Search - Paul McCartney - Liverpool Oratorio / Kiri Te Kanawa, Jerry Hadley, Sally Burgess, Willard White, Colin Davis, Liverpool Cathedral on DVD

McCartney's beautiful long-form orchestral piece-classical

Romance lover | 05/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is very,very beautiful music. It's the gorgeous recording of the world premiere of the work, presented June 28, 1991 in the massive and equally gorgeous red/pink sandstone Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool (the 6th largest cathedral in the world, and as beautiful as it is massive).



If you love classical music(this is a long-form work, with FULL ORCHESTRA, FULL CHORUS, BOY'S CHORUS, AND WORLD-CLASS SOLOISTS.



If you are not sure what an oratorio is, think about Handel's MESSIAH (the thing that has the HALLELUJAH CHORUS in it)...that is an oratorio.

This work is not religious, but has a few moments of life-changing narrative in it. It is a secular (non-religious) work, telling the story of a child growing up in war-torn (WWII) LIverpool, coming of age, learning, growing, marrying, and not adjusting at all well to married life. He drinks, he argues with his wife, it is very much common everyday life-- they have a child, but the wife and new child saved from death by a fervent prayer from the husband, who resolves to realize that he has all he needs within his family. Happiness is found within. It does have a happy ending. It is really sentimental, so those who love that sort of thing(like me) will LOVE IT, and those who hate that sort of thing will HATE it. Just being honest.



Paul McCartney does not PERFORM in this work at all. He is listed prominently in the AMAZON listing because he is the COMPOSER(co-composed with Carl Davis).



If you'd like more info about the music itself, refer to Amazon's entry under LIVERPOOL ORATORIO in the classical CD section.



I rate this DVD 5 stars. The laser disc (put out in 1992) was also to die for!"