David Backhouse - 9/8/2012

In 1981, Freddie Mercury heard the voice of Opera singer Montserrat Caballe for the first time and from that moment he decided that he simply MUST have her voice singing one of his songs.
It took him six years, but in 1987 Monserrat Caballe not only dueted with Freddie on the song which was ultimately chosen to open the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and which became a world-wide top 10 hit, he had recorded an entire album of 8 tracks with her: an album which, like the single of the same name, became a world-wide top ten hit and has remained a firm favorite with Freddie's legion of fans worldwide.

What is so astounding about that 1987 album is that every single piece performed by an orchestra was, in fact, programmed on a synthesiser!
Apparantly the reason for this was because Freddie had been made aware of his HIV status and therefore didn't know how much longer he had to live.
Determined to make his album the best he could do in the time period he believed he had left, he abandoned the idea of using a real orchestra and instead concentrated with the song writing and vocal performances.

Now, 25 years later, Freddie's dream of having a real orchestra performing the music on his album have come true thanks to the hard work and dedication of Stuart Morely who has painstakingly and faithfully re-scored every song.
Performed by the eighty piece FILMharmonic Orchestra, Prague, one of the most sought after recording orchestras in Central Europe, this new version of the Barcelona album shines with a whole new light from start to finish and whilst for me it will never replace the original, it does offer an amazing alternative way of hearing those familiar songs with a depth of clarity and delicacy not on the original.

This 4-disc set comes with a DVD of (sadly) mimed 'live' performances of some of the tracks from the album, the original promotional video for Barcelona & a brand new edit with previously unused footage and a short documentary on the making of this new orchestral edition.

It also comes with a disc of 'demos' from the recording sessions which feature alternate arrangements and vocals of each track. The music on this disc

The final disc features purely the new orchestrated instrumentation without any vocals and, considering I've no interest in orchestral music, I just can't stop playing it and trying to pick out all of the individual instruments!

Wrapped up in an inch thick paperbook sized package with pictures, lyrics and informative notes from Queen Archivist, Greg Brooks and Stuart Morely himself, this is definitely well worth buying.