Title : Encore
Author : Brightman, Sarah
Release Date : 20020423
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $18.98
Amazon.com Price : $11.99
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Editorial Reviews : 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. As the title suggests, the tracks here are 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,' while 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.
Buyer Reviews : A second helping of Sarah Brightman's theatrical songs, like The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. Sure, why not?
Encore hosts selections from Surrender-Unexpected Songs and The Songs That Got Away. What prevents this from being just another odds and sods collection are inclusions of previously unreleased songs done in sessions from both albums.
'Whistle Down The Wind,' performed in Sarah's first concert video with Andrew Lloyd Webber on piano, is finally available here. It's the album opener and an ideal way to introduce the album.
'Think Of Me' from Phantom is included here so one doesn't have to buy the original cast recording. It's a wonderful piece that's better here than on The ALW Collection.
'Guardami' and 'Piano' are done in Sarah's opera voice, with the majestic orchestra helping out. 'Piano,' which is Cats' 'Memory' sung in Italian, demonstrates how fluid Italian is, and why it is her preferred language of choice in singing. Yes, hearing 'Memory' sung in English AND in her opera voice just doesn't match. Now, Italian and opera voice, that's gold to the ears!
Other standout tracks include 'There Is More To Love,' 'If I Ever Fall In Love Again,' 'Nothing Like You've Ever Known,' and 'Chi Il Bel Sogno Di Doretta,' but the way she wraps her voice around the songs alone makes them worth listening to.
Listening to Encore may merit a reappraisal of The Songs That Got Away, which I dismissed after being spoiled on Time To Say Goodbye and The ALW Collection. So, would anyone who already has Surrender-Unexpected Songs and The Songs That Got Away may be satisfied with those two albums without getting this? Or put it in reverse, would anyone who bought Encore want to get the other two albums? Best yet, one should ask oneself this question, which is the title of one of the songs: What More Do I Need?
