Sondheim Recording Suggestions

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Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 4:06pm

I just got gift cards to Amazon and Barnes & Noble and I'm looking for some suggestions for some new recordings. I want to recordings of Sondheim shows I don't own any of (SUNDAY, PACIFIC OVERTURES, ASSASSINS, etc.) and I just wanted to know which show recordings you suggest or if I should get any of these at all. Some of these may not be in print (I have no idea) so I might have to find some used or something. But these are the Sondheim shows I do not have any recordings of:

SATURDAY NIGHT
ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
DO I HEAR A WALTZ?
PACIFIC OVERTURES
SUNDAY IN THE PARK...
ASSASSINS
PASSION
ROAD SHOW
THE FROGS
Sondheim Revues (SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, PUTTING TOGETHER, et al.)

If a show has multiple recordings, which should I get? I, of course, would like to hear the original cast, and I like the sound quality of most recent productions/recordings, but IDK how any of these sound. I would eventually like to have at least one recording of each of Sondheim's major works, so hopefully after a while, it works out! Thanks!

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 4:23pm

Do you have any individual songs from Sunday?

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 4:25pm

Nothing at all, unfortunately, from any of these shows.

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 4:52pm

I'd start with Sunday (my favorite score ever) and Anyone Can Whistle (OBC).

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 5:43pm

Of that list, my two faves are:

Pacific Overtures - Original Broadway
Passion - Broadway or London
Anyone Can Whistle - Concert

You can pretty much skip Saturday Night, Frogs and Road Show unless you have everything else and are a hardcore collector.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 6:51pm

For sheer theatricality as well as musical dexterity, I'd recommend the original off-Broadway recording of ASSASSINS.

But SUNDAY's score is gorgeous. No argument from me there, even though I'm not a fan of the show.

And the OBC of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE has some of Sondheim's most heartfelt work.

At some point in your collecting, you should get the OBC of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM (or is it the original West End production?--same cast). The intimate setting, the dual piano accompaniment, and the presentation of songs dropped from other shows make it a must in any Sondheim collection. (It's also a record I've listened to hundreds of times simply for pleasure.)

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 7:03pm

There seems to be a constant debate between which recording of Assassins people prefer--I personally think (despite some very good performances in the Broadway), that the Off-Broadway blows it away in terms of overall atmosphere (I admit, I'm not a fan of the added Something Just Broke).

I guess you really should start with Sunday, and the original recording is near perfection (and I'm not even a Mandy fan), although I admit that's one show that I probably put on the DVD of at least as much as the CD (but, I'll assume you don't own the DVD either, so that may be a moot point).

The OBC of Whistle is just thrilling (even the quickness it was recorded in, with several flubs, kinda adds to the theatricality for me, much as it does with Merrily's OBCR). The concert is pretty expensive to buy now, anyway, but I'd choose the OBCR anyday.

Pacific Overtures and Passion may be my two fave scores of his (not necesarily shows, though I enjoy both a lot). Simply gorgeous. The revival recording of PO has a tiny sounding orchestra and lacks, for me, theatricality, and I'm not a fan of the English National Opera one (though the out of print two disc is complete, dialogue and all), but, even with cuts, the original cast sounds superb (frustratingly, maybe because it's oneof his least done shows, it's the only pre 1990 Sondheim original cast album yet to be remastered, though it's still in print--when they did the RCA Sondheim remasters they quietly just ignored it, but the CD sounds pretty good, regardless).

Passion needs to start with the OBCR as well (actually for Sondheim, nearly always, the first cxast album is the one to stick with).

I agree that Frogs, Road Show/Bounce and Saturday Night can go after those. That said, I think Saturday Night is an absolutely winning, and charming show--it's almost as if Sondheim was doing (and doing very well) a musical comedy in that 1950's style of Wonderful Town/Pajama Game, etc, and I suppose he was. In this case, do not get the first recording, from England (it may not even be in print)--the later Off Broadway recording from Kathleen Marshall's production is a huge charmer, with great performances, a fuller score, and proper Tunick orchestrations. A few years ago, I found it from Amazon Marketplace new for about 3 dollars--it had a "cut" in the jewel box of the CD meaning it was a remainder, so maybe they printed more editions than they came close to selling and more cheap remainder editions are out there. Anyway, I think the score is underated, and it would be next choice.

Road Show/Bounce is worth listening to after you have those, and a lot of it has grown on me, but it's hard to recommend before the others. Frogs, as well. Actually, I like the choral music done for the original 70s Frogs very much--I don't much care for the added bits, and there is a recording of the shorter, 1970s score combined with a good recording of the songs of Evening Primrose (if you don't already have that soundtrack, which while a limited edition Kritzerland still seems to have copies of), with Neil Patrick Harris that makes that edition the one to buy first, IMHO.

