Customer Rating:  
Summary: disappointing
Comment: I have a number of classic fm albums, and this one was the first real disappointment. Less of an 'anthem fest', more of an 'oh yes, that is not a bad tune'.
For me it is the audio equivalent of a film I saw many years ago called 'good guys wear black'. The advertising poster looked great - 6 scenes of excitinbg action portrayed. When I watched the film, they were the only scenes of any interest in the entire movie.
The adverts for this album were a bit like that for me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit of a let down, but still good
Comment: Most of the material on this compiliation has already been included on other Classic FM CD's from the last 2 years. Also when you think of anthems, I think of uplifting, upbeat high tempo music, however this is none of these. However there is the odd track which comes pretty close to the mark.
Having said this, the compilation is not unlistenable, although prehaps a bit more thought could have been put into the song choices. In future I feel Classic FM is in danger of doing another "Zadok the Priest" with some of these songs by thrashing them to death in placing them in every single album. Prehaps some different, rarely heard classical music is required?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Long Live Classical Music
Comment: Classic FM has attempted to provide the classical music version of `rock anthems' to shake your head and punch the air to, an equivalent of Rainbow's `Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' anthem of the 1970's. Does it work? Yes of course it does because the Classic FM marketing team are in touch with the needs of today's classical music listeners.
The track list is comfortably predictable - Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner), Carmina Burana (Orff), Jupiter (from Holst's Planets), Pomp & Circumstance (Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory), A Night on a Bare Mountain (Mussorgsky) and many, many more.
Those `many more' include three outstanding performances - Alfie Boe's version of Nessun Dorma, David Garrett's virtuoso (and breathtakingly fast) violin performance of Flight of the Bumblebee, and a truly patriotic version of Rule, Britannia! by mezzo soprano Sarah Walker from the days when the Last Night of the Proms was bold enough to host a flamboyant, Union Flag clad woman displaying true unabashed patriotism.
Now THAT'S what I call an anthem, great stuff!
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