A Stephen Sondheim Evening (1983 Concert Cast)
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Free Music Notes for A Stephen Sondheim Evening (1983 Concert Cast)
Free Music Review: I just wish I'd been there!
Hit: 5 Stars
Live performances are tricky to record, and the result is often not nearly as satisfying as attendance at the event itself. This album, though, is different. "Brilliant" about sums it up. Besides including numbers that had been part of recorded scores before, it includes some that were cut from various musicals, or were never produced at all. Not only is Bob Gunton's performance of "Pretty Little Picture" far better than that on the original "Forum" cast album, it is, I think, done more in the fashion Sondheim intended. And two of the "cut" "Forum" numbers are delicious: "In the House of Marcus Lycus" is delightfully sly and filled with double-entendre, and George Hearn revels in the witty lyrics; and "There's Something About A War" is screamingly funny, especially at the point the soldiers lose control gloating about "houses to destroy --Hey! women to enjoy-- hey! statues to deface - hey! - mothers to debase - hey!...". Even the wonderful scoring for small ensemble works perfectly. (In "Something about a war" the fanfare, in the original cast album scored for brass, is performed by a synthesizer, and sounds wonderfully satirical, reminding one of Marvin Martian from the Warner Brothers cartoons.) The numbers from the (at the time) unproduced "Saturday Night" are great, especially Victoria Mallory's ecstatic "What More Do I Need?". The rendition of the moving "Someone In A Tree" is indeed, as others have pointed out, far better than on the "Pacific Overtures" album. And as a final pair of jewels we are treated to Angela Lansbury singing "Send In the Clowns", accompied by Sondheim himself, and then Sondheim and company singing "Old Friends" I could go on and on, but you get the picture. NOW, get the CD!Free Music Review: A MUST For All Music Fans!
Hit: 5 Stars
My introduction to Stephen Sondheim was "Sweeney Todd" -- and my love for that soundtrack brought me to a STEPHEN SONDHEIM EVENING, especially when I heard Angela Lansbury, George Hearn and Chris Groenendaal were preformers (not to mention the always delightful Liz Callaway and Bob Gunton!)on this album but I never expected it to be as magnificent as it is. The atmosphere is friendly, fun and - oh! - those voices! "Someone in a Tree" is sung better on this album than any other I've ever heard! A MUST for all Sondheim fans.Free Music Review: Good Performers, Good Songs
Hit: 4 Stars
If you really like Sondheim music and like the songs on this collection, buy A Sondhiem Collection, the three disc set. All of the songs are on that set as well. However, there are a few lines and introductions that are on this CD and not the other. This one has great performers, Liz Callaway, Georger Hearn, Angela Landsbury, Bob Gunton. Sondheim accompanied Ms. Landsbury in one of his most famous songs from A Little Night Music, "Send in the Clowns."Free Music Review: A really good tribute album, and a great Sondheim sampler.
Hit: 5 Stars
If you don't know Sondheim's work, this is a concise, entertaining, extremely well-performed introduction to it. And if you do, this is still a very good compilation!Everyone on this album can really sing. The performances of "Being Alive", "Poems", and "The Miller's Son" are much better than the Broadway cast recordings. A wide range of material is included, including some rarely-performed stuff from "Saturday Night", Sondheim's first (but unstaged) musical.
Another nice thing about this live recording is the relaxed, friendly, cabaret-like atmosphere. The orchestra is small, and one gets the impression the audience was pretty small, too. Overall, I think it's a much better experience than, say, "Follies in Concert", which is a huge recording--so huge that one wonders if the "event" didn't overwhelm the material.
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