Classical Candor: Webber: Symphonic Suites (CD review)

Webber: Symphonic Suites (CD review)

Music from Evita, Sunset Boulevard, and The Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Andrew Lloyd Webber Orchestra. Decca B0033918-02.

By John J. Puccio

One hardly needs reminding that English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most popular and most prolific musical writers of the past fifty-odd years, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the mid Sixties through Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, to his latest project, Cinderella; and a lot of other stuff in between. On the present album, he has assembled an eighty-piece orchestra to do justice to the music of three of his works, Evita, Sunset Boulevard, and The Phantom of the Opera, and he recorded them in London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Although I am not particularly a Lloyd Webber fan, I have to admit it’s a grand undertaking, with some grand results.

Mr. Webber comments that “These orchestral suites have been in the works for some time. They are performed by a fantastic orchestra, on a stage with unrivaled sound quality, that means more to me than anywhere in the world. But, after the trials and tribulations of 2020-21, this album represents so much more. For me, this is the triumphant and hopeful return of the live music theatre and entertainment across the world.”

First up on the album is the suite from Evita, the musical first produced in 1978 that focuses on the life of Eva Perón, wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. For me, it outlasted its welcome and reminded me of why I don’t care much for modern musicals. OK, admittedly, I’m an old fuddy-duddy without much taste for contemporary pop music. As a guy who grew up with musicals like My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Camelot, Cabaret, and the like, filled with an abundance of great songs, it seems to me that most of today’s musicals are built around a strong central tune and then about 800 variations of the same. A good example involves the 1964 movie musical Mary Poppins. You couldn’t help coming out of the theater whistling half a dozen infectious melodies. Now, compare that to 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns. How many memorable tunes can you name from it? For me, none. And Disney had over fifty years to come up with some. Anyway, back to Evita: “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” is unquestionably a good and memorable tune. But there isn’t a whole lot more, really, to remember. So, we’ve got a suite almost twenty-five minutes long of pretty lightweight music that’s mostly forgettable two minutes after hearing it. Pleasant music, yes. Memorable, for the most part, no.

Next is Sunset Boulevard from 1993, a musical adaptation of director Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 movie about an aging silent movie star and her young kept man. I have to admit, I had never heard any of the music from Sunset Boulevard before, and I appreciated the way it evoked the spirit of old Hollywood. Whether it is worth another listen remains to be seen. I’m sure it would go over better with the visuals on stage. However, like the preceding suite, this one is very well presented, the huge orchestra imposing its will with a polished enthusiasm.

The program closes with The Phantom of the Opera from 1986, the musical version of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 horror-romance of the same name. This one, with its compelling dramatic effects, was my favorite of the three Webber suites. Even if you’re not familiar with the Leroux story (or the even more-famous Lon Chaney silent movie), with Webber’s music you’re bound to visualize it in all its creepy gothic glory. It was the only suite of the three that kept me occupied, without my attention wandering afield. It doesn’t need a plethora of pop tunes to keep it afloat. The music is all of a whole, each section well integrated into the overall structure. It may just hold up over time better than the others.

Producer Nick Lloyd Webber and engineer Dave Rowell recorded the suites at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, in April 2021. The resultant tracks were mixed at Such Sweet Thunder and mastered at Abbey Road, London. The sound is vintage Decca: big, wide, multimiked, clear but not bright, edgy, or steely, with good dynamics and impact. It’s everything you could want for big, brazen, outsized musical numbers.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.

Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Webber: Symphonic Suites (CD review)

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