Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart
by Alex Coletti
List Price:
Our Price: $11.91
You Save: $8.07 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.94 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Celtic WomanDirector: Alex Coletti
Brand: Alfred Publishing
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Surround Sound
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-01-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Manhattan Records
Product features:
- DVD
- Celtic Woman
- Format DVD
Movie Reviews of Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart
Movie Review: Familiar but different: "must have" for fans!
Summary: 5 Stars
A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle
I am a recent convert to Celtic Woman, and write with the zeal of a convert. I inadvertently ran across this live concert, "Songs from the Heart," airing during the pledge drive of my local PBS station, and despite the pledge drive annoyances, I was captured by Celtic Woman in the first five minutes. This DVD had not been released yet, so I immediately purchased the previous live concert DVD, "A New Journey." The two are distinctively different; for a fan of Celtic Woman, though, this is actually a good thing. It showcases the group in two almost entirely different styles of music and performance, with two largely different groups of vocalists.
"Songs from the Heart" is still the musical extravanganza, pyrotechnic (literally), exhibition of orchestral brilliance, vocal talent, virtuosity, vitality and diversity as the previous "A New Journey." The golden-haired Irish pixie from County Tipperary, Mairead, flashes with boundless energy dancing while playing the fiddle simultaneously without missing a step or a beat, appearing to be paying no attention to either the dance or the violin but simply alive with the music; she is the show-stopping scene stealer, if not the true star of Celtic Woman. But there is another dimension to Mairead as a performer: the classically trained violinist, the child prodigee who was playing Irish fiddle music at age 6, rapidly ascending through the finest music schools and academies of music to private masters instruction. In "Songs from the Heart," Mairead exhibits much more extensively this classical training, and she could just as well have made a career as a classical concert soloist of the first caliber.
"Songs from the Heart" could be called the "Thank you, United States!" concert (touring the U.S. gave Celtic Woman international recognition as they hit the "big time" here) -- acknowleged on stage to introduce the powerful song, "O! America!" No patriotic citizen of the U.S. who has lived through the decade following Sept. 11, 2001 could fail to be moved by this praise of America in the face of adversity, a stirring "pledge of allegiance" anew in music that truly did reduce me to tears and still does everytime I listen to it. It is ironic I suppose that it took a composer and musicians from Ireland -- a land all too familiar with terrorism, the politics of violence, ethnic and religious divsions and even hatred -- to find words and music that speak so eloquently and deeply to post-9/11 America.
In the same way, an American of Irish immigrant descent would have a heart of stone not to be moved (for me, again, consistently to tears) by "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears," a tribute to the courage and heartbreak of the millions of Irish who entered the U.S. through Elis Island -- noting in its opening words that the first immigrant to set foot on Elis Island was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl on her own from Ireland. The other heart-breaker song is what seems at first like a pleasant lullaby sung by a mother to her child, "Goodnight, My Angel;" you have to pay close attention to the lyrics to realize the mother is dead, and sings this lullaby as she remains nearby her grieving child.
What sets "Songs from the Heart" apart from "A New Journey" is the virtual absence of traditional Irish music. There are a few rare exceptions in the vocal selections, most commanding among them the haunting "My Lagan Love." "Songs from the Heart" is mostly musical-theatre, jazz, popular contemporary, and Christain contemporary ("You Raise Me Up"). Some are familiar, only arranged for orchestra and a more light-classical style: "Fields of Gold;" "True Colors" (you will instantly recognize this as once used in a TV commercial, but I cannot remember for what product); the blues ballad, "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress;" and what sounds for all the world as if it came from a Disney soundtrack, "When You Believe." "Amazing Grace" is here, complete with bagpipes (just because you play it on bagpipes does not make it Celtic). Mairead's fiddle playing carries the weight of Irish folk music -- and carries it away, to be sure! And there are a few Irish songs: "Galway Bay;" "My Lagan Love;" and of course, the Irish-American "Danny Boy." There is also a brief instrumental played on the Uilleann Pipes -- the indiginous Irish version of the indiginously Scottish bagpipes, and a quite different instrument from its Scots cousin. (My guess is that Irish affinity for the bagpipes is a result of the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland by England in the 17th-18th centuries, hoping that by seeding Ireland with Presbyterian Scots the Irish would give up their Catholic Church and faith; that failed, but apparently the bagpipes caught on.) But mostly this is contemporary music of various styles.
