KEY POINTS:
The cover of Symphony hails Sarah Brightman as the best-selling soprano of all time, which is reason for some despair if EMI has its figures right.
Running the gamut from noisy to nauseating, this sorry affair has been fermenting in various studios since 2004, Brightman's tiny voice wrestling with everything from electronic brutality and braindead drumming to the slumming strings of the London Symphony Orchestra.
In a list of thanks that stretches to Apple's Native Instrument Software and microphones from three different suppliers, a nod could have been given to Mahler, Mascagni and Holst whose music is rifled for three songs.
But then after the indignities inflicted on the slow movement of his Fifth Symphony in Schwere Traume, Mahler might happily remain anonymous. Holst fares worse: an anthemic bash through I vow to thee my country makes Kiri's football-field version seem positively classical in its restraint.
For a trip on the light side with wit and style, Orriel Smith's second album Live from CarnEGGY Hall, has operatic and other favourites delivered in Smith's inimitable "CluckOratura" and "CatOratura" personae. Sempre Libera is a manic cluckfest for freedom, while Musetta's Waltz Song glides in meowed elegance. Lo here the gentle lark, a ditsy favourite of the coloratura set, foolishly tackled by Cleo Laine and James Galway in the 90s, combines feathers and fur in glorious duet. A multi-clucked Colonel Bogey is a barnyard-storming treat.
Hanssler Records offers the guilt-inducing delight of counter-tenor Dominique Visse crooning through songs by Toru Takemitsu. These fruity ballads, written for various radio, television and film projects, are far from the orchestral and chamber works for which the Japanese composer is best known.
Included is a theme song for Arthur Kopit's play Wings and a number written on the set of Kurosawa's Ran, and sounding as if Dr John has pushed Francois Couturier off his piano stool.
* Sarah Brightman: Symphony (EMI 521 001)
* Orriel Smith: Live from CarnEGGY Hall (from orrielsmith.com)
* Toru Takemitsu: Songs (Hanssler 98.501, through Ode Records)
