Yet again Neil Diamond delivers the goods. This CD is a great piece of music. Sung live it is an amazing experience. Close your eyes, put it in your player and escape.

It is difficult to express the disappointment one can feel when one witnesses the descent of major musical star. This compilation of music from movies is, simply put, sad. Sorry, Neil, but this one just doesn't cut it.

In baseball, when they give a player a big contract, they tend to play him, rather than a no name player who may be a lot better. This goes for Neil Diamond's career at Columbia. Big contract but mostly bad material. This could be the worst of all...passionless, over-emotive movie music. Diamond or Bolton?

I am a Neil Diamond freak. I've bought his records and gone to his concerts ever since 1972.

This CD compilation promised much. Great songs, Great conductor, Great singer.

Regrettably the sum of the parts is less than it should be.

The orchestra and arrangements are utterly sumptuous. Rich doesn't describe the sensual nature of the music that Bernstein coaxes from this ad-hoc orchestra.

It took me some time to work out what was wrong (at least for me). What should be a tour-de-force simply failed to excite me. And the principal reason was the extremely ponderous, leaden and slow pace of Diamond's interpretations. His performance on this CD does not display the vocal skills and excitement that have kept him at the top for 35 years.

The pace of the delivery is simply too slow. It gives time for all the flaws in Diamond's voice to come to the fore. I felt that I wanted to wind him up a bit. It is as though the batteries that power him have run flat.

Ironically, the slow delivery gives the orchestra all the time in the world to display its skills.

So, I was disappointed, but like any Diamond freak, I just had to add this CD to my collection.

Yet again Neil Diamond delivers the goods. This CD is a great piece of music. Sung live it is an amazing experience. Close your eyes, put it in your player and escape.