Sting - If On A Winter's Night...
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Music CD Cover
Artist: StingEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-23
CD Release Date: 2009-10-26
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Product features:
- STING IF ON A WINTER`S NIGHT... (F)
- Gabriel's Message
- Soul Cake
- There is No Rose of Such Virtue
- The Snow it Melts the Soonest
- Christmas at Sea
- Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming
- Cold Song
- The Burning Babe
- Now Winter Comes Slowly
- The Hounds of Winter
- Balulalow
- Cherry Tree Carol
- Lullaby for an Anxious Child
- Hurdy Gurdy Man
- You Only Cross My Mind in Winter
Free Music Notes for If On A Winter's Night...
Free Music Review: A winter's journey in our souls
Hit: 5 Stars
I enjoy the cd very, very much. It's the first time it happens to me since, maybe, Mercury Falling. I'm a bit hard to satisfy, needing many things... lyrics, arrangements, voice, production... and, above all, the feelings the songs arouse in me. This cd hit me in my heart. And in my soul. Sting chose songs and melodies to describe "winter" that are not usual and not expected. I also love the fact he "describes" Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the mystic of Christmas in a very human way. I mean: like they were human beings, with their feelings involved in all their tragic story. That it's ours also. Winter and death, mystical birth and human death as moments of our lives, of everyone's life. Voice, instruments, arrangement, are all very essential, all very "real" and simple. Again "Less is More", the Sting I love more.... Percussions are the winning key sometimes, giving the melodies a clear Eastern taste. Jesus was born there, isn't he?
- Gabriel's Message: it's so essential it's hard to think you can barely chage it, yet here it is a totally different song. Less airy, less mystical, more painful.... as the announcement was not only joy, but responsibility and sadness to. The Gloria with different intonation seems to ask us if really Gentle Mary should be glad of her destiny.
- Soul Cake: what to say? A masterpiece. Perfect in every respect, since the first bass/guitar notes. Only regret is for the final coda that, in my opinion, should have lasted much more. Hope in live performance. Again, the accent here is on the "souls" on human beings wandering in the cold searching for charity, for warmth, to lessen solitude and desperation. The trumpet playing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is simply genial, again playing with pain and sorrow a melody usually sang in joy and triumph. A perfect song for All Saints' Eve.... getting back our pagan traditions before it was transformed in Halloween...
- There is no Rose of Such Virtue: again percussions make the difference. And Sting several voices are perfectly intoned and mixed. The Alleluia gives shivers to me. The song gives joy and an airy feelings of love around us.
- The snow it smell the soonest: very slow, sore, very well sung. The guitar is beautiful and perfectly matches Sting voice. It's not an easy song of course, very slow and boring for people who love Sting for Roxanne only. I can perfectly understand why they hate this record...
- Christmas at Sea: again a masterpiece. Celtic Harp is one of my fave instruments at all, and the flavor it gives to the song is undeniable as well as the Mary MacMaster choir that works as refrain in a song more acted than sung. It seems a follow up of Island of Soul, a Soul Cages piece 20 years after. In Stevenson's poem the man sees the coast... and the house where he was born. Wallsend, maybe, after being all around the globe so many times, Sting returns home. Metaphor for death, maybe, or old age, understanding oneself, finding "home".
- Lo how a rose eer blooming: accordion is maybe one of the most sore instruments at all.... here it is perfectly matched by a sore voice, whispering in the middle, the Holy Secret of Virgin Mary holding the Savior. Pipes enters and we are in full Christmas time. Accordion vanishes in the
- Cold song: it's the following of In Darkness Let me Dwell..... Tragic, dramatic, the violins recall me Inverno by Vivaldi. Sting voice is a bit too low in this one. Is the only song I'd prefer he would sing a little higher. That said, he sings well.
- The burning babe: once again painful but strong "holy" vision. The songs progresses in intensity with the vision told. Very '70s... It recalls me The Pentangle. A real gem, in my opinion. Tragic as only the death of a man that knows his destiny since the beginning. All of us, indeed, know we will die.... Again fading coda is a crime... It seems for some seconds the Blue Turtles are back.... older, wiser... too short.
- Now winter comes slowly: Purcell here, from the semi-Opera King Arthur. Of course a very hard thing to sing and digest.... I can't say I don't like it, but surely it's not Sting's cup of tea in my opinion. Again, a little higher could have been better. But the singing is very hard and Sting is good.
