Paul McCartney Ecce Cor Meum
April 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

I know that she didn’t start it, but soprano Eileen Farrell has always stood out in my mind as the ultimate crossover artist. She sang Wagner at the Met to great acclaim, and when I was in college she liberated her talent with an LP called I’ve Got a Right to Sing the Blues. And you know, she was excellent and a big hit as a pop singer.

I suppose pop artist Paul McCartney has a right to pen classical music, but, including this latest effort, I haven’t heard a real success yet. There are some lovely sounds in Ecce Cor Meum, Latin for "Behold My Heart. There’s a wonderful and terrifying organ solo, the idea seeming copped from Leoš Janácek’s Slavonic Mass. There’s interesting use of the piccolo trumpet, an instrument the Beatles discovered for "Penny Lane," and there are some thrilling moments for chorus, full orchestra, and soprano soloists, punctuated with awesome attacks on the timpani. Yet somehow it is all unmemorable once it is over. It won’t hurt you to hear it once, but I doubt you will want to give it a second listen.

What brings the rating up to three are the glorious performances. Kate Royal, quite popular of late, is one of those strong, solid, lyric sopranos that we only seem to find in Britain. Her rich voice adds much to the proceedings, even when singing with the full chorus behind her. That chorus is first-rate, too, as are the boys from two different schools. The orchestra is beyond reproach. Many readers probably know it from its many recordings with Neville Marriner. It is usually a chamber-size group, but on this occasion it has been expanded to be a full symphony orchestra. Conductor Gavin Greenaway paces everything just so and keeps tight control on entrances and rhythmic passages. Judging from the results, rehearsals for this work were accorded the same detail and respect that one would expect for the Mozart Requiem or a composition of like stature.

The video is very good but never seems razor sharp and tends just a wee bit to the red side of the color palette. I felt this might have something to do with the stage lighting. The audio is superb in whichever version you choose. I found the DTS 6.1 mix to be the best at preserving detail while giving a feeling of the vast space in which the performance took place.

Unusually enough for a classical release, there is an extra -- a featurette on the compositional process that went on for years as McCartney cobbled this piece together. In it, the former Beatle is calm and restrained in his enthusiasm and unafraid to expose his ignorance of classical composition. He is quite honest about not being able to read music (which was a surprise to me), and his explanations to the performers of how he wants things to go are surprisingly naďve. The section on finding the right organ for the recording is pretty interesting thanks to an animated discussion with organist Colm Carey. The organ finally used was located in the chapel of the Tower of London. That’s where they keep the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, too, and though this composition is scarcely worth that kind of company, it should be seen and heard at least once, just to experience the wonderful music-making.

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