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 : Miss Brightman has really excelled herself with this album which is quite simply fantastic. It has now replaced my favourite Inspector Morse soundtrack as my album of choice whether receiving guests, entertaining the chaps in the office or relaxing at home with a glass of whiskey.
Just don't tell my wife who already thinks I harbour ungentlemanly thoughts about the lovely Sarah!
