Customer Reviews

Symphony of Light

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Symphony of Light" is pianist/keyboardist Frederic Delarue's fourth solo instrumental album and just might be his best work to date. In the liner notes, Delarue says that the album can be described as "when the great composers come play with Delarue." Blending original music with phrases from classical pieces, Delarue has created a collection of music that is warm, often joyful, and very serene. He mentioned to me that the classical music came to him as he was working on the album in a natural flow, and he had to figure out what the pieces were after the music was created. An interesting process!

A near-death experience at the age of twelve transported Delarue to the presence of angels who continue to guide his life and his music. "Symphony of Light" was inspired by and dedicated to "The Angel On the San Jacinto Mountain," an image etched into the rock by natural phenomena near Delarue's Palm Springs, CA home. The music was recorded on Korg and Kurzweil keyboards, and includes full orchestrations, ethereal voices, and various sound effects, all to wonderful service of the music.

"Heart Illumination" begins the musical journey with an ambient, floating piece that caresses the mind and strokes the imagination. Gentle voices draw you into a dreamlike state, and you feel as though you are flying very slowly through deep space. "Beauty of Forgiveness" hints at the Pachelbel "Canon" and contains snippets of "Fur Elise." This one makes me smile with its gentle warmth and touch of humor. "Flying Over the Canyons" begins with a simple melody on guitar with voices in the background. Layers are added as the piece builds. Piano, strings, and rhythms fill out the shimmering melody to perfection. "The Sounds of Intensity" hints at Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" with piano, strings, and other keyboard sounds - a very powerful and emotional piece. I love "The Scents of Joy," which is based on Mozart's Symphony #40. Strings and piano fill this piece with sunshine, joy, and a touch of whimsy. "Symphony of Light" is a little darker and more intense. A very full, rich sound gives it a cinematic sweep. Piano, strings, voices, and keyboard effects again create the sense of floating slowly and very peacefully through vast open space - gorgeous! "A Concert From Heaven" is another delight, combining musical phrases from a host of classical composers that include Grieg's "Morning", a Strauss waltz or two, and perhaps a little Tchaikovsky along with others. "A Morning At the Spring" is a lovely variation on Schubert's "Ave Maria" with birds and bubbling water in the background - tranquility set to music. "The Angel On the Mountain" is a beautiful piano-based piece that is a lovely tribute to the inspiration for this album. The CD closes with "The Emotion of Love," a gently flowing piece that you can just sort of wrap around yourself to feel all cozy and contented.

"Symphony of Light" is a wonderful musical experience from start to finish. Frederic Delarue is a master of this kind of soothing, healing music - a feel-good experience with some substance. Recommended!

The music is so unique and wonderful. I feel touch with the classical musical songs bring back with Frederic's style. The Track number 7 my favorite and so spiritual and powerful and I am not the only one talking about that. Some people are not spiritual that all so its easy to be a critic and don't work hard to produce music that will touch your soul or even being able to respect the work of an Artist since I am one as well in a different field. Frederic Music is so magnificent and Shymphony of Light very different and UNIQUE thanks for the wonderful music.

My experience with Frederic Delarue began with his "Eyes of Your Heart" CD, the most beautiful music I have ever heard. It is not only beautiful ethereal piano composition, but more importantly, it is so vibrationally superb. Symphony of Light is my fifth Delarue CD and Frederic's fourth album and, of course, it is very beautiful. It is from 2006. It is all instrumental, with 14 tracks, totaling 56:00 minutes or a wee bit less than one hour.

On the back cover he writes, ". . .to musically honor the Angel on the San Jacinto Mountain in Palm Springs, California, and the Sacred beauty of its area, and express my gratitude towards all Angels, Archangels and the Great Classic Composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Grieg, Tchaikovsky . . . for their endless inspiration." So, in this album, we have Delarue intertwined with the classicals. Again, we have the beautiful flowing melodic sounds of peaceful fulfillment that are so moving that it is difficult to adequately describe them. Peaceful passion comes to mind, which sounds contradictory. As always, the vibration that you feel is mesmerizing. The Angel on the Mountain is a beautiful angel carved into the side of the mountain, carved by nature.

This album has some peppier music but still it is tremendously peaceful and soothing and very beautiful. It carries the same vibration that you feel, rather than hear. I find the vibration to be quite awesome. Many people would likely just hear a beautiful symphonic-type collection of music. As usual, each track flows gently into the next with only a slight pause in between each. This is a beautiful CD I could just sink into a big old fluffy chair, put my feet up, and just totally chill out to.

The gracefully flowing tracks are:

1) Heart Illumination - 3:55

2) Beauty of Forgiveness - 4:43

3) Flying Over the Canyons - 4:29

4) The Sounds of Intensity - 3:48

5) The Scents of Joy - 2:48

6) A Rainbow of Flowers - 2:55

7) In the Palm of God's Hand - 4:06

8) Riviere de Lumiere - 2:13

9) Symphony of Light - 5:07

10) A Concert from Heaven - 4:06

11) The Colors of Harmony - 4:08.

12) A Morning at the Spring - 4:45

13) The Angel on the Mountain - 2:38

14) The Emotion of Love - 5:08

Most of these tracks I really find it hard to describe individually. As usual, the music has that beautiful flow to it. I must mention "A Concert from Heaven, though. This one had an especially joyful sound to me. It made me think of a German Beer Garden, where people were singing and dancing and clinking their steins. I also loved the name of In the Palm of God's Hand. That title is an awesome image for me. I picture a gigantic hand with me in the center, in Honey I Shrunk the Kids size. But the hand is as gentle to me as King Kong was to Alice Faye.

Frederic is a gentleman originally from France who now resides in the Palms Springs, California desert. As a 12-year old boy, he was in a horrible auto accident that ejected him from the car and busted him up badly. Following the accident, he had a near death experience (NDE) that forever changed his life. His music is so beautiful and so vibrational, he surely must have brought it back from Heaven as a result of the NDE. This is the kind of vibration that you feel, not hear, that I am talking about. This is VERY special music. You will want to play his albums over and over again. By the way, Frederic chooses to make lemonade when he is handed lemons, as you will see if you read his new book. He has a positive outlook and refuses to get caught up in the negativity, thank God! His music is obviously reflective of his positive outlook.

In "Symphony of Light" Frederic Delarue not only channels his angelic muse, he explores beautiful classical selections as they appear to him throughout his playing. This is a unique experience and I would recommend that you first listen to "Voyage of the Soul" to truly understand the heart of Frederic Delarue.

To fully enjoy this selection you have to be aware that he is "channeling" musical masters and that this is a celebration of classical music. His inspiration includes: "Fur Elise," "Moonlight Sonata," "Mozart's Symphony #40." He also draws on inspiration from Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Schubert.

His playing embodies a sense of tranquility and in this creation he draws on the past to unveil even more beauty captured in classical music. This is a warm and calming escape that has moments of recognition throughout, but retains Frederic Delarue's own sense of timing and energy. As a pianist/keyboardist he excels at creating musical landscapes filled with light and love. This album is no exception, but is exceptional in depth and the range of musical possibility.

Frederic Delarue is also featured on the benefit album Cousteau's Dream along with Yanni, Kenny G, Kitaro and Vangelis. He was born in Chartres, France, so, it is no wonder his music embraces the heights of the spiritual experience all while remaining grounded in a sense of profound moments of joy as experienced here on earth. He has also recently toured Japan and Washington State, USA.

I'd recommend listening to his music in this order:

Voyage of the Soul

Dolphins: A Message of Light

Soaring with the Angels

Symphony of Light

If you open your heart to Frederic Delarue's creations you will be blessed by a feeling of peace and beauty. You will also gain a sense of a renewed clarity of vision. His playing is truly a gift from celestial realms and he seems to mainly channel the love of God in his heart-filled expressions. After listening to his music I feel as content as a kitten curled up in a warm blanket. It is truly a thing of beauty and this CD in particular takes me back to the days when my mother would play classical music as I fell asleep.

I like the cover of this album because it seems to speak of an openness to receiving love/light from God and giving it back to the world. Truly when you hear all of Frederic Delarue's CDs, you know he is connected to the source of love.

~The Rebecca Review

I think that Symphony of Light By Frederic Delarue is a true Masterpiece. This newest CD is extremely powerful, rich, and magical. I think that Delarue is a magician at his craft and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE his music. I have been recommending Symphony of Light to all of my friends, and I really believe that his music is an investment in feeling good. Delarue's piano music is truly exhilarating and intensely uplifting for the soul!

I have followed Frederic's carreer from the beginning and was looking forward to his newest release, Symphony of Light, and once again he delivers some sounds that speak to the heart.

The opening number sets the athmosphere and tone...and the it goes into his wonderful compositions with some notes inspired by all the great composers and it all works in harmony!

As to the two reviewers who gave this CD a 1 star I can only shake my head in disbelief. You can sooth everybody apparently. I find this music truly a blessings! Thank you Frederic, for being you!

I first heard a track from this disc on KWXY in Palm springs, and ordered the disc that night! "In the Palm of God's Hand" is NOT a religious piece. I am not a practicing Christian, but found the music peaceful and it puts one in a serene mood.

I do not know Frederic personally as one reviewer does, but it's NOT about friends, it's about the music. This is an uninspired collection. Yes, it is not original, which is clear, but the trouble I have with the music is that it sounds very synthetic and electronic. I would like to hear a CD by Delarue playing with a real piano and would love to hear him play with another musician, as well. A violist, cellist, vocalist or even a guitarist would do. The days of electronics for anthing but house techno-dance music is really over. This is Delarue playing with Delarue synthetically. It's not inspiring, symphonic or soothing in the least. He may be a nice guy but I can't imagine anyone thinking of Christ or angels by listening to over-played classical music using synthetic overdubs and echo chamber effects. It's not about how nice Frederic is, because I have no doubt he might be, it's about the music and this falls well short of what this man could produce for us. Sorry, this is totally fake and you can hear it.

A well-meaning friend gave me this CD as a present. He saw this performer playing "live" on a street in Palm Springs. He knew I enjoyed piano, so he brought me this.

Despite the hype on the cover of being inspired by "Christ" and "angels", the performance strangely dispassionate and almost meek in character, as if Delarue is afraid of what he's doing.

I noticed another review that gave this 5 stars. It should be noted that the "glowing review" seems to be from this performers music publisher.

Although the music on this CD is not entirely offensive, it's also about as unoriginal and amateur as it can get. The music is mostly rambling nothingness with occasional quotes from classical compositions. My question is "why not simply get a marvelous recording of the originals?". Delarue has has created some very nice atmopheric sounds within his own realm, but taking from the masters make him sound like a novice piano student. He calls this opus "Symphony of Light". A symphony, by definition, is a work of music for many instruments playing together in perfect unison. This CD is certainly not that, nor is it classical music by any definition, so the title is completely misleading. What troubles me most about this work is that Delarue is trying to be something he is not. Instead of something charming and simple, it ends up being a weak and watered down version of something it's pretending to be.

The poorly pasted-up cover art shows Delarue in a clearly "Jesus-like" pose against a very dark, forbidding and stormy sky. Neither the cover or the music has anything to do with "light", "symphonic music", "Christ" or "angels". It all seems very full of itself and egotistical, when in fact, it's just downright pedestrian as New Age albums go.