Top Reviewer Ranking: 602,803 (Learn More) - Total Helpful Votes: 3 of 3
Fairly interesting and entertaining., Jan 28 2000
It's hard for me to decide between giving this audio-book three stars or four. I mean the writing is pretty good; Cornwell is a pretty good story teller. This 6 hour audio version is abridged, though thankfully not so much as the butchered audio version of Marion Zimmer Bradley's _Mists of Avalon_ which amounted to less than two hours. I have yet to read the hardcover version of _Winter King_, but since it contains passages missing from this audio version, maybe I'll save my four-star rating for that.
Piggot-Smith is a pretty good presenter of Cornwell's story. It's a tough job though -- one actor having to come up with various accents and voices for so many different… Read more
Guillaume de Machaut was a very interesting figure. He was born around 1300 and lived to be quite old, especially considering that life expectancies were much shorter then than now. And even though there were no sound recordings at the time, there was written music for those who could afford to study music. In his old age Machaut was saught out by a groopie of sorts. A young woman came to admire him when she learned some of his music. The two met in person and actually had a relationship for a while.
Enough gossip, though. Guillaume de Machaut wrote some of the finest medieval music I've ever heard. Indeed, he wrote some of the finest music I've ever heard, period… Read more
For a first album, it's pretty darn good. Some of their subsequent albums like _Yes Album_, _Fragile_, _Close to the Edge_, and at least half of _Relayer_ ("Gates of Delerium") were so astounding that this one pales in comparison, but as I say, this is quite good for a first effort.
The sound production was mediocre in spots. For example, Tony Kaye's piano part on "Yesterday and Today" sounds so weak and muffled that I wonder if he was using an upright instead of a grand. It sound almost like a toy piano. That is a pretty song, though.
Guitarist Peter Banks and bassist Chris Squire both harmonize their voices really well with singer Jon Anderson. These… Read more
