Customer Reviews

The Power Of Love

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

 

 

For all practical purposes, this album is NOT a John Tesh album. Although the album is billed as John Tesh's, it is rather another John Tesh Project, continuing the theme of 2000's "Pure Orchestra." As a matter of fact, this album contains the entire contents of that album. In other words, for those of you who already bought "Pure Orchestra," you'll only be getting 13 new songs from a 2-disc, 26-song collection. Both "Pure Orchestra" and "Power Of Love" feature orchestrated versions of songs by popular New Age artists (the contents of "Pure Orchestra") and contemporary artists (the new contents of "Power Of Love"). While the orchestrations are very pretty and quite well done, it is akin to listening to the instrumental selections of a Walt Disney animated feature soundtrack -- nicely done, but not very meaningful unless you're actually listening to it in the context of the movie. If you liked the presentation of "Pure Orchestra," you'll like the new material of "Power Of Love." "Pure Orchestra" was, to me, only OK, and, given this, and the fact that I essentially bought that album twice, I can only give "Power Of Love" 2 out of 5 stars.

These warm, moving, lushly orchestrated compositions for piano, backup band and orchestra are actually written by just about everyone but John Tesh (and I can't even be certain from the liner notes that he played the piano leads, but I'll assume for the sake of argument that he did). Selections covered include "Desert Rose" by Sting, "Watermark" by Enya, "After the Sunrise" by Yanni, "Havana" by Kenny G, "The Mummer's Dance" by Loreena McKennitt, "Silk Road" by Kitaro, "Longing/Love" by George Winston, "Picture This" by Jim Brickman, and "From this Moment On" by Shania Twain. Not being particularly into mainstream or popular music let alone cover-performances of other people's hits, I really didn't want to like this 2-CD set, but it got to me anyway the first time I heard it through. Many such adaptations are sadly watered-down, but this release is no elevator music. Okay, a lot of it actually sounds like movie soundtrack music, especially from a modern western or an emotional, outdoorsy chick-flick, but it's good soundtrack music--powerful, evocative and effectively orchestrated by J. Eric Schmidt along with Tim Heintz and John Tesh. The results of their efforts are fresh, poignant and as good as many of the originals (though I have to say I prefer Yanni and Loreena McKennitt's original versions of their own music). All in all, nice job! If you like the music of "The Power of Love", you're also likely to enjoy the work of Yanni. Try the compilations "In Celebration of Life" and "Reflections of Passion", or his latest release, "Ethnicity".

Since recently purchasing this CD, I have not been able to stop playing it. It is so well done that I play it on the way home from work to unwind and then at home for inspiration. All my favorite songs are on this CD and it is just beautifully orchestated. Anyone who enjoys John Tesh's music will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of work but into this CD. I highly recommend it.

Relaxing and beautiful best describe John Tesh's offering on this CD. Easy to listen and enjoy! Full of great sound and creations musically. Great decision to buy. I like John Tesh music.

I rediscovered John Tesh and his music. I really like this CD it is easy to listen to and relaxing.

I ordered this tape for a birthday present and it arrived in plenty of time for the birthday guy!! Thanks for being so helpful since it seems this CD is only found on the internet for sale, not at our local music stores. There was one song on it that was particularly special to him and now he can listen to it whenever he wants to!! Lynda

I purchased this cd because of one song I heard - Kiss From a Rose. I love the arrangement - one of the best arrangements of this song I've heard. The rest of the cd is great also, but then I like John Tesh anyway, and it's a double disk package which made it an even better deal!

This John Tesh disc is one of the strangest CDs that I have ever heard. After listening to "From this Moment" for just a few seconds, I choked on my Cheetos not once but twice. The music was quite good, though at the time I did not realize (though I should have) the diabolical qualities of the music to which I was listening. During the first time I heard "Can't Live a Day," I was overcome by waves of depression. I know that John Tesh is a pretty laid back guy, so I'm surprised that he would create music that would further exacerbate the emotional fragility of his fans. Ever since then I have been looking for equipment that can play that tune backwards, because there has gotta be a hidden message there somewhere.