Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?- Page 2

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:55pm

Concerto For Orchestra was such an eye opener when I studied it. The brilliance of the orchestration and versatility of the music is in the top tier of its category.

[broadwayjules]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:57pm

Not on who he likes, but my absolute favorite thing I've ever read that Sondheim said about another composer was that "Frank Wildhorn must be the least successful composer on broadway." Regarding his flops, love it.

::looks for link::

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:11pm

The article about songs Sondheim wished he had written is very very interesting. I think someone posted the link to it.

[broadwayjules]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:33pm

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000312mag-sondheim.html

Found it! Great article, long, part about Wildhorn toward the end.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:36pm

I know everything comes in threes, but how many times are we going to post the same link in one thread?

in other news, I really have to listen to the Bartok piece. I love Bartok, but I'm not nearly as well versed as I would like to be.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:48pm

In addition to the superb Reiner, there's a bunch of excellent recordings of the Bartok, including those by Bernstein, Chailly, Karajan (the one on DG preferable to the two on EMI), Ormandy, and Ivan Fischer.

I do recommend getting one of that has the stunning Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste as the second piece, which is not true of all those recordings. Though if you already have a recording of the Concerto for Orchestra with I>Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, it can be fun to have a second recording with something else on it. (I'm one of those people who often collect multiple recordings of the same piece.)
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 03:48 PM

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 7:46pm

I find it so bizarre that he likes The Wiz.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:19pm

So do I. Of his own generation, I know he likes Bock, Coleman and Kander.

"Despite people comparing him to sondheim, He's made it clear he REALLY doesn't like Jason Robert Brown."

Maybe because Mr. Brown speaks openly about shows his dislikes, is hypercritcal of almost everyone else's work but his own and is a pompous jerk, unlike Mr. Sondheim who is a gracious gentleman.
Updated On: 1/5/09 at 09:19 PM

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:30pm

True, but it does surprise me that he doesn't like Brown's work.



Also:

"You'd do well to read some of the very insightful books written about Sondheim's work if you are truly interested what he thinks about certain subjects.

It is an education to read anything he says regarding craft/art/theatre. "

Any suggestions as to what books?

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:30pm

double post fest Updated On: 1/5/09 at 09:30 PM

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:48pm

I've mentioned two of the books of essays on his work that I've read.

Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays (Studies in Modern Drama) I've read several essays in this, including a rather dense one on Passion that made my head spin.

Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook (Garland Reference Library of Humanities) I've only read one essay in this book, about his women, but it has some interesting looking ones.


there are a TON of other books about his work, and approaching it from all different angles. honestly, though, some of the essays make me feel incredibly stupid.

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:55pm

Thanks

Aren't there some colleges that offer courses just on Sondheim? (I might be making this up, I can't remember where I heard it)

But if so, any ideas as to which ones?

*Edited because I misspelled Sondheim!
Updated On: 1/10/09 at 09:55 PM

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 1/5/09 at 10:38pm

I just put the songs on Sondheim's list of "Songs He Wishes That He Wrote" into a playlist on my iPod.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 2:37am

I hate to say it, but I think the two books that givesmevoice mentions are full of . . . dull, dull, dull academic essays that have little real insight.

Stephen Banfield's Sondheim's Broadway Musicals is very technical about the music but I like it, even though I'm not a musician. If you're not a musician, you may find it boring,

The Meryle Secrest bio is not very good. It has lots of factual errors, inconsistencies, loose ends, chronological confusions and other problems (including some awful writing), but it's still probably worth reading since it's the only biography we have of him.

Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions is a collection of interviews with Sondheim, conducted by Mark Horowitz. It's very technical about music but interesting.

Craig Zadan's Sondheim & Co. was the first book on Sondheim. If you're a serious Sondheim fan, you probably need a copy of one of the later, updated editions. Unfortunately, it's out of print, but not too difficult to get online.

Steve Swayne's How Sondheim Found His Sound is not especially insightful but, apart from a few factual errors, it does present a lot of good information from other sources and some info that can't be found anywhere else.

Two books edited by Otis L. Guernsey, Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers on Theater and Broadway Song & Story, contain transcripts of fascinating talks given by Sondheim. The latter also has a talk between Sondheim and Prince. Both are long out-of-print but can be found, often for a modest price, on abebooks.com and other sites. And both have a slew of excellent interviews with lots of interesting people. I doubt that any theater lover who gets them will be disappointed.



Updated On: 1/7/09 at 02:37 AM

[Taryn]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 4:25am

Aren't there some colleges that offer courses just on Sonheim? (I might be making this up, I can't remember where I heard it)

But if so, any ideas as to which ones?

The University of Rochester does (taught by Kim Kowalke, who most recently was one of the editors of the letters in LoveMusik). It's a great course.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 4:38am

I just saw a Passion era interview where he spoke highly of Ahrens and Flaherty.

[JudasIscariot]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 5:36am

Does anyone have a link to the interview where Sondheim said that Shrek is actually restoring his faith in the American musical?

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 6:13am

BROADWAY SONG & STORY edited by Otis Guernsey is available on Amazon.com. You can get a used copy for very little money. It is a fascinating series of interviews, not just with Sondheim but also about such landmark hits as ON THE TOWN, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and DEATH OF A SALESMAN.

Back to Bartok's CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA for a minute. He composed it in Saranac Lake, NY, in the Adirondacks, where he was convalescing from Tuberculosis-like symptoms, in 1944. It had been commissioned by The Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bartok lived and composed in a tiny hut of a place, which has been restored and is open to the public. Bartok never recovered from his illness and died in 1945. After living in NYC for 31 years, I moved to Saranac Lake in 1996. Bartok's cabin is about the only culture that this town has!

Updated On: 1/6/09 at 06:13 AM

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/6/09 at 11:20pm

Thanks for the book suggestions! I'll be sure to try and get my hands on some of those..

[theminutepast]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 9:09am

In his interview with Frank Rich at Oberlin, he said Porgy and Bess was his favorite score. What I found more interesting was that he said he doesn't listen to music with lyrics when he's at home. He listens to foreign symphonies and has borrowed once or twice from them in the past.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 11:20am

Well, I completely understand his feeling. As I get older, I find that there's so much great instrumental music from the past that I still haven't heard or have heard but don't really "get" yet, and I just want to hear as much of it as possible. You can't listen to the Beethoven quartets once or twice and have them really penetrate your brain.

I love theatre music and I still listen to it, I love the Great American Songbook, but there's just so much to hear and not enough time to hear it all.

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/10/09 at 10:17am

Update: The only one of the suggested books they had at my local library was "Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions" and though I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet, so far I find it to be amazing and very helpful, though some of the parts on music are beyond me.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/10/09 at 3:27pm

"Does anyone have a link to the interview where Sondheim said that Shrek is actually restoring his faith in the American musical?"

The musical with a song about flatulence? Really Steve?

I would think the musicals of late he liked were Caroline or Chage, Avenue Q, Light in the Piazza, Grey Gardens, A Catered Affair, In the Heights and Passing Strange. I'm hesitating on A Catered Affair, because despite the fact that it is a very good piece, it is sort of what Sondheim and Friends would call a "Why?" musical.
Anyway, as I said before, people like Sondheim and John Kander and Jerry Herman are really class acts. They keep their mouths shut. These pompus, pretentious know-it-alls like Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LaChuisa who write humorless, empty shows really ought to shut up. I can't put it any other way.
May I also say, Mr. Sondheim has mentored and supported many of the present day writers personally and through different workshop programs (Guettel, Robert Lopez, Scott Frankel, Bucchino, the late Jonathan Larson) and perhaps doesn't want to play favorites. I say, good for him.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 1/10/09 at 3:32pm

Hey, Sondheim is not above flatulence jokes. Don't forget, he once wrote, "Please... don't fart/There's very little air and this is art".

[jv92]

Posted: 1/10/09 at 3:36pm

Oh, I forgot about that one. In fact, I tried to forget about The Frogs.
Anyway, perhaps Shrek fits into the cateogry of "I loved it because it made the audience happy" for Mr. Sondheim.