- Hounds of Winter: A very sore, sad cover. Different from the original one, more mature less rock. A different song indeed. Loneliness is all around. Violin makes the most with the voice in a beautiful arrangement.
- Balulalow: I don't like it at all. I don't like the melody in itself. I heard many version on YouTube since I knew Sting would have covered it but I can't stand it in any of it. Sorry, my fault.
- Cherry Tree Carol: this cover is essential bluesy and the guitar is wonderfully played. Sting sings very well the story about Joseph being a bit angry and then remorseful for what he said after having understood. Once again, Joseph is a man, caught in things bigger than him. Angelo Branduardi did a totally different cover of this Carol many years ago... between the two there is the entire galaxy. It's a matter of "reading" a story from one point of view or another. The harmonics beginning and closing the songs are nice and very evocative.
- Lullaby For an Anxious Child: nice, not very different from the recent cover. It perfectly inserts itself in the mood of the album. And remember that before Winter there is a far Spring.....
- Hurdy-Gurdy Man: ok, if you have listened to the "classical" version, say the Quasthoff one, you can be shocked, but since Sting is no baritone, I find his way of singing this "song" very good indeed. If Pavarotti could sing Popular songs, than a pop singer can sing classical opera like it was a song. The piece is beautiful, again loneliness, cold winter of life and weather, people don't understanding.... hungriness for success and human warmth. Accordion, violin and voice are perfectly mixed together.
- You only cross my mind in winter: Written on Bach's Sarabande from Cello Suite, it's a miracle. Evocative, ghostly, sweet and yet so sad.... lyrics are one of the best thing Sting ever wrote. But the silence of the snow is and you look behind you to see if your personal ghosts are here with you.
And the last verse.... that Winter that closes the album and the journey is perfect.
Bonus Tracks
Bethlehem Down: I don't like this song very much, but Sting sings it very well. Arrangement is classic, orchestra and all very traditional.
Cradle's Song: Not including this one on the standard edition it's a crime Angry
It's simply wonderful, very hard to sing, the Blake lyrics are wonderful. The arrangement is simple yet complex: it starts with voice and Celtic Harp only, then all other instruments enter one by one... and when trumpet does its melody.... you cry. Don't ask me why. Bass do a very nice work.... wonderful! It ends with jingle bells that are so far away from Christmas as you can imagine. The baby is sleeping, finally... and the music vanishes in a ringing of angelic little bell....I love it.
Coventry Carol: A very classic Christmas Carol, once again in a traditional settings, with violins pizzicato starting the song along with Sting. He sings very well, and the Choir Stile Antico is sublime, of course. Also the instrument under his voice during the strophe (a stopped guitar?) is very evocative of the necessity of singing quietly. It ends with Harp, voices and... little bells. A big contrast with the lyrics, telling us ferocious Herod was to slain all children in town...
It's a pity it's not in the main edition of the album.
If On A Winter's Night... Poster
If on a Winter's Night presents an arc of songs that conjure the season of spirits, the eerie silences of the snow; days of solitude and reflection for some, a time of re-birth and celebration for many. With traditional music of the British Isles as their starting point, Sting and his guest musicians draw the listener in through a collection of songs, carols, and lullabies spanning the centuries - such as The Snow it Melts the Soonest (traditional Newcastle ballad), Soul Cake (traditional English "begging" song) Gabriel's Message (14th century carol), as well as two of Sting's own compositions - Lullaby for an Anxious Child and The Hounds of Winter. Also featured on the album is Hurdy Gurdy Man - a musical reworking and English translation (by Sting) of Der Leiermann from Schubert's classic winter song-cycle Winterreise. For this exploration of the themes and emotions of winter Sting is joined by friend and long time colleague, guitarist Dominic Miller - and an ensemble of three remarkable musicians from Northern England and Scotland: Kathryn Tickell (fiddle and Northumbrian pipes) Julian Sutton (melodian) and Mary MacMaster (metal string Scottish harp). Additional guest artists include Vincent Ségal (cello), Daniel Hope (violin), Chris Botti (trumpet), Ibrahim Maalouf (trumpet), Stile Antico (vocal ensemble), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Bijan Chemirani (percussion) and the Webb Sisters (vocals). Together they've created an album with a wonderful, warm, and unique ensemble sound - an acoustic meditation on winter.Miscellaneous Music CDs
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