LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL WITH THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA PART 1

Renaissance

Symphonic Prog

3.83 | 64 ratings

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octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams

After having rated the "Live at Carnegie Hall" with five stars, and having said that it's in my top 5 albums, how could I rate less this one?

Respect to the Carnegie Hall, this has "Can You Hear Me" from Novella, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece if it was alone.

The fact is that taken alone it doesn't contain a masterpiece like Ashes are Burning, but this is only the Part 1 of the concert. Open you pocket and buy the Part 2, too. The two albums together are the best possible compilation of the renaissance's golden age.

This one is opened by an orchestral version of "Prologue". Interesting but non-essential, it seems to have been arranged to demonstrate that the Renaissance's songs can work well even in a classic-symphonic environment. It's followed by "Can You Understand?" that's one of my favorite songs. I remember to have heard the intro used as base by a rapper: a crime! Somebody should forbid things like this.

"Can You Hear Me?" Is presented in a version that could be better than the studio one on Novella if it wasn't for Dunford's guitar that's a little untuned repsect to the orchestra. It doesn't sound too bad, I think it gives the idea of a live, a little imperfection that adds a touch of reality.

The album is closed by the absolute masterpiece "Song of Sheherazade". There's not the long spoken intro of Carnegie Hall. The production seems a little better than on Carnegie Hall and the execution is excellent the same.

As I said, taken alone it's a 4.5 stars but if you make the pair with Part 2 you0ll have one of the best symphonic live albums ever released, one on which the orchestra is an integrated component of the band, not just something added to the arrangement as others like Caravan or Deep Purple were doing at the same time.

This album is the first half of a masterpiece.

octopus-4 | 5/5 | 2011-9-9

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