Customer Reviews

Hymn for the World 2 / Bartoli, Bocelli, Terfel, Chung

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

 

 

I bought this album to hear Andrea Bocelli's "I Believe", to which I still cannot listen without tears in my eyes. It is truly the most beautiful "hymn for the world" on the album! Of course, Bocelli is magical and never disappoints! Two other pleasant surprises were "A Song for Athene", the haunting melody I recalled from Princess Diana's funeral - very mysterious and moving. Bartoli's rendition of Gounod's Ave Maria is gorgeous beyond words, just like "I Believe". I believe you should buy this album - a wonderful experience.

As a choral singer, I am familiar with most of these works, but this recording knocked my socks off when I heard excerpts from it on a local classical music radio station. Not only does this CD group together some of the best music anywhere, but the performances are fantastic. The choral group has a remarkable precision and clarity in their sound that is admirable. And wonderful soloists. In summary, you might have heard many of these pieces elsewhere, but the impact of having these great performances all on one CD is amazing.

This collection (Also released as "Voices from Heaven", I believe) provides a nice retrospective of 400 years of sacred music. The choir is strong overall, and Bartoli and Bocelli (in his one song) prove admirable soloists, especially in the "Pie Jesu".

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Terfel, and for the "Libera Me" in general. What was the purpose of Faure carefully cutting most of the Dies Irae and hellfire passages if the singers attempt to put it all back in in an overdramatic rendition?

I would describe many of the songs on this CD as "muddy" in that the vocals do not standing out enough from the background orchastration and the overall effect is one of lack of clarity. There are much better recordings of everyone on this CD. Buy the songs you like but skip the CD.

This CD is worth having JUST for "I Believe" sung by Andrea Bocelli. Enough said!

I am giving only 2 stars to this CD because, though featuring really "famous" names such as Bartoli and Terfel, the overall sound is not as good as one expects it to be, maybe due to sound technicians, I could not say.
But what I think it's WORST about this album, is the Laudate Dominum (from Visperae de Confessore, by Mozart) performance by the Santa Cecilia Academy Choir. Being a choir alt singer myself and having sang the piece a few times, it pierces my ears to hear the altos out of tune IN THE FIRST LINE OF THE CHOIR SCORE!!!! How could the recording company put this in the market? Did nobody in the recording notice it? And the choir conductor? I would be ashamed of having a recording of my choir out of tune.

I must agree with Linda from Yor,Pa.."I believe " is the most beautiful song of this age and Andrea's voice is straight from God..as Celine said..This iis a great cd just like all of Andrea's are.. A must to buy...

Please, please please help me to find either where the music for "I believe" is published or where I can possibly obtain a copy of it. I have searched high and low (puns intended) and nothing. Thanks

CD's such as this one are intended, as Gramophone aptly put it, for "The Three Tenors" audience, the kind of "classical music for dummies" fare that I would urge you to avoid. Neither performer on this recording deserves much praise. Bryn Terfel is neither a deep basse like, for example, Cesare Siepi, not a warm-colored basse-taille like Nicolas Rivenq or Stephen Varcoe. He is particularly unispiring in baroque repertory. The hype over him baffles me. But the biggest hype in recent memory (whose ridiculous magnitude is comparable only to the medieval Dutch tulip bubble) is Andrea Bocelli. I was happy to read a recent review of this album by Gramophone, replete with some pretty scalding remarks, particularly about Bocelli (somebody finally said it!). Paraphrasing Gramophone, Bocelli just has no sense of tonal consistency or proper technique; all he does is alternating his annoying and unsteady baritonal droning with his shrill forays into high B's and C's. And alas, the normally excellent Cecilia Bartoli doesn't save this ill-begotten disc. She simply must have had a bad day. To hear her at her best, buy either her "Portrait" album or a more recent album entitled "If you love me, 18th-century songs." To hear a good performance by Terfel, buy "The Damnation of Faust" (Chung). To hear a good Bocelli... well, there isn't anything good with Bocelli. If you want a good "standard" tenor, try Jose Cura. If you are curious about some "non-bel-canto" tenors, check out Bostridge, Agnew or Padmore. In other words, spend your money elsewhere!

I'm not actually "reviewing" this album. Andrea's got a new CD debuting in October. Watch out for it. The end.