My Musical Theater Voyage of Discovery; The Sondheim Files - The Concert Recordings
THE CONCERTS
A Stephen Sondheim Evening is one of the most important albums in my Sondheim collection. I was in college and discovering Sondheim (really discovering him), when a friend introduced me to this record. Natch, I went right out and bought a copy. It is some of the great musical theater voices doing some of the definitive performances of these songs. I mean, does it get better than George Hearn singing With So Little to be Sure of with Victoria Mallory? And speaking of Miss Mallory, her Isn’t it is the best version of the song I’ve ever heard. This is where I learned the phenomenon of “unreleased Sondheim”, hearing songs from SATURDAY NIGHT that hadn’t been recorded and songs from FORUM that had been cut. Judy Kaye doing Another Hundred People is the MOST perfectly enunciated performance of the song I have ever heard; and her Being Alive actually IS my favourite version. Liz Callaway, one of the all time great voices, doing What More Do I Need and The Miller’s Son (my favourite performance of the song) are, alone, worth the price of purchase. But. The ultimate is Angela Lansbury singing Send in the Clowns with Sondheim on the piano. This is essential Sondheimlistening.
Sondheim Tonight is some British tribute recording that a friend gave me. It came to me, a copy; no liner notes of cd dust jacket. I imported it into my Ipod and hit play and I actually quite enjoyed it, in spite of not knowing who some of the people are. I, particularly, enjoyed the stories told by Michael Ball, Julia McKenzie and Ned Sherrin. To hear Len Cariou sing again, to hear Cleo Laine sing any time, to reunite Millicent Martin, David Kernan and Julia McKenzie.. it’s just a really good cd. I just don’t love listening to Dame Edna sing Sondheim. I love Dame Edna. I love her shows, I love her tv shows, I love her. I just think that, every time someone lets her sing a Sondheim song, it cheapens Sondheim’s work. She’s too much. The song should do the work. Dame Edna won’t let anyone else have the moment; and with Sondheim (for me) it is all about the song.
Sondheim a Musical Tribute. Heaven! Absolute heaven! It’s a concert tribute in the 70s with things like Dorothy Collins doing Losing my Mind and Alexis Smith doing How Could I Leave you. It has original cast members doing their songs (some of which ended up being cut) and stars doing songs that weren’t theirs (Nancy Walker – I’m Still Here; Dorothy Collins – Do I Hear a Waltz) and it has Angela Lansbury. That’s enough for me.
Sondheim A Celebration: The S.T.A.G.E. Benefit Concert. Well, the cds of these Los Angeles benefit concerts tend to be a crap shoot. Sometimes they are wonderful from start to finish and sometimes it is just about programming certain tracks to play. A lot of the time, the people on these cds are performers I have never heard of who overcompensate for not being famous by totally overperforming their numbers. This cd is one of those – so I just have a few numbers, the really special ones, in my Ipod. For example: The Cassidy Brothers doing You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Tim Curry singing Losing My Mind, Loretta Devine performing Not While I’m Around/Children Will Listen, Billy Porter singing Not a Day Goes By/What Can You Lose (I can always listen to ms Devine and mr Porter), Sally Mayes doing Everybody Loves Louis, Carole Cook and co singing Can That Boy Foxtrot and Miss Glynis Johns singing the song that was written for her – Send in the Clowns. Irritatingly, I was to discover, through research, that Joanna Gleason did the INCOMPARABLE song Goodbye For Now in the concert but it was not included on the cd. I almost threw the cd away in protest.
Sondheim at Carnegie Hall. This is just beautiful. I love this concert; got the dvd and watch it, have the cd and listen to it – it is just beautiful. What wonderful performances! Once the overture is over, you know you are in for something wonderful when Madeline Kahn does Not Getting Married Today; but the embarrassment of riches that is Betty Buckley doing Children Will Listen, Karen Ziemba (assisted by Bill Irwin on the dvd) doing Sooner or Later, Billy Stritch doing (what I feel is) his sexiest recording, Anyone Can Whistle, Bernadette Peters doing Not a Day Goes By, Glenn Close doing Send in the Clowns, Liza Minnelli doing TWO numbers (!), Patrick Cassidy AND Victor Garber (have mercy) doing The Ballad of Booth, Patti LuPone doing (my SECOND favourite version of) Being Alive and what is, arguably, the most special treat on the cd or dvd: Dorothy Loudon doing a medley of Losing my Mind and You Could Drive a Person Crazy. This isn’t just a cd for Sondheim files… It is a cd for anyone who loves great entertainment.
