Search - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Rodgers, Burton Lane :: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection / Encore

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Rodgers, Burton Lane
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection / Encore
Genres: Special Interest, Pop, Classical, Broadway & Vocalists

Track Listings (16) - Disc #1
1. Phantom of the Opera
2. Unexpected Song
3. Chanson d'Efrance
4. All I Ask of You
5. Don't Cry for Me Argentina
6. Another Suitcase in Another Hall
7. Love Changes Everything
8. Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)
9. Memory
10. Gus: The Theatre Cat
11. Anything But Lonely
12. Macavity: The Mystery Cat
13. Tell Me on a Sunday
14. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
15. Pie Jesu
16. Music of the Night
Track Listings (15) - Disc #2
1. Whitsle Down the Wind {From Whistle Down the Wind}
2. Away from You {From Rex}
3. Guardami (With One Look) {From Sunset Boulevard} [Italian Version]
4. Think of Me {From the Phantom of the Opera}
5. One More Walk the Around the Garden {From Carmelina}
6. Surrender {From Sunset Boulevard}
7. If I Ever Fall in Love Again {From the Crooked Mile}
8. Half a Moment {From Jeeves}
9. Piano (Memory) {From Cats} [Italian Version]
10. What More Do I Need {From Saturday Night}
11. There Is More to Love {From Aspects of Love}
12. Last Man in My Life {From Song and Dance}
13. In the Mandarin's Orchid Garden {From East Is West}
14. Nothing Like You've Ever Known {From Tell Me on a Sunday and Song and D
15. Chi il Bel Sogno Di Doretta {From la Rondine}

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CD Details

All Artists: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Rodgers, Burton Lane, Peter Greenwell, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin, Giacomo Puccini, David Caddick, Harry Rabinowitz, Michael Reed, Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford, José Carreras, John Gielgud, Cliff Richard, Steve Barton
Title: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection / Encore
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Decca Broadway
Release Date: 10/15/2002
Album Type: Box set
Genres: Special Interest, Pop, Classical, Broadway & Vocalists
Styles: Adult Contemporary, Vocal Pop, Opera & Classical Vocal, Musicals
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 731458993025

Synopsis

Amazon.com

In a career that's veered from '70s pop chanteuse to Broadway star and neo-operatic diva, Sarah Brightman has brought a critics-be-damned sense of dramatic scale to nearly every project she's tackled. This two-CD package of 31 hits brings together selections from Brightman's original Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, including many definitive versions of Lloyd Webber classics. Also included are songs from her album Encore, which itself was largely culled from her Songs That Got Away and Surrender song anthologies, although they do include four previously unreleased outtakes from those collections. Her 1998 recording of the title song from ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's Whistle Down the Wind succeeds by emphasizing its melodic grace with a deft, airy touch, while the remainder rescue worthy songs from obscure or failed musicals. From Lerner and Lane's 1959 Carmelina comes the lovely "One More Walk Around the Garden." Stephen Sondheim's youthful 1954 debut, Saturday Night, yields a sprightly take on "What More Do I Need," and an operatic reading of "In the Mandarin's Orchid Garden," from the Gershwins' unproduced 1929 East Is West, is also included. If the selection leans a little too heavily on the Lloyd Webber connection elsewhere (including Italian versions of "Guardami (With One Look)" from Sunset Boulevard and "Piano (Memory)" from Cats, delivered in her patently restraint-free soprano), they're only reminders that shrewdness has hardly been the least of Brightman's talents. --Jerry McCulley

CD Reviews

Encore!

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 09/29/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before she was a sparkling pop/classical diva, Sarah Brightman was a Broadway star and the onetime wife of the legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber. This two-disc set that includes her "Encore," a collection of songs from mostly-obscure musicals, and "The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection," several of Webber's songs (mostly picked from "Songs That Got Away" and "Surrender").

"Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection" starts off with the gothic "Phantom of the Opera," but quickly moves on to lighter fare in the airy "Unexpected Song," a soaring duet with Cliff Richards in "All I Ask Of You," the sparkling "Love Changes Everything," and some tepid forays into the shrill "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "Memory."

"Encore" is far more ethereal and steady. The piano-led "Whistle Down The Wind" starts it off on a strong note, before the aching "Away From You," operatic "Think of Me," affectionate "If I Ever Fall in Love Again," and the symphonic "Nothing Like You've Ever Known." A particular highlight is the sparkling "What More Do I Need," a little tune that celebrates how love brightens up even the most dingy little apartment, in the most miserable weather. "With your love/what more do I need?"

Sarah Brightman was obviously on solid footing with these two CDs. It might leave a bad taste in some fans' mouths that "Collection" is mostly compiled from a pair of other Brightman albums, but if listeners don't have "Surrender" and "Songs That Got Away," this two-disc set would be an excellent way to acquaint themselves with it.

"Encore" is steady and well-suited for Brightman's voice, as well as having a sort of Victorian-garden air. "Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection" has the most flaws of the two -- some of the songs like "Memory" aren't suited to Brightman's voice, and she comes across as shrill and uneasy. But in songs written for her talents and "Encore," her voice alternately soars and murmurs in an airy soprano.

Sarah Brightman reached her artistic pinnacle so far in the velvety "Eden," but her stuff here is still quite beautiful. "The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection/Encore" two-pack is a satisfying look at some of Brightman's Broadway-based songs."