Celtic Woman: Believe

They were five in their first concert: four vocalists (Lisa Kelly, Chloë Agnew, Méav Ni Mhaolchatha and Olga Falon) plus a small blonde angel, fallen straight from Heaven for our utmost felicity: Máiréad Nesbitt, an outstanding violinist.They were six in their second one: "A New Journey" (their masterpiece in my opinion, for which I wrote a long review in Amazon on February 4, 2007) when Hayley Westenra joined them for that unique concert.But they are only four in their fifth concert: only three vocalists instead of four and the violinist. Lisa Kelly is still there, Chloë Agnew is also still there, as same as Máiréad, the soul of the group, mastering her fiddle like Paganini, jumping and dancing like "Les Nymphes des Bois" ("The Nymphs of the Woods") depicted by French poets of "La Pléiade" in the XVIth century. But Méav and Olga are no longer with the group. We miss their charm and Olga's harp.In fact, they had already disappeared from the fourth concert ("Songs from the Heart"), where they had been replaced by two other girls called Alex and Lynn, who have also disappeared in the meantime.The third girl in this fifth concert is called Lisa Lambe, a charming young woman with long curly reddish hair and her voice harmonizes very well with those of Lisa Kelly and Chloë. In fact, you will see plenty of new faces in this DVD, not only in the choir but also in the orchestra.Unlike Adre Rieu's concerts, where the numbers are separated by endless jokes and explanations, sometimes in Dutch, which only a handful of people understand, there is no dead time in Celtic concerts. As it was already the case in the four previous shows, the public is still applauding that the next number is already rolling.The whole concert is thus only 1h30 long, but there is an extra chapter showing its preparation.Like the first and third concerts ("Celtic Woman" and "A Christmas Celebration"), this one is staged indoors. This time, it is at the legendary FOX Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Maybe the bad souvenir of their fourth concert ("Songs from the Heart", staged in the gardens of the Powerscourt House in Ireland), where it was raining one hour before the show started, dissuaded the group from giving another outdoor show! How about a "Christmas Concert" 2012 in Miami Beach, where it is bright, warm and sunny all year round? I'm sure that would be a big hit! Better do it before December 21st, just in case...If the first four concerts contained mostly well known songs from several countries and epochs, this new one has very few of those immortal numbers and contains many songs that I had never heard before.Like in all previous shows, this DVD opens with the presentation of the now only three vocalists, angel Máiréad and composer David Downes, Musical Director.The first number is "Awakening". It starts with a few notes from a flute followed by Máiréad and her violin. Then Chloë, Lisa and Lisa sing with drums in the background during the whole song.As it was the case in all their concerts, this show combines music, songs and dances, and instead of standing still, our vocalists move and dance continuously in almost every number, fulfilling the goal of French Symbolist playwrights at the end of the XIXth century: "Le Spectacle Total" ("Total Show")."Follow On", the second number, starts with a choir followed by Lisa Kelly singing a sweet song, contrasting with all the movement of the first one."The Foxhunter" is an instrumental number with Máiréad and her violin at the beginning, joined later by the drums in a very fast melody where she is at her best: she jumps, she dances, she turns like a spinning top, earning a well deserved standing ovation.The fourth number is "Nocturne". Máiréad opens slowly with her violin and Chloë soon arrives singing alone a melancholic song after all the movement from the previous one.This is followed by "Sailing", a sweet song interpreted by all three girls, ending with a standing ovation."Bridge Over Troubled Water", which was a great success in 1969 during the Viet Nam war, is one of the few well known songs in this concert. Each girl sings a few verses before singing all three together. Then a children's choir jumps in, creating a magic moment, as it is always the case with women's or children's choirs, greater yet when they both join their voices. This number alone would justify the purchase of this DVD! Naturally, this was followed by a well deserved standing ovation. Unlike the audience of Andre Rieu's concert in Ireland, where everybody seemed to be screwed to the chair, the Atlanta public kept going up and down most all the time!The following number is "Black is the Colour" (NO misprint: this is the British spelling...), interpreted by Lisa Lambe"The World Falls Away", song number 8, opens with a bagpipe; then, all three girls jump in, singing and dancing with drums in the background.Number 9 is "My Heart Was Home Again". Lisa Kelly starts alone, joined later by Lisa Lambe."A Tribute to Broadway" opens with a few words by Lisa Kelly who starts singing the song, soon joined by Chloë. After a few notes of flute, Kelly Lambe sings alone in the lower stage while the two others climb to the upper stage where the choir is waiting. After a drums intervention, the choir goes down to the lower stage and all girls sing together the end of the song. This is followed by another standing ovation."Téir Abhaile Riú" is a fast song favoring dances by the three vocalists and the women's choir. Four male choristers join them in the upper stage. Once again, Máiréad plays, runs, jumps and turns around. A tap dancer does some steps towards the end. Once again, the public gives a standing ovation.The following number is "A Woman's Heart", interpreted by all three vocalists. This is a nice melancholic song."The Water is Wide", song number 12, is interpreted by Lisa Kelly. Towards the middle of the song, a bagpipe appears on the upper stage, greeted by applauses as if they were in Scotland!A choir first, then Chloë Agnew, start "Green Grow the Rushes" and she is joined by Lisa Kelly and a choir, that keeps them company during the rest of this nice sweet song."You'll Never Walk Alone", another well known song, groups all three vocalists, each as a soloist at the beginning and Máiréad behind them; later, the adults and children's choirs jump in, creating another magic moment in this great concert. As you would expect, this number was followed by an extensive standing ovation."Smile", a famous song composed in the 1950s on a musical theme of Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" (1936) is interpreted by all vocalists, who start a cappella, soon joined discretely by Máiréad. If you missed "A Second Journey", rush to your local store, buy it and see the outstanding a cappella interpretation of the immortal "Over The Raimbow", created by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939 and wonderfully interpreted by Suzan Erens in André Rieu's "The Flying Dutchman". Once again, this number was followed by a standing ovation.After "Smile", "Walking the Night" is a languorous song. Lisa Lambe opens it, followed by Chloë."A Spaceman Came Travelling" starts with drums and is interpreted by Lisa Lambe with a choir. Lots of drums and dancing fill this song full of movement."Ave Maria", Schubert's immortal melody, is mostly interpreted by Chloë as a soloist in the original Latin version. Hard core opera aficionados will argue that Chloë does not have (yet) the power of Maria Callas, Jessye Norman, Barbara Hendricks, Carmen Monarca, Carla Mafioletti, Renée Fleming or Sarah Brightman, to name just a few among the best known sopranos. So what? When the adults and children's choirs jump in from time to time, they create a great atmosphere and the audience gave a well deserved standing ovation at the end.Máiréad plays "Mná Na Héirean" with David at the piano. This starts very slowly but soon becomes a fast melody with the tap dancer we previously saw. If you like tap dancing, you may see Arthur Duncan, one of the masters in this field, during "The Lawrence Welk Show", which is broadcasted every Sunday at 7 pm on PBS Channel 2 in Miami."The Parting Glass" is the last number, interpreted by all three vocalists. They start a cappella, then Máiréad joins them, then the orchestra starts discretely, joined later by bagpipes and the movement goes crescendo to the end.I was disappointed to see that their usual last number, a masterpiece written by Rolf Loveland and Brendan Graham and made famous by Josh Groban titled "You Raise Me Up", which concluded their first, second and fourth concerts, was no longer there: "I am strong when I am on your shoulders, you raise me up to more than I can be" is the leitmotiv of this great composition.This song "You Raise Me Up", which rightfully concluded all of Celtic Woman's previous concerts except for "A Christmas Celebration", always reminds me of "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, which I studied with my French students in the "Grand Paris" during several years: Our French translation said: "Aimer, c'est se surpasser". "Loving, is transcending oneself"Although I still think that "A New Journey" is Celtic Woman's masterpiece (how could you get any better after you have attained perfection?), I don't regret the purchase of this excellent DVD which contains 21 very good songs, most of which I had never heard in any of the languages that I speak, with several magic moments that I already pointed out in the above synopsis.