I believe all of those recordings are in print (if for some godawful reasonyou ignore Gaveston and myself,

, and choose the revival of Assassins, that was out of print for a while but PS Classics just released more copies). And like I said, you can often find cheap, and still new copies of them from Amazon Marketplace which I know amazon gift cards will allow yout o purchase through.

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 7:06pm

Oh and Do I Hear a Waltz is a surprisingly gorgeous score, but I guess I don't see it as essential Sondheim since he didn't do the music. But it's still in print (not the revival recording, but the OBCR is where to start anyway).

Sondheim was lucky that all of his shows were recorded post Stereo (WSS being one of the earlier stereo cast albums) and, issues with Follies at least before Kritzerland's new mix aside, generally have terrific sound original cast albums. If you are buying cheap copies you may wanna make sure to get the remasters, sometimes marketplace sellers have old copies floating around, even though Sony now has them in awful cheap packagaing (you can usually still find the jewel disc, fancier booklet editions for sale though, which use the same remaster). But that's not really an issue with any of the shows you mention--Company, for example, was kinda a mess on its first CD release and was greatly improved (it had some weird bits, like people randomly switching speakers, etc, which made me wonder if they for some reason used the 1970s quadrophonic mix that I have on vinyl).

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 7:30pm

I've said elsewhere that Neil Patrick Harris can do no wrong in my book.

But nobody's voice suits the Balladeer like Patrick Cassidy's. I don't know how much was written after Cassidy was cast, but IMO the off-Broadway recording sounds as if the Balladeer's songs were written just for the singer. And the contrast between Cassidy's high tenor and Victor Garber's baritone speaks to the heart of the show and its characters.

(I heard Cassidy do a concert version about 10 years ago for LA-REPRISE. He didn't quite have the top notes any more, but the voice still fit the part in a unique manner.)

#10

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 7:51pm

I would suggest Do I Hear a Waltz? It has lovely music by perhaps our greatest musical theatre composer.

I would advise skipping all the others.

#11

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 7:58pm

I would advise skipping all the others.

:crickets chirping:

#12

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 8:10pm

Assassins and Sunday... are ABSOLUTELY essential for any Sondheim lover deffinately start with them. As for which recording, what's more important to you? The revival recordings of both shows are more complete but I prefer the performances on the OBCR of both.

#13

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 8:11pm

It's so hard to pick just one of each. They're all so much fun to listen to the revival recordings and compare and contrast to the originals. Most of the Sondheim revival recordings are also beautifully produced and packaged by Nonesuch and PSClassics.

For the Frogs I would go with the Broadway recording since it's the revised finished version of the show, and for Putting it Together I would suggest skipping the CD and just getting the DVD.

#14

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 8:20pm

But CATSNY Julie Andrews isn't on the DVD and her performance of Could I Leave You? is worth the price of the CD alone. Her performance of that song is probably my favorite recording of that song ever.

#15

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 8:21pm

I don't know how people can dismiss SATURDAY NIGHT so lightly.
If you are studying Sondheim you have to start with this early piece, there's so much great stuff and 2 of my favorite Stevie Songs: WHAT MORE DO I NEED? and the jaw-dropping beauty of SO MANY PEOPLE.

#16

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 10:16pm

Agreed (although, I admit, I think I like What More Do I Need a bit more as a solo piece--but I firstheard Liz Callaway's version). I think it's a greatly underated score. I'm not sure how it plays on stage (though I think Marshall's production got good, albeit not brilliant, notices). When I compared it to other 50s shows like Wonderful Town, I forgot to say that music wise, I actually think it also holds up quite nicely to them, which says a lot.

I know there was a discussion about it on the Sondheim forum recently, and there were two major reasons many dismissed it. One, was simply that a surprising number of posters on there simply only knew the (several) songs from it that have popped up in revues, and never bothered to get the recording. The other was that many got the first recording, the British one (which I believe may have been semi-pro and has awful fake accents), and didn't think much of it, which I admit was something I kinda did--I played it a few times but never got too much into it, so the Off Broadway recording was a revelation.

I don't think all that much of Putting it Together, period (though I prefer it to the kinda mess that Sondheim on Sondheim seems to be), but I wish the original, slightly different, LA (I think?) cast with Julie, etc, would have been the one filmed. The DVD is fun enough to put on in the background, but is played too cutesy for me (John Barrowman, as handsome and in fine voice as ever goes into some of his concert "cute" shtick that I find phony and hard to take, and Bronson Pinchot is near impossible for me to watch, though Burnett is great, of course).

It's true you often gain a bit more in the revival recordings, but there can be a sacrifice. I like the Sunday revival a lot (and I saw the production when it was transfered to Seattle, but with a different cast lead by a surprisingly good Hugh Panaro, and found it gorgeous on stage), but the thinner orchestra loses a lot for me on CD. It's nice to have (only with piano, I think) the full The One on the Left as a bonus track, which was cut during the original workshop, but otherwise I don't play it much, ore find much music I miss.

Aside from Something Just Broke, which was added in London, does the revival Assassins actually have much more music? It does have little dialogue scenes (including Byck's full, famous monologue), but the off-Broadway recording has the final scene instead, which I find more interesting to listen to. I think overall, as good as the performers are in the Broadway, every single one is trumped by the original (and yes, Gaveston, the baladeer's material sounds made for Cassidy, whether it was or not). One example, is Sondheim describes Unworthy of Your Love as meant to sound like a pretty Carpenters' ballad, at least until the climax (which does have an annoying recording glitch on the original cast album where the vocals are recorded a bit too "hot" and the sound crackles--but most people prob wouldn't notice), and the way it was sung on Broadway makes it sound kinda, ugly, from the start IMHO.

It should be pointed out that, I believe, off-Broadway the score was played by two keyboardists and a percussionist, but just for the recording Starobin did full orchestrations. He did slightly different orchestrations for Broadway--but I think I prefer the original.

I love this performance at Carnegie Hall of Garber and Cassidy doing the full Ballad of Booth, just a year or two after Assassins had its brief run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVn8kO7DVhU

#17

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/15/12 at 10:26pm

In my opinion, "Merrily We Roll Along", "Company" "Into the Woods" and " Sunday in the Park With George" are must haves. Also the 2 songs, Anyone can Whistle and Everybody Says Don't.

Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#18

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 6:05am

"Oh and Do I Hear a Waltz is a surprisingly gorgeous score,"

The expert opinion of an expert.

Oh yes! How very surprising that the composer of Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I should write a gorgeous sore.

Well, if you can wade through the pompous pontificating on some of these threads (the Sondheim ones in particular), you can garner a genuine laugh or two, like this one.

#19

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 10:53am

I had the strangest dream the other night. I dreamt that there was a Broadway World thread about the work of Stephen Sondheim and After Eight didn't post in it.

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 10:53 AM

#20

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 6:11pm

Oh yes! How very surprising that the composer of Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I should write a gorgeous score.

Those were by all accounts very happy collaborations.

DO I HEAR A WALTZ? was by all accounts an UNhappy collaboration. And inspired Arthur Laurents' famous appraisal, "The first NOTE was boring!"

So one might reasonably be surprised that Rodgers was able to create something of value under difficult circumstances. I'm sure nobody questions his talent.

#21

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 10:50pm

Actually, Rodgers and Hammerstein's collaborations got less and less "happy" after ALLEGRO. They still turned out two more good shows after that, though.

I think ...WALTZ? has a pleasant and appealing score and is ripe for an Encores! mounting, but it doesn't compare to CAROUSEL or SOUTH PACIFIC. And no, After Death, that's not because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom. It's more like because Sondheim turned in a good set of lyrics and Rodgers' well was running dry. Of his post-Oscar shows, though, it is by far the best, both lyrically AND musically.

#22

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 11:06pm

Actually, Rodgers and Hammerstein's collaborations got less and less "happy" after ALLEGRO. They still turned out two more good shows after that, though.

Yes, and I understand there was friction with Logan on SOUTH PACIFIC.

I was speaking in relative terms. I haven't read anything to suggest the teams on the R&H shows approached anything near the open warfare of the WALTZ crew.

#23

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 11:09pm

That's true, but according to his most famous pupil, Hammerstein often came home from working with Rodgers tense and fraught with angst and needed a strong drink and a few minutes alone to regain his composure. If Rodgers was cruel to Sondheim, he was just cold to Hammerstein.

#24

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/16/12 at 11:24pm

I imagine it helped that Hammerstein wasn't gay.

(ETA I am by no means accusing Sondheim of lying. I'm sure his perception was what he says it was. But he isn't the most disinterested source on Rodgers or Hammerstein.)

Updated On: 8/16/12 at 11:24 PM

#25

Sondheim Recording Suggestions

Posted: 8/17/12 at 1:44am

"that's not because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom."

It's because of Sondheim and Laurents, the masters of gloom and doom.

"It's more like because Sondheim turned in a good set of lyrics and Rodgers' well was running dry"

Sondheim's lyrics stank, and Rodgers's well was full.

For the other side of the story--- in contrast to parti pris prattle--- I suggest reading the chapter on this show in Rodgers's auotobiography. He says he had never before worked on a show in which his collaborators were intent on sabotaging it. Nice, isn't it? Well, they couldn't stifle his genius, and good for him!

Updated On: 8/17/12 at 01:44 AM

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