CD REVIEW
– ALED JONES & RUSSELL
WATSON
In Harmony
BMG 5053844533
(54:26)
How Great Thou
Art, Where Have All The Flowers
Gone / Here's To The Heroes,
Cinema Paradiso, You Raise Me Up,
Mattinata, Volare, Silent Night
and seven other tracks.
Not to forget the
famous Three Tenors, but this is
a home-bred Baritone and Tenor:
the well-known Classic FM and BBC
presenter / former boy soprano,
and the award-winning singer
known as "The Voice",
who have been friends for some
time but have only just got
together vocally for this album.
Here's To The
Heroes celebrates the
centenary of the end of World War
1 and the 70th anniversary of the
NHS. Another interesting piece is
Where Should This Music Be?
with words by William Shakespeare
sung to Edward Elgar's 'Nimrod'.
There is also the Bach/Gounod Ave
Maria, and Bright
Horizons was especially
written for the soloists by Sir
Karl Jenkins, the most performed
composer of his generation.
Fascinating to
read inside the digipak that the
orchestral accompaniment by The
New Zealand Sinfonietta –
conductor Tom Rainey – was
recorded in their own country,
the soloists in London and
Wilmslow, and the nine-member
choir in another London studio.
With its engaging
selection of songs, arias and
hymns, this is an enjoyable album
to listen to and achieved the
No.2 spot in Classic FM's annual
chart of the bestselling albums
for 2018. It seems it was also a
pleasure to perform as Aled
thinks Russell "sounds
brilliant", and Russell
thanks Aled for "being the
best singing partner ever."
Their voices certainly blend well
and the album is appropriately
named.
Whilst this
release manages seven minutes
more than that by Bryn Terfel
(see previous review) quality is
still not matched by quantity.
And if we are to
believe that nowadays nobody
under 40 years-of-age buys CDs,
BMG should reconsider the small
size and coloured background of
its liner notes if those for this
disc is the norm.
© Peter
Burt 2019
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