A Stephen Sondheim Evening is one of the most important albums in my Sondheim collection. I was in college and discovering Sondheim (really discovering him), when a friend introduced me to this record. Natch, I went right out and bought a copy. It is some of the great musical theater voices doing some of the definitive performances of these songs. I mean, does it get better than George Hearn singing With So Little to be Sure of with Victoria Mallory? And speaking of Miss Mallory, her Isn’t it is the best version of the song I’ve ever heard. This is where I learned the phenomenon of “unreleased Sondheim”, hearing songs from SATURDAY NIGHT that hadn’t been recorded and songs from FORUM that had been cut. Judy Kaye doing Another Hundred People is the MOST perfectly enunciated performance of the song I have ever heard; and her Being Alive actually IS my favourite version. Liz Callaway, one of the all time great voices, doing What More Do I Need and The Miller’s Son (my favourite performance of the song) are, alone, worth the price of purchase. But. The ultimate is Angela Lansbury singing Send in the Clowns with Sondheim on the piano. This is essential Sondheimlistening.
Sondheim Tonight is some British tribute recording that a friend gave me. It came to me, a copy; no liner notes of cd dust jacket. I imported it into my Ipod and hit play and I actually quite enjoyed it, in spite of not knowing who some of the people are. I, particularly, enjoyed the stories told by Michael Ball, Julia McKenzie and Ned Sherrin. To hear Len Cariou sing again, to hear Cleo Laine sing any time, to reunite Millicent Martin, David Kernan and Julia McKenzie.. it’s just a really good cd. I just don’t love listening to Dame Edna sing Sondheim. I love Dame Edna. I love her shows, I love her tv shows, I love her. I just think that, every time someone lets her sing a Sondheim song, it cheapens Sondheim’s work. She’s too much. The song should do the work. Dame Edna won’t let anyone else have the moment; and with Sondheim (for me) it is all about the song.
Sondheim a Musical Tribute. Heaven! Absolute heaven! It’s a concert tribute in the 70s with things like Dorothy Collins doing Losing my Mind and Alexis Smith doing How Could I Leave you. It has original cast members doing their songs (some of which ended up being cut) and stars doing songs that weren’t theirs (Nancy Walker – I’m Still Here; Dorothy Collins – Do I Hear a Waltz) and it has Angela Lansbury. That’s enough for me.
Sondheim A Celebration: The S.T.A.G.E. Benefit Concert. Well, the cds of these Los Angeles benefit concerts tend to be a crap shoot. Sometimes they are wonderful from start to finish and sometimes it is just about programming certain tracks to play. A lot of the time, the people on these cds are performers I have never heard of who overcompensate for not being famous by totally overperforming their numbers. This cd is one of those – so I just have a few numbers, the really special ones, in my Ipod. For example: The Cassidy Brothers doing You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Tim Curry singing Losing My Mind, Loretta Devine performing Not While I’m Around/Children Will Listen, Billy Porter singing Not a Day Goes By/What Can You Lose (I can always listen to ms Devine and mr Porter), Sally Mayes doing Everybody Loves Louis, Carole Cook and co singing Can That Boy Foxtrot and Miss Glynis Johns singing the song that was written for her – Send in the Clowns. Irritatingly, I was to discover, through research, that Joanna Gleason did the INCOMPARABLE song Goodbye For Now in the concert but it was not included on the cd. I almost threw the cd away in protest.
Sondheim at Carnegie Hall. This is just beautiful. I love this concert; got the dvd and watch it, have the cd and listen to it – it is just beautiful. What wonderful performances! Once the overture is over, you know you are in for something wonderful when Madeline Kahn does Not Getting Married Today; but the embarrassment of riches that is Betty Buckley doing Children Will Listen, Karen Ziemba (assisted by Bill Irwin on the dvd) doing Sooner or Later, Billy Stritch doing (what I feel is) his sexiest recording, Anyone Can Whistle, Bernadette Peters doing Not a Day Goes By, Glenn Close doing Send in the Clowns, Liza Minnelli doing TWO numbers (!), Patrick Cassidy AND Victor Garber (have mercy) doing The Ballad of Booth, Patti LuPone doing (my SECOND favourite version of) Being Alive and what is, arguably, the most special treat on the cd or dvd: Dorothy Loudon doing a medley of Losing my Mind and You Could Drive a Person Crazy. This isn’t just a cd for Sondheim files… It is a cd for anyone who loves great entertainment.
posted by StephenMosher at 8:20 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home