Larry Dalton, National Philharmonic Orchestra Of London - Praise Magnificat: Classical Instrumental Stylings From Integrity Music
STYLE: MOR / Soft Pop RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 8518-8253 LABEL: Integrity HMD803 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1 RRP: £14.99
Reviewed by Dave Massey
It is an interesting concept, to take well known worship songs and give them classical flavourings by playing them in the style of Haydn/Tchaikovsky - although most of them seem to be more reminiscent of film scores. "He Has Made Me Glad" has some nice Tchaikovsky touches in it and "As The Deer" is quite listenable as well. But on most of the tracks the intro far outshines the actual content of each song. Personally, I remain unconvinced that any current worship song has a strong enough melody to stand on its own as a work of musical merit - they are after all designed to be repetitive and easily memorable! Where an album like this does have value is when you want to spend a few moments in worship letting the music wash over you - the words of each song almost tangible because you know them so well. The arrangements of these songs are well constructed and there is no doubt that it is a quality recording - but there are one or two tracks that go off the Richter scale, most notably the trite arrangements of "I Will Sing Of The Mercies Of The Lord" which had me scrambling for the fast forward button post-haste.
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