CD REVIEW
– ANDREW
LLOYD WEBBER
SYMPHONIC SUITES
The Andrew Lloyd Webber
Orchestra/Simon Lee
Decca 3819953
(69')
'
Here at last is
this new release of what for many
of us is our kind of music
performed by a full orchestra. It
has been a while coming as it was
announced at the end of August
and the release date then put
back two months. Nevertheless,
well worth waiting for.
Set down in April
2021, but with Abbey Road not
having a large enough studio to
take 81 musicians social
distancing, Lord Lloyd Webber
suggested the stage at the newly
refurbished Theatre Royal Drury
Lane for the recording, and he
considers the acoustic proved to
be "really good for a big
orchestra."
The album is made
up of selections from three of
his best-loved and longest
running shows and among the
memorable tunes we hear Requiem
for Evita/Oh What a Circus, Don't
Cry for Me Argentina ('Evita');
As If We Never Said Goodbye, With
One Look ('Sunset Boulevard'),
Music of the Night, and All
I Ask of You ('Phantom of the
Opera').
Apart from a
video* of the 'Evita' movie
– the last LW show for which
Tim Rice wrote the words – I
have not seen or heard any of the
composer's other show
productions**, so quite a few of
the songs here are new to me.
Disappointingly, the booklet
fails to list titles. One of the
standout tracks is Part 3 of 'Phantom',
but I cannot tell you what it is
called.
Lloyd Webber, like
his Dutch namesake André Rieu,
usually does all his own
arrangements but here he enlists
the help of Andrew Cottee,
describing him as "a
brilliant orchestrator".
Cottee also assisted John Wilson
in his reconstruction of lost
numbers from MGM musicals.
All 21 items are
very well played by the
hand-picked band (I much prefer
The Times referring to
"virtuoso freelance
musicians" rather than The
Gramophone's "scratch
orchestra") and the
recording is splendiferous.
Wielding the baton, as he has
during the past 20-odd years for
several of Lloyd Webber's
soundtrack recordings and in the
theatre for 'Phantom', 'Cats'
and 'Ghosts', is that
man-about-music Simon Lee.
If you really
enjoy the album, you will be
pleased to know that the
marvellous melodist would like to
give more of his shows the same
treatment.
* What's that,
Grandad? !!
** I mentally walked out of the
cinema during the disastrous 'Cats',
which reputably lost the movie
studio close to $71 million.
© Peter
Burt 2021
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