SURRENDER - THE UNEXPECTED SONGS
( Polydor - 1995 )

My CD Review

1. Surrender - From the musical "Sunset Boulevard", recorded in 1995. A beautiful melody that is coupled with great orchestration, and Sarah's superb voice.
2. Unexpected Song - From the musical "Song and Dance", recorded in 1995. Another great song, a first time recording with full orchestration, and featuring stunning vocals from Sarah. She exhibits a strong vocal prowess, and holds the final note for an unbeleivably long time.
3. Chanson D'enfance - From the musical "Aspects of Love", recorded in 1995. Sarah is once again at her best in this tender song that contains another exquisite melody.
4. Tell Me on a Sunday - From the musical "Tell Me on a Sunday", recorded in 1995. A great song, and again a first time recording with full orchestration. Sarah's vocals range from soft and tender to strong and powerful.
5. Nothing Like You've Ever Known - From the musicals "Tell Me on a Sunday" and "Song and Dance", recorded in 1995. Yet another first time recording with full orchestration, this tune sounds to be a bit like a Henry Mancini song, and features Sarah using her softer voice. Another nice melody for this tune.
6. Macavity: The Mystery Cat - From the musical "Cats", recorded in 1995. A burlesque style tune, with great vocals from Sarah.
7. Gus: The Theatre Cat - From the musical "Cats", with Sir John Gielgud, recorded in 1995. A good song, utilizing a different side of Sarah's voice, and showing us that she can tackle any style of music.
8. Piano - From the musical "Cats", this is Memory sung in Italian, recorded in 1995. This version of Memory, a song I really love, is absolutely stunning in Italian! I find it to be much more passionate than its English counterpart, and containing more fire and drive than ever before! Sarah's voice is absolutely incredible on this one, and the orchestration is very much in the style of John Barry.
9. Everything's Alright - From the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", with Gary Martin as Judas, and Bogdan Kominowski as Jesus, recorded in 1992. A strong vocal performance from Sarah here, with great performances from the male roles. A very passionate performance by all the characters.
10. The Last Man in My Life - From the musical "Tell Me on a Sunday", recorded in 1995. Once again a first time recording with full orchestration, this song features another superb performance from Sarah. Her voice goes from tender to very strong, and she holds that final note a long time once again!
11. Pie Jesu - From the "Requiem", with boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston and the Winchester Cathedral Choir, recorded in 1985. What can I say... I love this song! It is absolutely gorgeous, and very moving. The soloists performances are superb, as is the choral accompaniment.
12. Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life) - Official theme song of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, with tenor Jose Carreras, recorded in 1992. A catchy pop style tune, with Spanish flavoured music. The vocal performance by both singers is very strong, and the two voices blend together very well. A great song!
13. No Llores Por Mi Argentina - From the musical "Evita", this is Don't Cry For Me Argentina sung in Spanish, recorded in 1995. This beautiful melody, with all its passion, is very well done by Sarah in Spanish. I actually prefer it in Spanish as opposed to its English counterpart.
14. Guardami - From the musical "Sunset Boulevard", this is With One Look sung in Italian, recorded in 1995. Another song with orchestration that sounds to me very much like John Barry. An absolutely beautiful song, very powerful, with a strong vocal performance from Sarah!
15. There is More to Love - From the musical "Aspects of Love", recorded in 1995. Very rich orchestration in this tune, and yet another strong performance from Sarah. A great song!
16. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again - From the musical "The Phantom of the Opera", recorded in 1995. This is my favourite! I love this song, and Sarah sings it so exquisitely and with such emotion that it brings me to tears, as many of her songs do. She shifts her voice so effortlessly between soft and strong, showing us how talented we already know she is!
17. The Music of the Night - From the musical "The Phantom of the Opera", recorded in 1992. Another very emotional song for me, extremely well sung by Sarah. She displays just an incredible vocal range in this song!

Additional Comments

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a considerable number of great songs, and has a real talent for composing beautiful melodies and crafting lush orchestrations. And he has worked with some fine lyricists along the way. I would say that the majority of these great songs can be found between the tracks on this album and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection compilations. In addition, some of them were crafted especially for the amazing voice of Sarah Brightman. With that in mind, and given the fact that a lot of them have been recorded recently, and many for the first time with full orchestration, you definitely have a winning combination. Plus with recordings spanning about ten years of Sarah's career, listeners can hear how much better Sarah's voice has become, and since the latest recordings featured here has become even better still.
I have never been a big fan of theatre music, but have always loved the music of Lloyd Webber. And what more can you say about Sarah's phenomenal voice! She displays all facets of her amazing voice on these recordings, from a soft pop-like tender voice to a strong and passionate operatic voice. Blend that with these beautiful melodies, rich orchestrations, and tasteful lyrics and you have to just love these songs! And to me most of them hardly seem like theatre songs.
So any fan of Sarah Brightman will want her theatre recordings in their collection. And while there are some overlaps between compilations, there is more than enough of a difference between them to warrant owning them all. If I had to choose only one of them though, it would probably be Surrender, simply because of the outstanding recordings in Italian of Memory and With One Look.