Your favourite Sting album.

[Bryn]

Prompted by the discussion re. Sting as a possible Evangelist in Bach's Matthew Passion, what is your favourite Sting Album? I will start things off with mine, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, on Sting's Pangea label:



[This is no joke, by the way. It's a very fine recording/performance. I see that the amazon.co.uk marketplace has good condition used copies at absolute bargain prices. Highly recommended.]

[[Sorry to go off topic but I could not resist posting this, which I just came across.]]

[cloughie]

Prompted by the discussion re. Sting as a possible Evangelist in Bach's Matthew Passion, what is your favourite Sting Album? I will start things off with mine, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, on Sting's Pangea label:



[This is no joke, by the way. It's a very fine recording/performance. I see that the amazon.co.uk marketplace has good condition used copies at absolute bargain prices. Highly recommended.]

[[Sorry to go off topic but I could not resist posting this, which I just came across.]]

His early Police stuff was good, and some of his solo stuff was OK. Probably should have a Police record for some of his recent musical crimes!

[EdgeleyRob]

Ghost In The Machine.

[Bryn]

Ghost In The Machine.

The only Police album I ever bought, (mainly for Invisible Sun, which got played over and over again in the nationalist clubs I visited in Belfast when it was in the charts).

[gurnemanz]

I hardly know his output at all. I have only two items sung by him - both on compilations. I quite like his Shallow Brown on a Sea Shanty album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT5bLvj8vag

He ruins "Girl From the North Country" on the recent Amnesty International set of Dylan covers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXZS0sITJaM

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I haven't heard the Stravinsky disc, but he's a very fine narrator in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (and it's an excellent musical performance under Abbado).

[Parry1912]

His 'Peter and the Wolf' with Abbado is very good.

(I now see that IGI has beaten me to it by one minute!)

[EdgeleyRob]

(mainly for Invisible Sun,

Bit of an ear worm too for me

[BBMmk2]

Ghost In The Machine.

Regatta de Blanc?

[Stunsworth]

Well, he did nick some Prokofiev for one of songs - as did Greg Lake for his Christmas single.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's the celebrity thing all over again. Having Sting doing classical singing is like having Sue Perkins conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra, even though there are thousands of others who could do the job far better.

[Roehre]

My favourite Sting album? None whatsoever, I'm afraid.

[Bryn]

My favourite Sting album? None whatsoever, I'm afraid.

Then in the case of the Stravinsky and Prokofiev recordings mentioned here, your loss I feel Roehre. Of course, he does not sing on either of them (or at least, not so as you'd notice).

[Roehre]

Then in the case of the Stravinsky and Prokofiev recordings mentioned here, your loss I feel Roehre. Of course, he does not sing on either of them (or at least, not so as you'd notice).

Well, if he's not singing, then........

[Richard Tarleton]

His "Songs from the Labyrinth" Dowland disc was an interesting project which garnered the predictable extremes of views and reviews. Most interestingly it received a favourable full-page review in the journal of the Lute Society (Lute News no. 80, December 2006) and there was a 2 page interview with Sting in the same issue in which he talks knowledgeably and thoughtfully. I enjoyed the recital from LSO St Lukes at the time (broadcast on EMS if memory serves) but not the disc - one listen was enough. Not least because it includes readings from his letter to Robert Cecil which though a fascinating part of the Dowland story does not make for repeated listening. Basically the problem for me is his voice. His rough, homespun sound may well not be inappropriate for these songs - it's certainly a world away from the art-song approach of the sainted Emma Kirkby, or Martyn Hill, or Peter Pears (whom I heard live in this repertoire with Bream). But I just don't like it. I did give it to someone as an Xmas present though