is "The Bonny Swans" followed by her haunting song "The Old Ways". The two encores given here (All Souls Night and Cymbeline) just don't measure up. Keeping them was faithful to the performance but marrs the CD, in a very small way.

BTW: I saw her San Francisco performance, it was wonderful and just like the recordings on these CDs.

This is a wonderful album on many reasons. Like most McKennitt fans I held off from buying it because I already had the songs on other CDs. This first CD is really a complete performance of The Book of Secrets, and the second is a carefully chosen selection from The Visit and The Mask and The Mirror (plus a hidden bit, which as you will see shortly could probably be considered a lament and a memory). By and large McKennitt stays very true to the original recordings. Tempo's are generally slightly slower, although there are exceptions like The Highwayman, which is a full minute faster here.

There are subtle differences everywhere in phrasing and the inner working of her group. In a piece like The Mummer's Dance, for instance, you become much more aware of the workings on the strings. And songs like The Lady of Shallot and Dante's Prayer reach a level that can only be described as perfection. Live performance is the acid test of a musician's powers, and everyone in the group, from the likes of Brian Hughes and Hugh Marsh to La McKennitt herself, achieves everything that could be desired.

This was McKennitt's last album, put together in 1999. Suddenly a brilliant and fertile career came to a halt, with nothing about why every being said. The sole clue to the hiatus is two lines in the album folder dedicating the album to the memory of Ronald Douglas Rees and mentioning the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund For Water Search And Safety. Ronald Rees was Lorena McKennitt's fiancé and he died unexpectedly while she was wrapping up this album. For some time she was completely silent, but has gradually increased her performances again. Now a visit to her website reveals that another album is in progress. Good for us, and very good for Loreena as well.

If for no other reason than that on two CDs you have many of McKennitt's songs done beautifully you should by this. For the newcomer, I can't imagine a better introduction to the work of a woman who is scholar, minstrel, and beauty. For the fan it is a reward for the affection of a singer/songwriter who has stayed steadily true to her vision of what should be, rather than fall to the lure of pop culture.

Lorenna Live is not about the music. It's the mood. She carries "an evening" so beautifully and magically. It takes you out of your surroundings and put you into the embrace of her sound. It has become my favorite rush hour commute music. I can stay in that subway car for ever with that album.

I'm desperately craving new material by Loreena McKennitt. But until then I'll have to thrive on settling with the old stuff sounding fresh and new. Many of the songs here are actually better than the original versions. It's clear to see that something happens to people when performing live that can either outcome as sounding worse or spectacular, as is the case here. Once singer and musician step on stage before a sea of fans their energy just flows through the entertainers and can often lead to versatile selections that reaches the song to never imagined heights. It's amazing the magic that conspires here as you peruse this disk. I'm not saying that all Live albums sound better than the originals, because I'd be lying if I did, but some singers just have that special touch while others don't. I'm a leery critter when buying anything live, but trust me when I say that this is a maginifcent performance taken from her concerts in Paris & Toronta Canada. It will make you want to be there with every fiber in your being, and that's poignant...

The first CD includes every song sung on The Book Of Secrets in chronological order, and CD 2 has many different songs selected from her prior records such as The Mask And Mirror and The Visit. I especially think that Santiago and The Swan Song are more animate than the originals. They're more powerful and emote more feelings, especially Santiago which makes me want to dance, which is an important factor to me in music. This is her best CD yet, and if she so happens to read this, PLEASE BRING OUT SOME NEW SONGS! Oh, and if you're wondering, my absolute favorite song would have to be the slightly dancy, slightly celtic, The Old Ways, which I don't happen to have on any of the CDs I own by her, so that was an added treat to me. And the violin featured on that song has got to be one of the most beautiful instruments in the world... but it's not until her voice comes in that the tune really wisks the listener away. And the last song, Cymbeline... Well, words can't fairly do justice to the beauty of that song.

I am split on this album. On the first CD, the Book of Secrets one, all of the songs except one are worse than the studio album. The only song I liked better here than on BoS was Mummer's Dance. It is faster than the studio version but slower than the single, a perfect compromise for me. Otherwise, however, the first set is disappointing. Night Ride Across the Caucuses, my favorite from BoS, is siphoned of all of its liveliness in this version. The second CD, however, is amazing. Truly breathtaking. I can say confidently that this CD is her single best CD of all. I think every song other than Bonny Portmore and Lady of Shalott is better here than on the studio albums, and Between the Shadows, Bonny Swans, the Old Ways, and All Souls Night or so vastly improved that they feel like different songs. I cannot stress how much any Loreena McKennitt fan is missing by not having this CD. Listening to the older versions of these songs really shows the listener how much she has grown musically. Between the Shadows, specifically, is so much better than I think I would say that it is now my all time favorite LM song. There are several violin solos on this song that are just amazing. Again, I cannot stress how great the second CD is, and for that, a 5!

If there is a voice out there that captivates me, that can take me to fresh places in the landscapes of my imagination while at the same time making me feel the evocative emotional undercurrent of her music, it belongs to Loreena McKennitt. This woman has the Power, I tell you. I special ordered this album from her website somes months ago and it has gotten constant play since it arrived in my mailbox. That being said, if you haven't heard her stuff before, this might not be the best place to start. You are better off with the studio albums, most notably Secrets, and my favorite, The Mask and The Mirror. What makes this album special is how well the studio music translates to a live performance. The newer stuff from Secrets that make up Disc One is extremely familiar, often paralleling the studio versions, but infused with a special energy that only a live performance can give it. The older material on Disc Two is wonderful because of the way it has been worked and polished since it first appeared on the original studio albums, bringing fresh interpretations to familiar favorites. If you're a fan, buy it; you won't regret the purchase. (But you already know that if you're a fan.) If not, put it on your list of future acquisitions and check out some of McKennitt's earlier stuff. Or buy it anyway; you won't regret it, only miss the pleasure of comparing its tracks from the earlier studio albums. Not a big deal. Botton line: if you haven't heard this woman's art, and you love good music infused with deep passion, you have been missing a true pleasure.

