Search - Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra :: The Orchestral Tubular Bells

Perfectly Orchestrated

12/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I actually tried to arrange this piece as a project in high school, and even if you don't have an appreciation for orchestral music, this recording is so true to the original composition, and I think it's a great version of the electrified original. Really uses all of the voices of the orchestra well, and as a classically trained bassoon player, I've always loved this performance."

A disappointment

Bill R. Moore | New York, USA | 08/15/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This album is of marginal interest to hard-core Mike Oldfield fans (who already have TB in it's multidious other incarnations), and of no interest whatsoever to anyone else. If you loved the original TB, then this will be of interest to you, in it's expansion and contrast to the original, as it offers a somewhat different shade of perception on the music. However, I must say, this album is nowhere near as good as it could have been. It's a very intriguing idea-TB is one of my favorite pieces of music, ever-and orchestras can always, if applied correctly, make the music just that much better. It doesn't come across perfectly here, though, unfortunately. There were two ideal approaches for the arrangement on this album: re-writing and re-arranging the whole TB piece, with the orchestra in mind; and more or less re-playing the original with orchestral backing. Neither of these approaches were taken. Instead, the music is merely transferred from the original instruments to orchestration. This makes for a predictable, somewhat tedious affair that offers few surprises. Also, the album is poorly produced. The noise dynamics are off, and it's too quiet at times. Perhaps remastering would help. In synthesis: get this if you are a total Mike-addict who loves TB, and just has to hear this slant on it... otherwise get his better albums and forget about this one."

For Mike's fans only

Mike Chadwick | Gdynia,Poland | 08/29/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"this is an Orchestral version of Tubular bells.simply nothing new is not going on in here,orchestra sounds nice - but what for buying something that can't beat the original version?
as is said,it is only for die-hard fans,the rest can be sure that they are not missing anything...
ps.if you want to buy it,check out the HDCD remastered edition,it sounds much better..."