I just watched the PBS showing of the Believe tour tonight and ... although the PBS showing does not include the entire concert, I thought it might be helpful to at least of few of the people (those who buy at a more reasonable price rather than the PBS price for this DVD), to output a few of my thoughts.Let me first say that I feel reviewing the `performance rather than the product' is on the edge of impropriety in this particular venue, but many people who read these reviews don't realize that, and actually think that critiquing the performance itself IS what this site was intended to achieve. It is for them that I write this.It depends on your expectations how pleased or disappointed you will be with this performance. If you have not seen the previous shows, my guess is that you will enjoy this show a lot more than if you have seen their earlier performances. Unfortunately, if you have watched the earlier shows, you will have to overcome the disappointment of knowing that it has been downsized by 20%, following the departure of 2 extraordinarily talented ladies and replacing the two of them with one. There again... it probably isn't realistic to expect the same level of satisfaction. Even beyond the adjustment long time fans must make, (losing two people who close followers had grown to love), it is exponentially harder to fill that void created by replacing two with only one. What could they have been thinking when they made that decision?It appears as though they tried to fill part of the void by adding a `river dance guy' to dance while Mairead plays the fiddle. Also ... to add some variety, they added some children to the routine in the hope of making it more of an extravaganza. Personally I don't want it to be a variety show when the name of the show is Celtic Woman.The song selections have changed noticeably, with practically no carryovers from their other tours although Ave Maria has been once again resurrected for this tour. What I find the most bazaar selection though, was when Lisa Lambe sings Black is the Colour. This ballad is normally reserved for male singers, and I think that if sung by a woman, it needs the gender of the lyrics reversed (unless it truly was intended to be made a lesbian rendition).Another thing about this show is the seemingly unnecessary use of handheld microphones. If anyone can explain WHY they used them please fill me in. For my liking they have no place and no purpose. They are usually used to hide the mouth of a singer who is lip-syncing. It doesn't seem to be explained by the possible audio improvement either. The audio quality was no better using them so that doesn't explain it. And on the topic of audio quality, the PBS special had audio which was much too compressed and it was also highly homogenized to the point where the stereo separation only gives you a small dimensional array (and yes ... I have a sound system which is extremely capable of recreating whatever the signals source has the potential to generate.)...........................Now that the DVD has been released, I am amending this portion of my review to appropriately recognize the quality of the DVD itself. I had previously stated at this point in my review (before the DVD was released) that the last DVD (for Songs From the Heart) was inexcusably poor in video quality, even for a standard definition version. The good news is this one is better than the last; the bad news is, it still doesn't do justice to the capability of the source material. The show was recorded in HD for the PBS broadcast and yet there is no HD disc being offered. Two years ago less than half of all homes had HD TV, but now the transition into HD broadcasting has caused a reversal in this statistic, and additionally ... the price of both the TV and the Bluray players is a third of what it was, For this reason it seems truly inconceivable that an HD disc is not even an option. Worst of all, HD TV causes the shortcomings of standard definition quality to be more noticeably. For this reason it is just that much more imperative for this type of performance to be offered in the best quality possible. Two years ago I might have agreed to a coin flip whether or not to go Bluray, but today it's a no-brainer (at least in my mind). [Enough said about the video...... it is what it is.]The audio is somewhat better on the disc then what I was experiencing from the PBS broadcast. Whether it is cleaner sounding simply because it has gone through fewer circuit boards or whether it is a different audio mix, I can't say (but in general the audio is improved). One thing I noticed right away was that the shrillness that I heard in Lisa K's voice in the PBS broadcast of the song Follow On had disappeared on the DVD. Even the expansion of the sound stage is improved to some degree. Unfortunately the amount of compression (lack of dynamic range) of the sound is just as overdone on the disc, and the balance of volume between the singers and the background singers, children's choir, and/or the bagpipers, is at times so far off that the girls are almost being drown out.The DVD cover says Believe Live but in my opinion that is stretching the truth. Yes it is all done at once (in front of a `live' audience), but some of the audio clearly does not match the video. I mention in my earlier comments `the use of hand microphones' and how they sometimes are used to camouflage lip-syncing; in this show it seems to be the other way around. The `live singing' is done with the hand mikes. As for the rest ...... well you be the judge.One very welcome addition on the DVD was the song My Heart Was Home Again. Even though it was sung with the distraction of the hand mikes, it was sung beautifully and it didn't have the 32 children, the battalion of bagpipers, the overly loud backup chorus or even the riverdance guy to detract from its beauty. A very welcome surprise indeed!I hope you find this information worth while. (Please don't forget to read the followup comments by clicking below)

