Rick Wakeman - The Legend (Live in Concert 2000) (DVD + CD)

Rating:
Summary: Applause
Review: A great concert. Audio, video quality is excellent. The songs sound beautiful. Rick Wakeman is a true professional. A great gift for fans.

Rating:
Summary: A different look at Rick
Review: A very good dvd not at all what you see him doing in YES he is a very good keyboard player and is very underrated tells a little about things that happen to him in his past cool dvd

Rating:
Summary: A good DVD, a great CD
Review: Actually 5 stars for the CD, 4 stars for the DVD. The DVD is ok in that you get to see the master in action. But Rick Wakeman is more for the ears than the eyes. The set looks a lot like the "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" set. This is all you see, along with Rick's keyboards and such. Sure he tells jokes, but his accent's heavy and it is English humor afterall. The CD is phenomenal with superb playing and outstanding compostitions by the man himself, which outshine the classics such as "Canon in D", "Claire de Lune", "Help" & "Elenor Rigby".

Rating:
Summary: A good DVD, a great CD
Review: Actually 5 stars for the CD, 4 stars for the DVD. The DVD is ok in that you get to see the master in action. But Rick Wakeman is more for the ears than the eyes. The set looks a lot like the "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" set. This is all you see, along with Rick's keyboards and such. Sure he tells jokes, but his accent's heavy and it is English humor afterall. The CD is phenomenal with superb playing and outstanding compostitions by the man himself, which outshine the classics such as "Canon in D", "Claire de Lune", "Help" & "Elenor Rigby".

Rating:
Summary: A good DVD, a great CD
Review: Actually 5 stars for the CD, 4 stars for the DVD. The DVD is ok in that you get to see the master in action. But Rick Wakeman is more for the ears than the eyes. The set looks a lot like the "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" set. This is all you see, along with Rick's keyboards and such. Sure he tells jokes, but his accent's heavy and it is English humor afterall. The CD is phenomenal with superb playing and outstanding compostitions by the man himself, which outshine the classics such as "Canon in D", "Claire de Lune", "Help" & "Elenor Rigby".

Rating:
Summary: Rick Wakeman - The Legend (Live in Concert 2000)
Review: First, I'm a huge Yes fan. I play keyboards, and thus Wakeman has been one of my heros. Having said that, I was utterly disappointed with this DVD because of the following reasons. First, Wakeman's sounds were simply terrible. Most of the sounds were some variations of piano layered with a synth pad or a synth choir. You can get that sound from a ... Casio. When did Wakeman turn into Yanni or John Tesh? It's embarassing to see a progressive rock icon making so wimpy sound. Second, where is Wakeman's showmanship? If you ever saw a Yes concert, you'll know what I mean. In this DVD, Wakeman just plays keyboards with his eye closes as if he were not inspired at all. Third, it's annoying & sad to see Wakeman acting like a standup comedian. About 1/3 of the DVD is filled with Wakeman's jokes. What a waste. I don't care if his jokes are funny. He better impress the audience with his music, not with his jokes. If you're into Wakeman, don't even think of buying or watching this DVD. You better dig up a copy of Yessongs and listen to the magnificent Wakeman solo on that album.

Rating:
Summary: rich in mood
Review: I just got the dvd and I can tell you it is an awesome performance. I dont think anyone should hesitate getting this dvd who loves Rick as he is. what he does on stage is who he is. I wish he had given a little more harder time to the organ though. the elenor is a must to hear!


Rating:
Summary: Intersting and Funny at times
Review: I must say, I enjoy Rick Wakeman when he was involved with Yes. I quite never understood the need to do epic concept albums based on books, Journey to the Center of the Earth, King Arthur......also never understood why he just never did music and associated it to a new idea, something he had uncovered himself. Yes did this many times. At any rate, Rick is a good classical pianist and has good stage presence, and is funny at times. During the video, he makes note of some crafty stage workings gone dreadfully wrong and has a good story about it. I was a little unsatisfied why he chose to do two medly of YES pieces, "Wonderous Stories, and AND you and I , but left out the major keyboard middle part of And You and I"....All in All, the rest of the video is nice, and Rick does a decent job of Talk/Play roll playing here, and nice to see he still can perform...