The reason for this is the major change in the vocalists of Celtic Woman between the earlier "A New Journey" concert and "Songs from the Heart," a critical change that I think in a way weakened the group. Of the five vocalists, three left the group. One, Hayley Westenra, joined Celtic Woman as an already established performance and recording star in opera, classical, and classical-crossover music, and returned to that venue. The loss of her operatic-trained voice has been replaced by Mairead's violin. The other two were losses to the core Celtic/Irish tradition, Orla and Meav. For Meav, a lawyer by vocation, music was a hobby, and she stepped down to become a full-time stay at home mom to her recently-born child. Orla, a virtuoso on the Celtic Harp as well as a trained vocalist, moved on to a solo recording and performing career.
Meav and Orla were the only two fluent Gaelic-speakers, and the absence of anything sung in Gaelic on "Songs from the Heart" is very noticeable. The marked switch to popular contemporary music and a minimum of mostly standard Irish fare is likely attributable to the loss of these two devoted advocates of traditional Irish folk music and the preservation of the Gaelic language. Hayley Westenra's departure left a gap in the "name recognition" area; though not as well known in the U.S., Hayley commands a very popular reputation as operatic and concert performer in the British Isles, Australia, her homeland of New Zealand, and strikingly, a large fan base in Japan and South Korea. Her place has been taken by the two remaining vocalists, Chloe and Lisa, both of whom have successful recordings but in pop and musical theatre. Lisa Kelly is a professional stage actress in musical theatre in Ireland and England and a successful jazz/blues singer there, and she was originally tapped for Celtic Woman precisely to bring that balance to a group that seemed at the time overly-classical. Chloe Agnew is another Wunderkind, who joined Celtic Woman as a 15-year-old high school student with a rare, bell-clear voice; she has performed since she was 6, and has a large fan base in Europe and America, but her preference is toward soft-rock and pop-contemporary music -- even though her performance of Rutter's "Pie Jesu" on "Songs from the Heart" is angelic. It is hard to judge from this one concert DVD what will be the place and shape taken by the two new-comers, Lynn Hillary, another classically-trained soprano with a love for traditional Irish music; and Alex, another musical-theatre professional.
Make no mistake though, even in this new configuration, Celtic Woman is a pulse-racing, joyous, musical extravangaza in which all the performers are at the top of the scales, both as soloists and in ensemble. My advice: By BOTH of the DVD concerts and enjoy the variety!
Summary of Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart
Track Listing:1. The Call
2. Fields of Gold
3. When You Believe
4. The Coast of Galiçia
5. The New Ground - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
6. Non C?è Piú
7. True Colours
9. Galway Bay
10. Goodnight My Angel
11. O, America!
12. Níl Sé?n Lá
13. The Last Rose Fantasia
14. The Moon?s a Harsh Mistress
15. My Lagan Love
16. Amazing Grace
17. Pie Jesu
18. Slumber My Darling / The Mason?s Apron
19. Danny Boy
20. You Raise Me Up
21. Finale / Mo Ghile Mear
Similar DVD Movies
Celtic Woman - LullabyRelease date: 2011-02-15; Music CD
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman, Chloe - Celtic Woman Presents Chloe: Walking in the AirManhattan; Release date: 2007-06-05; DVD
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman: A New Journey - Live At Slane CastleCeltic Women, Ltd.; DVD
Best price: $10.96
Price in other shops:
Celtic WomanManhattan; Release date: 2005-03-01; DVD
Best price: $10.38
Price in other shops:
The Greatest Journey: Essential CollectionRelease date: 2008-10-28; DVD
Best price: $11.28
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman - Celtic Woman: A Christmas CelebrationRelease date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $10.73
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman - Songs From The HeartRelease date: 2010-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman - Celtic WomanPBS; Release date: 2005-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $5.72
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman - BelieveRelease date: 2012-01-24; Published: 2012-02-01; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Celtic Woman: BelieveRelease date: 2012-01-24; DVD
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops: