Recorded in Germany, Symphony featured all new songs and was created with Brightman's long-time producer Frank Peterson. The repertoire ranges from ballads such as "Symphony", "Fleurs du Mal" and rock scores "I Will Be With You", originally sung by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø. "Jupiter" from Holst's The Planets is adapted on "Running" and Faith Hill's "There You'll Be" is sung in Italian as "Sarai Qui". On this album Brightman reunited with Andrea Bocelli to sing "Canto Della Terra", as well as singing duets with Fernando Lima (Mexican tenor) on "Pasion" and Paul Stanley (from the band Kiss) on "I Will Be With You (Where The Lost Ones Go)". The album showcases Brightman's linguistic vocal skills by singing in Spanish, Italian, French and for the first time in German in the song "Schwere Träume", an adaptation of the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's fifth symphony.
A PBS special concert was filmed on 16 January 2008 at the Cathedral Stephansdom in Vienna. This was subsequently shown on PBS stations, premiering on 4 February. A version of the concert is available from PBS on DVD and the worldwide release of the DVD and live CD was on 10 March 2009.[2]
Album art
The album art for Symphony pictures Brightman in Gothic clothing and surroundings, which was based upon concept art from Guild Wars by Daniel Dociu.[3] The album cover was photographed by long-time collaborator Simon Fowler.[4]
On certain CD pressings, Running is followed by one minute of silence and an instrumental version of Fleurs du Mal plays, bringing the total track length to 9:11.
In the early 2008 release, the album garnered a remarkable set of chart accolades around the world, including an unprecedented debut in the US Billboard 200 Album chart at 13 (Brightman's highest charting record in the U.S.) moving 32,033 copies in first week.[5] It hit number one in the Mexico International charts and the US Billboard Classical Chart, the top five in Canada and Japan and the top twenty across Europe.[6] In a long term, the album failed to match the success of its predecessors in the United States, but experienced a moderate success in Asia. In Japan the album entered the chart at No. 4 selling 25,815 copies during its first week.[7]
