Tim Boudewijn van der Wart on 20th October 2001 [Other reviews]

The CD starts with a beautiful Pachelbel intro, real nice and easy but the sound is a bit digital. Then comes Birdman of Alcatraz (from Criminal Record), this one is truly as pretty and sweet as it should be, but the original version beats this one. The Wives are good, but again, they do not sound pure enough to my taste. The Nursery Rhyme Concerto is a beautiful fast and funny piece. What can I say about Merlin, I think I have a total of five different versions of it, and they're all good, this one is not the best (it has a kind of Return feel to it). The Beatle tracks are good, better than the piano tour versions. The YES stuff is OK, but I always miss Jon while listening to YES with no one but Rick. The Journey excerpt is relaxing (it's like the instrumental Journey from greatest hits). Clair de Lune is an outstanding Claude Debussy arrangement, although I like the Tapestries version more. The entire CD is really good, but virtually every song is better preformed on the albums they originally came from, that is of course a matter of personal taste so don't let me scare you off, for the piano lovers as for the keyboard lovers it is a beautiful compilation with lots of variety. The only "bad" thing about this album is that they cut out the talking in between. That doesn't take away the beauty of the songs, have fun!

Angel Muñoz on 28th June 2005 [Other reviews]

Well, in my very own opinion I LIKE IT TOO MUCH!, In every pieces you can find the classic Rick Wakeman style!, and then well all the songs I like, especially Birdman of Alcatraz makes me cry, and Merlin the Magician, and I think it’s the best piano/keyboards album that I ever heard. Congratulations Rick Wakeman once again…