Customer Reviews

Paul McCartney: Working Classical

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

After the hugely disappointing Liverpool Oratorio and moderately disappointing Standing Stone, this is the first McCartney classical CD worth investing in.

Most surprisingly, the best tracks are the three longer orchestral pieces. Tunick's and Bennett's orchestrations of these works are appropriately lush, and the pieces are unabashedly romantic and gorgeous. Like Standing Stone, they sound very much like John Williams film scores, but gone are Standing Stone's self-conscious pretensions of being "modern", as Paul relaxes and revels in what he does best.

The string quartet pieces are less successful, though still nice. The familiar tunes (My Love, Maybe I'm Amazed, Junk) are lovely as ever, but don't add much to the originals, being pretty faithful transcriptions rather than departure points for new music. Most obviously unfinished is his way-too-short setting of the charming "She's My Baby", a wonderful, criminally neglected tune that a quartet arrangement could have (should have) gone to town with. Gershwin's endlessly inventive piano take-offs of his hit tunes come to mind as examples of a composer who took his own hit tunes and did something fresh with them. That said, I was pleased with Paul's choice of tunes to set, though, as they all rank among my favorites of his.

Least successful are his two original quartet pieces, Haymakers and Midwife, the former almost completely devoid of ideas.

All in all, expect charming, tuneful, romantic, occasionally familiar. After the first two classical CD's of McCartney's, I was insisting he give it up and go back to rock music, but happily, I can now start to look forward to more of this shamelessly pretty music!

There's a lot of McCartney's music that is perfectly suited to classical interpretation. What is here of the older material isn't radically different than the originals although still pleasant. The new compositons, particularly A Leaf, Haymakers and Tuesday all show McCartney's growth as a composer.

I didn't feel that Standing Stone was a disappointment (nor Liverpool Ortario). They were just departures to new destinations for McCartney. While the promise at these destinations weren't completely fulfilled, they had their moments.

This is a fine display for McCartney's writing skills and well worth the investment.

I'll tell you something interesting about this CD. I started listening to it while I worked on my computer. I was familiar with some of the songs in a different form. All of a sudden, I felt very relaxed! I mean, I felt a real sense of relaxation that was significantly different from how I was feeling before! I think these songs are complex, subtle, and I find I like them more the more I listen to them. If you are a McCartney fan, I think you will be pleased and surprised with what you hear on this CD.

I bought this album shortly after it came out and shortly after buying "Run Devil Run" which I thought was very good and being a big Paul fan I thought I'd give this a chance. I had never heard any of Paul's classical ventures before and I found this to be incredible. All of the songs he wrote before and then scored for a string quartet sound wonderful. The three orchastrated pieces are incredible also. I haven't listened to the others quite as much, but "A Leaf" is supreme. Buy this if you are a fan of Paul, Classical music, or preferrably, both.

There are no words to describe this CD. It is emotional, strong, beautiful, and stunning. I would have NEVER expected violin and McCartney to be so prodigious together. I highly recommend this CD, if you can appreciate classical music and Mccartney music, in any way.

McCartney always has "classical" in mind, no matter what he's writing at the time, or so it seems. Otherwise, how do you explain how well his pop/rock pieces translate?

Perhaps I'm biased, maybe I'm amazed, maybe I've gotten used to the well-known pieces, but having listened to it a few times, I find the less known pieces to be even more spectacular.

The curious thing about this CD is how so many people, including myself, started out with low expectations only to be pleasantly surprised by this work's staying power. While these pieces may be simplistic compared to classical composers, so what? McCartney isn't exactly without gifts. Few composers this century of any variety possess his way with melody, but, that being said, there is more than just pretty tunes here. While the works seem to have been written as a kind of homage to Linda, there is nothing maudlin about the arrangements. Nor is there much of the bombast and over-reaching that marred McCartney's previous forays into serious music. The music possesses a gentle, even reserved, melancholy some of the time, and a sort of sober whimsy at other times. While I think this is a great artist at some distance dealing with a great loss, a listener doesn't need to know anything about the context to appreciate the musical achievement here.

sir paul writes such beautiful melodies. found this in the library and just loved it. it is such a peaceful pleasure to listen to. you will find some familiar tunes and other new ones. i find it moving and lovely.

Confused recent reviews have argued about whether this is classical or MUZAK. Whatever you want to call the form, the music itself is brilliant and inspired. We would not give two shakes about these tunes that are in some cases thirty-six years old if they had no draw to our hearts and no merit. This album would have been released and forgotten and that definitely has not happened.

I have just listened to the broadcast of Paul's most recent classical work Ecce Cor Meum from Carnegie Hall in New York (Nov. 14, 2006) and prior to the main piece, the soprano Kate Royal and another vocalist sang these songs accompanied by the same quartet that appears on Working Classical. It was essentially a live version of this album with vocals and it was brilliant as is the original Working Classical CD. My Love, Warm and Beautiful, Calico Skies and Junk come off as extraordinarily brillant as they do on this recording. These songs, whether in this form or closer to their original form, will live forever and no amount of "orchestration" can kill them.

The same reviewer wrote: "it is a sign of the decline of serious culture that so many people actually believe that this MUZAK is classical music". How pompous some classical music fans are that they cannot conceive of any important music being written in modern times. Another reviewer wrote: "an orchestrated pop song is still a pop song". Perhaps, but that is not a fatal critcism that would obviate the joy these melodies give and emotions they hold. On the contrary, this is not elevator music. Elevator music is not compelling, its not memorble and its not written by a genius named Paul McCartney.

If you were to take a sonata by a well-known classical composer and play it among 'elevator music' with an overblown song like "Feelings", for example, would that turn it into elevator music? The discerning among us know the difference. An orchestrated pop song is not just MUZAK. That is just simple-minded. This idea comes from John Lennon's song "How Do You Sleep?" during which he idenifies Paul's music as MUZAK. John later denounced and rejected the sentiments of that song.

It turns out Paul is the coolest Beatle because he is the least affected, the least afraid to worry about what people would think about his doing something like this recording. He is not worried about the posturing associated with the tough guy rock and roll image. He is first and foremost an artist and musician--one of rare quality and talent.

Macca's two previous classical outings, the uneven Liverpool Oratorio and the dull Standing Stone, fell squarely into the for-Fabs-obsessives-only category. On Working Classical, however, he plays to his melodic strengths and comes up with a winner. Both well-known and obscure solo compositions like She's My Baby and Warm and Beautiful work marvelously as short string-quartet pieces, creating a warm, emotional picture. The three longer orchestra works also come off surprisingly well, rewarding the listener more with each listening, the standout being A Leaf. A powerful non-followup to the rock classicism of Run Devil Run.