Sarah Brightman

It has become a fact of life that shelves and iTunes stores will be flooded with holiday-themed albums around this time of year. Like clockwork, we'll pick them up, play them constantly right up until the last relative waves goodbye and then away they go until next November. With her first Christmas album, soprano Sarah Brightman may have just given us a new tradition that, at least contains moments that transcend the very season it was intended for.

Aside from a campy, show tune rendition of Roy Wood's [Electric Light Orchestra] "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday," much of A Winter Symphony is on a level with the operatic opus that was Brightman's January '08 release, Symphony. Larger-than-life arrangements and the pop/opera star's angelic voice make Christmas staples such as "Silent Night," "Jesu, The Joy Of Man's Desire," "Child In A Manger" and both versions of "Ave Maria" (one being a duet with Fernando Lima) included on the album slide right into place alongside the likes of ABBA's "Arrival" and Vince Gill's "Colder Than Winter." All are done, of course, in Brightman's trademark classical crossover style. For Sarah Brightman fans and opera loyalists, A Winter Symphony is much more than a holiday album; and for those who wish to keep it as such, at least we're spared an aria of "Jingle Bells."

–Ryan Ogle
12.01.08

Ten months after the release of her blockbuster Symphony album, vocalist Sarah Brightman and producer/musical guru collaborator Frank Peterson release the inevitable, Winter Symphony. If only it were really an extension of the overblown, wildly overproduced former album it would work on sheer camp level alone. But alas, while it's excessive it's not so overdone that it's dramatic or exciting, despite the presence of symphony orchestras, gaggles of session players, three choirs, etc. There are a number of traditional selections from the season of Christmas: "Silent Night," "In the Bleak Midwinter," and "Child in a Manger," among them, as well as two versions of "Ave Maria" (one in duet with Fernando Lima). There are also a slew of contemporary pop tunes in the mix, such as Vince Gill's "Colder Than Winter," an overcooked reading of Neil Diamond's "I've Been This Way Before," and inexplicably, one of the only hits ex-Move/Electric Light Orchestra co-founderRoy Wood ever scored on his own: the faux bubblegum nostalgic sock hop classic "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday." Despite the original version's nostalgic rock & roll structure and look at teen innocence, it is performed here as if it's a show tune. Weirdly enough, it's followed by "Amazing Grace"! The set closes with a far less dramatic reading of "I Believe in Father Christmas" than the wonderful version done by Emerson, Lake & Palmer back in the day. The tune comes from Sergei Prokofiev, but lyrics were added by Greg Lake and provided a rather solemnly majestic spiritual arrangement by Pete Sinfield. This take by Brightman feels like something that would be sung by the entire cast in a final scene from a newly staged musical version of +A Christmas Carol. The sound here is a reversion of the old Brightman, where the instrumental and choir arrangements almost overwhelm the vocalist. This set is not contemplative, it's not necessarily joyous or expressive either, let alone inspiring. That said, it will no doubt appeal to hardcore Brightman fans without a hitch. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide