Classical Editor: Rob Barnett                               Music Webmaster Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com


The All Time Greatest Classical Album
featuring Barbara Bonney, Sarah Brightman, Jose Carreas, Charlotte Church, Michael Crawford, Placido Domingo, Karl Jenkins, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jacqueline du Pre, & John Williams (guitarist)
SONY TV97CD [Total: 150:52 * Disc One: 73:08 - Disc Two: 77:44]
29 tracks offering popular classical melodies and a selection of film themes and pieces from stage shows
AmazonUK

It's easy to dismiss albums like this as a sign of a general dumbing-down of classical music in particular and culture in general. It may however be more helpful to consider the glass half-full than half-empty, and hope that broad-appeal twin CD compilations along the lines of The All Time Greatest Classical Album will encourage at least some listeners to develop a greater appreciation of the works and composers represented here. That said, this is not one of the better examples of it's type. The Only Classical Album You Will Ever Need and Naxos' A-Z of Classical Music both do a far better job.

This particular album masters on big names from the Sony and Columbia catalogues, but fatally fails to provide anything like adequate documentation; we are told who the star singers are, but orchestras (except for two cases) and conductors are not even mentioned, and there are no notes of any kind. This is simply shoddy, cheap recycling of archive material, and if Sony do wish to encourage further exploration surely it would not be too much trouble to document the original performances and the albums on which they can be heard? If Naxos can do it at super-budget price there is no excuse at all. Beyond this the actual production leaves something to be desired, with 'Nessun Dorma!' being clumsily and rapidly faded from the original recording in a way which is amateurish almost beyond belief.

There is another, more serious problem. Without going into a discussion of what constitutes classical music, several of the selections clearly have no business flying under this flag. Perhaps the fact that this release is, despite the title, not on Sony Classical, but Sony TV. John Williams' Star Wars theme is undeniably extrapolated from the classical tradition, but much as I love the music I would not argue that it is 'classical' in itself. Ten fold less so James Horner's 'Rose' from Titanic, an attractive melody which is utterly jarring and tasteless when following Elgar. 'Pie Jesu' from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem is a difficult one to argue - it may be 'classical', but it is certainly not 'great classical' - but the same composer's Phantom of the Opera certainly has no place. And as for Stanley Meyer's 'Cavatina', popularised as the theme from The Deerhunter? A lovely tune, but not 'classical' music. I could go on, but you get the point. Nevertheless, the presence of these pieces may encourage people to buy the album, and then go on to discover 'real' classical music.

As for the pieces which are 'classical', given that they are torn out of their original context with no information provided, it is difficult to really say anything about them other than that they generally come from good performances with presumably major orchestras and conductors. The selections fall safely within the classical music as tuneful wallpaper approach of Classic FM and there will be very little here that even the most casual listener does not recognise. Much as I personally dislike this album I am loath to dismiss entirely because I think it does serve a purpose. It is only a shame that the album itself could not be better sequenced, produced and documented. As such there are many competing releases which do the same thing better. However, for those that want them, there are a lot of famous tunes here at a reasonable price.

Gary S. Dalkin

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