Peaceful music to go with an angelic voice
June 6, 2007By Daryl Paranada
Decca
Rating: ****
On Treasure, Hayley Westenra celebrates her musical roots with a collection that includes classic arias like One Fine Day (Un del bi from Puccini's Madama Butterfly) and Irish folk tunes like Danny Boy.
With her pure and soaring soprano, Westenra navigates through songs like a skilled veteran. The rich orchestration in songs like Shenandoah provides a nice backdrop for her delicate voice. Westenra does misstep, however, midway through the disc, when songs blend in together. She breaks up the monotony with a beautiful acoustic piano version of the folk song, Sonny.
Westenra helped write four of the tunes on the disc. She shows promise in the pop-leaning Let Me Lie, which is perfect music for meditation with its ethnic flutes, but Summer Rain sounds like it was ripped straight from Enya's songbook.
In Abide With Me, the music fades and her gorgeous voice is the last instrument heard. At only 20, Treasure establishes Westenra as the next great classical songstress, in the vein of Sarah Brightman.
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