Streisand: Live In Concert 2006: Affectionate Barbs

It takes a special talent to have an intimate conversation with 20,000 people, and though chances are Barbra Streisand was not on a first name basis with everyone who attended her 2006 concert tour, some of the most fascinating sounds produced by this legendary interpreter of the American popular song on her the newly released Columbia double CD Streisand: Live In Concert 2006, is the personal dialogue she has with the waves and pockets of screams and squeals as she traverses the 360 degree stage.

"Look!  A whole new audience here!" she exclaims with delighted surprise as if she's greeting an unexpected guest for tea.  Whether apologizing for a "senior moment" or joking about an unsuccessful album that "just went gold after 42 years" her give and take seems spontaneous and delightfully genuine.

Recorded and edited from appearances in New York, Washington and Ft. Lauderdale in October '06, the performance opens with William Ross conducting the huge orchestra in the Broadway overture to Funny Girl, followed by our host sinking lusciously husky tones into "Starting Here, Starting Now," a song from her youth you might say.  It won't be the last time during the evening where she revisits a song she hasn't performed in years or tries out entirely new material.  Such risk-taking at this stage of her career is admirable and the artistry with which she pulls it off is often sublime, as in a softly ethereal "Unusual Way" and a "(Have I Stayed) Too Long At The Fair" that's intoned with a mature sense of sadness no woman in her twenties could communicate.

The reason for this tour, she explains, is to raise money for the many causes she supports, but the material on the recording stays politically neutral.  After a first act that includes evergreens such as "The Way We Were," "People" and, well, "Evergreen," the second half gets more personal, sharing a message that gets no more controversial than the universal need for acceptance and respect.  She tells of her feelings of the importance of good parenting with a combination of "Carefully Taught" and "Children Will Listen."  Without judging anyone's beliefs, she introduces "Happy Days Are Here Again" as the song adopted by the Democratic Party in 1932 and, in a carefully non-partisan manner, expresses her hope that she'll be inspired to sing it again after the next election and mean every word.  She uses a jubilantly building arrangement of "A Cockeyed Optimist" to set up her stirring cry for a better world with "Somewhere."  She's joined there by the pop/opera quartet Il Divo.

By the time she gets to "My Shining Hour" her voice is bathed in the warm simplicity of an artist content to use her talent for the sake of spreading her message of love, which – like manure – isn't worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

Both photos by Kevin Mazur/Wireimage - second photo of Barbra Streisand with Il Divo