A really lovely DVD from Celtic Woman filmed in the USA heart warming songs accompanied by children's choirs the girls were in top form when they made this DVD. Some real classic songs "Sailing" "Bridge over troubled water" "You'll never walk alone" "A spaceman came travelling" and "Ave Maria" loved the tribute to Broadway also all in all a pleasure to watch and listen to beautiful singers and songs.

absolutely brilliant performance from four lovely girls including a brilliant violin player called Mairead . If Celtic Woman were not professional and maybe were competing on BGT against a vocal group who could only sing in ONE note or a so called dance group who ONLY talent was to do cartwheels round a stage , they would sadly be the losers . Such are the strange minds of the BGT judges and the british public . However this will not happen to Celtic Woman who are already professional with fantastic talent and receive standing ovations for almost every song or musical number they perform . It is unfortunate that they are less successful in the UK than the rest of the world but i am sure this will change

First saw this on Sky Arts HD channel and loved every minute of it. I was so surprised when I played this DVD to find the sound quality and picture quality surpassed what I had seen on the tv. It is by far their best performance. These girls can really put on a show and the support musicians and backing singers add to the overall quality. I have a couple of CDs of Celtic Woman but nothing beats watching them perform - so unique. Long may they continue to entertain.

If, like me you just love Celtic Woman, then you're already a fan. If you still haven't seen or heard them yet then this dvd is a perfect introduction to their music, style and all round brilliance. I believe that you'll be hooked too so don't hesitate - order your copy now. Happiness is..... Celtic Woman

Brilliant again!!They sing lovely,Move around the stage gracefully,except the little violinist who dashes around like a little fairy,How does she keep up the pace? all 4 Ladies are very graceful and polite,Just love them still.