Rating:
Summary: Intersting and Funny at times
Review: I must say, I enjoy Rick Wakeman when he was involved with Yes. I quite never understood the need to do epic concept albums based on books, Journey to the Center of the Earth, King Arthur......also never understood why he just never did music and associated it to a new idea, something he had uncovered himself. Yes did this many times. At any rate, Rick is a good classical pianist and has good stage presence, and is funny at times. During the video, he makes note of some crafty stage workings gone dreadfully wrong and has a good story about it. I was a little unsatisfied why he chose to do two medly of YES pieces, "Wonderous Stories, and AND you and I , but left out the major keyboard middle part of And You and I"....All in All, the rest of the video is nice, and Rick does a decent job of Talk/Play roll playing here, and nice to see he still can perform...

Rating:
Summary: Rick Wakeman 2000: An enjoyable DVD for keyboard lovers.
Review: I was pleased to find this new DVD/CD package, "Rick Wakeman: The Legend 2000", while browsing through a music store one day. I have been following Wakeman's work since first hearing him with Yes back in the late-70's (in fact Yes' "Tormato" was the first rock album I ever bought,..or at least the first that I ever really "connected" with.) I have also enjoyed much of Rick's solo work over the years; particularly his more electric, "rock"-oriented projects ("Wakeman With Wakeman", "Live Bootleg", "Myths & Legends", etc.) Being a bit of a music video collector, I already had in my collection Wakeman's excellent 1991 "Live" video, which features him playing in his more rock-setting, with a tight backing band and bluesy vocalist Ashley Holt. This newly released DVD, on the other hand, features a fully-instrumental performance of the more classical and/or "new age-y" side of Wakeman's music - and this 2-hour show features no other musicians or collaborators...just Wakeman and his two hands in front of his rack of new-fangled keyboards! Rick covers some familiar material, and some that I was not familiar with at all. He performs some exrememely different covers of two classic Yes tracks, namely "And You And I" and "Wonderous Stories" (nicely re-arranged here for solo keyboard), as well as solo classics such as "Guinevere", "Birdman of Alcatraz", "Catherine Howard", and "The Recollection". One highlight for me was the version of "Jane Seymore", played with mind-bending skill, and using a beautiful, full-bodied church-organ sound! Although I usually don't like to hear covers of songs by The Beatles (the originals are just too good to mess with in my opinion!) Rick's personal tribute to Lennon & McCartney (a medley of "Help" and "Eleanor Rigby") is actualy another highpoint of this show to my ears. Wakeman plays along with pre-recorded (or perhaps MIDI-generated) "orchestral" backing on a few songs, and this helps to add a bit of variety to the music. If I have any complaints about this performance it is that Rick uses the same-exact (bright, full, sustained) piano sound throughout MOST of the show - it IS a great sound mind you, but the show could have been a little more colorful and varied if Mr. Wakeman had used a wider array of sounds, timbres, and textures on various tracks. One highpoint of the DVD (as other reviewers have pointed out) is Rick's often humorous storytelling between songs. One bit that will rise a laugh out of Yes fans is Rick's comments about his former bandmate Jon Anderson; "Jon's the only person that I know of who is trying to save this planet...but is not actually FROM this planet"!!! All in all, if you are a fan of Rick Wakeman, Yes, or great keyboard performances in general, then you can't go too far wrong in picking up this DVD today! Also, if you are a Wakeman/progressive rock fan, be sure that you ALSO check out the work of Rick's son, Oliver Wakeman. Oliver has recorded two fine concept albums ("Jabberwocky" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles") in collaboration with a fellow-keyboard wiz, Clive Nolan (from the excellent UK prog band Pendragon). The 'Nolan & Wakeman' albums continue in the musical spirit of Rick's earlier progressive rock work ("Journey To the Center of the Earth", "Myths & Legends") with swirling synthesizer solos, majestic classical themes, spoken narration, and powerful "rock" vocals....do yourself a favor and give BOTH generations of "the Wakeman genius" a listen!