Okay, I was looking at their reviews from the last two weeks and found this:
http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=3041I know that it can't be real, and if most of it is hard enough to believe, the last paragraph takes the cake!!
PETE TOWNSHEND
Tommy
Ben Heppner (tenor); Roger Daltrey (tenor); Tina Turner (alto); Dame Charlotte Church (soprano); Andrea Bocelli (tenor); Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon Rattle
EMI- 414101-2(CD)
10/10
Like his previous Gershwin, Bernstein, and Ellington projects, Simon Rattle's long-awaited maiden voyage into rock opera has generated heated press, both pro and con. The naysayers largely based their opinions on the live April 1, 2000 BBC Radio 3 webcast of Pete Townshend's Tommy, led by Rattle under admittedly stressful circumstances. Fortunately, Rattle, his all-star cast, and the combined City of Birmingham and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras reconvened for two intensive weeks of non-stop recording at EMI's Abbey Road Studio One. The results are in, and the verdict is largely two thumbs up.
As composer/arranger/musicologist Carl Davis points out in his excellent booklet notes, the main question is "which Tommy?" The Who's original 1969 studio recording, plus a recently released live 1970 Isle of Wight Festival performance provide the work's essential "urtext". At the same time, Townshend openly endorsed the fleshed out orchestrations and additional singers deemed necessary in the various film, ballet, and stage versions that have been available to the public. Davis' solution is both brilliant and practical. He only utilizes orchestrations that reflect the spirit and rhythmic propulsion of the originals. Numbers like "Eyesight to the Blind", "Smash The Mirror", "Cousin Kevin", "Pinball Wizard", and the dramatically problematic but musically stimulating "Underture" feature a core guitar, bass, and drum unit, laced with orchestral backing at climaxes that gives new meaning to what rock critics call "power chords".
In contrast to the BBC broadcast's disastrous "one singer per role" game plan, Rattle circumvents the book's discontinuity by lavishing all-star treatment to the solos and duets, supported by a hefty 500-voice choir in the "back-up" sections (make sure your volume knob is not cranked up when the massed voices intone "sure plays a mean pinball" at the top of their collective lungs, otherwise you'll blow out your speakers!). Reprising her nonpareil "Acid Queen" from the movie, Tina Turner is in stunning voice here, growling and groaning until the proverbial (mad) cows come home. In the brief but crucial "1921" Dame Charlotte Church may in reality be too young to play Mrs. Walker, yet her wistful timbre proves otherwise. She's partnered by Andrea Bocelli, albeit briefly, as Mrs. Walker's lover. Graham Clarke brings menacing playfulness to Uncle Ernie's perverted jig, as one would expect from a veteran Mime.
I'm not sure, however, that it was a good idea to morph Ben Heppner and Roger Daltry into a single vocal entity for "Pinball Wizard". At the same time, the choir echoes each of Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's "See Me, Feel Me" phrases in "We're Not Going To Take It" with touching rejoinders. The great soprano, at age 85, still commands an awesome ability to word-paint and we can only be grateful that she was persuaded to come out of retirement for this cameo appearance (shades of the Flagstad's famous Fricka in Solti's Ring). By all accounts, the orchestra was moved to tears as Schwarzkopf approached the microphone, and lost it completely once she opened her mouth. Also noteworthy are the late Alan Civil's French horn solos, recorded shortly before his death, and superimposed onto the master tape.
To be sure, Rattle's expansive tempos and frequent accelerandos at climaxes will raise a hackle or two, yet they are borne out of his long childhood experience as a percussionist. One suspects Rattle had the most fun with the encore bonus track, where he joins the surviving Who members behind the late Keith Moon's original drum kit for an exuberant, appropriately raucous "Summertime Blues". Full texts and translations accompany this seminal release, along with an enhanced video component of candid rehearsal footage and interviews with all the participants. EMI promises a Quadrophenia from these forces in 2004, awaited from these quarters with baited breath.
--Jed Distler
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