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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Manhattan Records
Salesrank: 877
Released: November 4, 2008 |
| Our Price: $12.29 |
| Used Price: $7.95 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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A Winter Symphony Track Listing:
1. Arrival
2. Colder Than Winter
3. Ave Maria (duet with Fernando Lima)
4. Silent Night
5. In The Bleak Midwinter
6. I've Been This Way Before
7. Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring
8. Child In A Manger
9. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
10. Amazing Grace
11. Ave Maria
12. I Believe In Father Christmas
Editorial Review:
Sarah Brightman, A Winter Symphony
A Winter Symphony Reviews:
Disappointment 
2009-12-17 - With such a lovely voice as Ms Brightman has, it seems a shame to drown it with all the HEAVY musicians on the CD. At times, it was difficult to tell is she was even singing. I would never buy this CD again nor would I recommend it.
voice is painful to listen to 
2009-12-15 - I haven't listened to a lot of Sarah Brightman, but I love her in Phantom and a few odds-and-ends songs I have heard her sing. I was excited to get the CD, but then I couldn't even listen to a single song all the way through. Her voice was painful to listen to, and I love listening to opera style singing. I don't have a problem with the high register when the voice is clean. Actually, the only time I could stand listening to her in this CD is when she hits the high notes because she has to open her mouth to do it. the sound comes out much cleaner. I figured it was just the song, so I went to the next song. Same horrible voice throughout the CD. Very disappointed. It sounds like she is singing through her nose and attempting to sound young. It is painful to listen to. It gave me a headace. The same thing is happening to Charlotte Church. These ladies were praised for beautiful voices when they were young, and now are trying to hard to keep the same sound. It's not working. I much prefer the ladies of Celtic Women, Amici, and Sissel. Their voices are lovely. Wish Amici would do a Christmas CD!
So Pretty 
2009-12-03 - Love her voice! It's so pretty. This is my first CD of hers, would like to have more.
excellent christmas
2009-10-16 - On this album very well and accurately convey the mood of celebration and mystery of Christmas is a good director's work and of course a magnificent voice, a decent album for all the New Year:)
A brilliant semi-Christmas album
2009-09-06 - Although I was very keen to buy this album as soon as I could, I must declare that there was a time when the very thought of buying Sarah's music was unthinkable to me. My different attitude to her music may partly be due to my more varied musical tastes these days, but my hearing is also not what it once was. As I remember, I always felt that Sarah's very high voice was too piercing for my liking, but I am no longer able to hear the top end of the range, so the part of her voice that annoyed me no longer does so. As such, I am now able to recognize her true brilliance as a singer. If you are unfamiliar with Sarah's voice, maybe you should listen to some samples, particularly to see if you like her voice when she hits those very high notes.
I suspect that there are too many Christmas songs here for people to play when they don't want to hear Christmas music, but it's a great album that includes several songs that aren't heard too often, as well as several famous songs, though they aren't always what you might expect.
The opening track is a cover of Arrival, the Abba semi-instrumental in which the original versions features the women humming and singing la-la along to the music. But Sarah's version features proper lyrics. The credits only mention Benny and Bjorn as co-writers, so whether they wrote these lyrics in the seventies but didn't use them, or whether they wrote the lyrics later, I cannot say, but I've never heard them before and this fully-fledged song makes a great opening track.
Next comes a cover of a Vince Gill ballad, Colder than winter, which is great to find here. I'm a huge fan of Vince's music, but although he once recorded a duet with Barbra Streisand, I wouldn't necessarily expect to find one of his songs on a Sarah Brightman album. Of course, Sarah does an excellent version of it so I'm definitely not complaining.
More predictable repertoire for Sarah follows, with a duet version of Ave Maria (written by Luehrs) with Fernando Lima, which I don't remember hearing before, though I may have done; there are several different songs called Ave Maria and the most familiar one cones later. Meanwhile, this duet is followed by the classic Silent night. Next comes In the bleak midwinter, a wonderful carol (originally just a poem) that sometimes appears on American albums but which seems to be more popular in Britain. After that comes a Neil Diamond song, I've been this way before, followed by a rarely-covered traditional carol, Jesu, joy of man`s desiring. Much more familiar (at least melodically) is Child in a manger. The traditional lyrics may be unfamiliar, but the unmistakeable backing tune is Morning has broken.
This album features covers of two seventies Christmas pop-rock classics, the first of them being I wish it could be Christmas everyday. I was pleased to see this song included but I wondered how well it would work. Of course it was never going to match the original Wizzard version, but Sarah does a fine job with the song. I'm not sure if the original song is familiar to most Americans, so it may be that for most Americans who buy this album, it'll be the first time that they hear this song. In Britain, it is one of the songs that you can't avoid hearing in December, but I don't mind as it is one of my all-time favorites.
Next comes a solo version of the most famous Ave Maria (the Bach-Gounod song), followed by the even more famous Amazing grace. I didn't really need another version of either of them, but Sarah is in top form on both and her versions are better than most versions that you`re likely to hear.
The second cover of a seventies Christmas pop-rock song is I believe in Father Christmas, originally performed by Greg Lake, which is a great way to close an outstanding album. It contains no original material (unless this album marks the debut of those Arrival lyrics) but there is plenty of variety here, mixing the familiar music with some well-chosen obscure material.