I will preface by saying that I have never seen Loreena live, so I can say whether the recording lives up to her performance in person. I got into Loreena McKennitt relatively late, in the summer of 1998, so I have yet to experience her live (but I can't wait!). This collection does, however, support any claim that Loreena is even better live than in the studio. By the time this album was released in the fall of '99, I was the happy owner of all seven of her LP's (including two seasonal recordings) and two of her singles. By then, I knew her work well, and I was quite familiar with The Visit, the mask & mirror, and Book of Secrets, the three albums she revisits on this live collection.

The first disc is essentially a live version of Book of Secrets: all the same tracks are arranged in the same order. Other than applause between every song, and the occasional `chat' with Loreena, this sounds just like a studio recording. The quality is steady, and the songs do not sound hollow as many live recordings of artists do. I was amazed at how Loreena was able to make all the songs sound just as good (or better, in some cases), but also subtly change them. Each track sounds different than the studio recording, especially the highwayman. This change, however, is welcomed, as the highwayman transcends from being merely a good song on BoS to being the best song in the live version. It's amazing how Loreena makes it better even as the performance is going.

The second disc is a compilation of songs from The Visit and the mask & mirror. The disc opens with The Mystics Dream from m&m and continues from there. Book of Secrets was released in 1997, a mere two years before this release, so her style has changed relatively little in between. The songs on this second disc, however, are from her 1991 and 1994 releases, and it is obvious that she has found new forms in her music. All nine songs on this second disc are significantly different from their original versions, but they are all better. I was blown away the first time I heard the live version of Between the Shadows (Persian Shadows). It sounds nothing like the studio version, but it is still so great. The notes are the same, but practically everything is different, from the instruments to the orchestration, and the result is practically a new song. Live in Paris and Toronto may be live versions of her songs, but you may as well consider the second disc to be new material, because it lasts as long as new material would. I am shocked that any artist could take her own material and re-interpret it so differently, yet so beautifully. This, of course, is not the first time Loreena has shocked me with her talent, and I am quite sure it isn't the last. Anyone with even a passing interest in Celtic music should pick up this collection. I can quite confidently say it is *the* most important Celtic collection in existence. 5/5

Possibly best known for her single, "Mummer's Dance", this hauntingly poetic songstress is now happily flowing more into welcoming ears. Loreena McKennitt has spent the last few years exploring the history of the Irish-Canadian Celtic music. She's found traces in Spain, Arabic Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe. And those strands came together in 1997's "Book of Secrets". When she took the material on tour, she brought along a band composed of players from the folk, world and classical world who helped McKennitt open up the tunes with touches of Arabic swing and flamenco fire.

Fiddler Hugh Marsh turns in a blazing solo on "Santiago," while the extended instrumental arrangements of "Marco Polo" and "La Serenissma" give McKennitt a chance to showcase her own improvisational skills with her voice, harp, accordian, electronic keyboards, and piano talents.

This is one spiritual lady. And this two-disc set, (recorded live at Salle Pleyel, Paris, France and Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada), may just well bring the Celtic folk soul into yours.

Every time I listen to this album, I wish more and more that Loreena Mckennit would come back and record again. I admit that I was a bit dissapointed with the Live album on first purchase, but I foolishly was expecting the pristine quality of her studio recordings, which would have been impossible, and probably a bit too precious anyway, in a concert context. Her band, including Danny Thompson, one of the best bass players anywhere, tackles her songs with unexpected bite, and Loreena, to her credit, goes with the flow.
It's funny that she is always compared to Enya-inevitable, I guess, in a superficial way, but in reality, they couldn't be more different. Enya, like most of her new age allies, is content to sculpt pleasing soundscapes, but shows little interest in actually constructing a song out of the material, so you get a general emotional wash, rather than a specific emotional connection. Lorenna Mckennitt does go the extra distance to crafting a song, and her considerable knowledge and research into music history makes even her adapted material work. Who else would think of taking "The Lady of Shalott" or "The Highwayman" and put music to them, and of those that might, who among them would create backing music so organic, that it becomes hard to believe that the poems were created without music.
Well, here's hoping that she returns to music soon, maybe in time to write the theme for the next "Lord of the Rings" film...

Live in Paris and Toronto is simply stunning to hear! It is a culmination of the many songs that Loreena has composed and sung. The best part of this CD is that it is LIVE! You feel as if you are in the audience! I could not help but start clapping when the audience clapped. The songs in this CD have a different twist then do the ones that are not live. The Mummers Dance is in a completely different sound and it is just stunning to see what Loreena and her badn can do on a stage without the recording technology that her regular albums have. It's awesome. One may wonder why you should buy Live in Paris and Toronto if you have the other albums. Well the thing of it, is that though the songs may be the same as in the albums...this is more real and the music has a different aspect....it's quite thrilling, and I encourage all Loreena fans to buy this CD! It's worth it! Now all Miss Mckennitt needs to do is go on tour....and SOON!