Music Reviews: **Classic Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Classic Andrew Lloud Webber CD was released in 2004 and has various artists singing with the Orlando Pops Orchestra.  It is a two CD set and is an anthology of several Webber musicals.

The Classics is an operatic style, darker in nature.  I found it difficult to listen to some of the music on the this CD.  The soprano parts, instead of being entertaining, were painful to listen to, and sounded very much like a cat screeching.  The low-lights were the section from The Phantom, Memory from Cats and Another suitcase from Evita.  Some of these are my favorite songs, but not in this rendition.  I think the treble tones, which seem sharp at times, triggered my tinnitus.

One of my favorite songs is “Love Changes Everything.”  Love has changed everything for me.  However even this number was difficult to follow with the operatic style of the male singer.  Even so, the lyrics are very meaningful:

Love Changes Everything

Love, love changes everything Hands and faces, earth and sky Love, love changes everything How you live and how you die Love, love can make the summer fly Or a night seem like a lifetime Yes love, love changes everything Now I tremble at your name Nothing in the world will ever be the same
Love, love changes everything
Days are longer, words mean more
Pain is deeper than before
Love will turn your world around
And that world will last forever
Yes love, love changes everything
Brings you glory, brings you shame
Nothing in the world will ever be the same
Off into the world we go
Planning futures, shaping years
Love (comes in) and suddenly all our wisdom disappears
Love makes fools of everyone
All the rules we made are broken
Yes love, love changes everyone
Live or perish in its flame
Love will never never let you be the same

Love, love changes everything

Nothing in the world will ever be the same.

In conclusion I would suggest a pass on this anthology of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work by the Orlando Pops Orchestra.  I know there are other anthologies out there which are much better than this one.