Sondheim Sunday in the Park with George
Beauty, passion and intimacy in Sondheim's pointillist masterpiece
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Stephen (Joshua) Sondheim
Genre:
Opera
Label: PS Classics
Magazine Review Date: 1/2007
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 82876 82348-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sunday in the Park with George |
Stephen (Joshua) Sondheim, Composer
Caroline Humphris, Conductor London Cast Stephen (Joshua) Sondheim, Composer |
Author: Edward Seckerson
Sam Buntrock's Meunier Chocolate Factory production of the Sondheim/Lapine masterpiece was one of the biggest and most enduring theatrical surprises of 2005. Inventiveness and real heart laid bare the piece as never before. A painful intimacy took it closer than ever to its original conception. Sunday has always been a chamber piece (though Broadway and the National Theatre may have denied it) but in Jason Carr's new and even sparer arrangements it now achieves a fragile transparency: very French (note the substitution of saxophone for horn), very pointillistic, very (and of this Sondheim would doubly approve) Ravelian.
This beautifully produced album evolved from around the time of the production's West End transfer and so feels thoroughly “bedded in”. It's more complete than previous manifestations on disc, making us more aware of the symbiosis between Sondheim and his book writer, and of the music that emanates from the words alone. You appreciate more than ever how Sondheim carries us towards the defining moments: “Beautiful”, a mother's lament for the fading landscape of her youth; “Finishing the Hat”, the ultimate song of creative obsessiveness; “Sunday”, the joy of completion and achievement; and, of course, the cathartic way in which the rift between George and Dot is so unforgettably healed in that great Sondheim classic, “Move On”.
Daniel Evans's passion and astonishing verbal dexterity (just listen to “Colour and Light”) is supremely well complemented by Jenna Russell's heartfelt honesty. A tight-knit cast of uniformly gifted singing actors makes the whole experience “connect” like never before. Is there a better or more unsettling or more moving piece about “the art of making art”? Has any piece of theatre - musical or otherwise - more tellingly identified the cost in human terms? No to all of the above.
This beautifully produced album evolved from around the time of the production's West End transfer and so feels thoroughly “bedded in”. It's more complete than previous manifestations on disc, making us more aware of the symbiosis between Sondheim and his book writer, and of the music that emanates from the words alone. You appreciate more than ever how Sondheim carries us towards the defining moments: “Beautiful”, a mother's lament for the fading landscape of her youth; “Finishing the Hat”, the ultimate song of creative obsessiveness; “Sunday”, the joy of completion and achievement; and, of course, the cathartic way in which the rift between George and Dot is so unforgettably healed in that great Sondheim classic, “Move On”.
Daniel Evans's passion and astonishing verbal dexterity (just listen to “Colour and Light”) is supremely well complemented by Jenna Russell's heartfelt honesty. A tight-knit cast of uniformly gifted singing actors makes the whole experience “connect” like never before. Is there a better or more unsettling or more moving piece about “the art of making art”? Has any piece of theatre - musical or otherwise - more tellingly identified the cost in human terms? No to all of the above.
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