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Patti LuPone is surprisingly intimate in
Matters of the Heart, her first solo album since 1995, considering her career of playing larger-than-life leading ladies (
Eva Peron,
Reno Sweeney,
Norma Desmond). In this studio recording of her 1999 cabaret show, the topic is love and relationships, and LuPone travels from wide-eyed ("The Boy Next Door") to worldly wise ("Hello, Young Lovers"). It's not all chestnuts, however, as the program covers a wide range of gems by such composers as Jimmy Webb, Stephen Sondheim,
Beth Nielsen Chapman,
Frank Wildhorn,
Randy Newman, and
Stephen Flaherty, and the songs of upcoming cabaret composer
John Bucchino in particular will have you reaching for the repeat button. Also noteworthy are the inventive and tasteful arrangements by pianist Dick Gallagher, as they transform the usual lilt of "A Wonderful Guy" into an art song and make time stand still on the Hollies' "Air That I Breathe." Accompanied by Gallagher and an occasional string quartet, LuPone is a storyteller here, not a Broadway diva.
Matters of the Heart represents a self-transformation by a major artist, with most delectable results.
--David Horiuchi