Search - Yes :: Symphonic Music of Yes

An Overlooked, Wonderful Yes Album

music reviewer | 10/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a refreshing, but overlooked addition to the Yes catalogue. Some of the best moments of this album have to include the symphonic version of "Close to the Edge", which is nothing short of brilliant. The orchestra takes the place of the vocals and displays the song in a new light - which is nothing less than inspiring. "Wonderous Stories" also works surprisingly well complimented by Bruford's drumming. "Survival", "Soon", "Heart of the Sunrise" and "Roundabout" really hit the mark in a wonderfully melodic way. Howe & Bruford shine throughout the album but I think the best piece on the album may be Steve Howe's "Mood for a Day" which is actually better here than the original on the Yes Fragile CD. After the mess with the Union album this was very much appreciated."

A Good Collection Of Hits, with excellent arrangements!...

Jeff T. Jesmorh | Mexico City. | 03/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In 1993 with the release of this recording, YES crossed the line of the regular minded and simplistic common sense's of some white collar chiefs of marketing; and against all expectations "SYMPHONIC MUSIC OF YES" appeared in the market acting as a giant step ahead, a revealing light to follow, for a lot of bands, devoted fans and unbelievers. Since then, every famous Rock band has tried to record a classical instrumented Hits collection material, but how many groups have achived something like this? probably very few! But when all this happened, who are going to imagine that years later; once again (2004), YES will take take again their music another step forward into the realms of Progressive Rock with the release of "MAGNIFICATION"? But that's another story...



SYMPHONIC MUSIC OF YES, is Featuring the physical presence of Steve Howe, Bill Bruford & Jon Anderson in the studio; the tracks were orchestraly recorded by former Pink Floyd's young engineer ALAN PARSON, reaching an excellent quality of orchestral arrangements for the Yes material, The great version of "Roundabout" is a fantastic example of this... but after all, haven't they tried to make their music more symphonic since 1970: Just before the transitional released of "The Yes Album", and the Kaye/Banks departure; YES worked out their initial experiments (remember that the musical YES'concept is into the Squire/Anderson minds) with the orchestral experiments since the TIME AND A WORD album. And now they have found another great way to get the job done... Remember that this decade was the playfull scene for groups of the Alternative Grunge ROCK!..... Good Luck!

"

Recommendable.

Bernardo Vargas | 09/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For the old fan, this production represents the opportunity to listen to well known songs with a different layout. True, Yes had always been "symphonic", but here they made a much more extensive use of the orchestral apparatus, thus producing some interesting results. Not all of the songs are produced in the same fashion. "Close to the edge", "Wonderous stories", "Mood for a day (of course), "Owner of a lonely heart", "Heart of the sunrise", and "Starship trooper" are totally instrumental, whereas "Rundabout" and "I've seen all good people" feature full lyrics. The rest include partial performance of the original lyrics by a choir, and in "Soon" you can hear Steve Howe reciting.There's another feature that deserves comment: the recording engineer was no less than Alan Parsons."