Customer Reviews

Stephen Sondheim: A Little Night Music

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It goes without saying that the packaging of the new A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC recording is another first rate affair from PS Classics (joining with Nonesuch) including a 2-CD set and a well illustrated 96-page libretto housed in a handsome slipcase. The new recording contained within perfectly captures the sound of the performances of the revival, which opened on Broadway in December 2009 to mostly favorable notices.

How favorably you will regard this set will depend largely of how familiar you are with previous NIGHT MUSIC recordings. The recording of the original 1973 Broadway production (Little Night Music) is such an exquisite cast album that subsequent recordings were always found wanting for one reason or another.

The revival, directed by Trevor Nunn and based on his previous stagings in London and at the Menier Chocolate Factory, provides a fresh interpretation of the material with newly etched performances and chamber-sized orchestra. The performances are different from what we have heard on previous recordings, but that is what helps justify a new recording rather than trying to offer a pale imitation of inimitable original cast.

At first the disc sounds like someone has substituted a disc of Gregorian Chants, but soon Tim Murray leads the orchestra into Jason Carr's newly orchestrated opening music and we creep back into more familiar territory.

Top billed as Desiree is Catherine Zeta-Jones. Here is someone who can actually sing the role and act it as is apparent from the amount of dialogue included here. The dialogue scenes also allow us to hear more of Angela Lansbury's acclaimed performances as Madame Armfeldt.

There much more to enjoy including Erin Davie as Charlotte (and allowing to hear some of the character's better barbs) paired with Aaron Lazar as her philandering husband. His "In Praise of Women" is about as well sung as we will ever hear on records, and her duet with Ramona Mallory on one of the score's neglected gems "Ev'ry Day a Little Death" is one of the album's best tracks.

Another segment that is given full singing and acting is the lengthy first act finale "A Weekend in the Country" which again includes the dialogue between the verses giving each section even more dramatic context.

The added dialogue also helps explain the context of the show's most famous hit song, "Send in the Clowns" since the dialogue that precedes the song is recorded as is the brief exchange in the middle that gives the final verse a different point of view. Columbia's original recording was already overstuffed at nearly 60 minutes - about the maximum you could fit onto an Lp - so there was no way they could have recorded these. The added luxury of time on a CD (2 discs in fact) allows us to experience more fully how this crucial sequence plays on stage.

No everything on this new recording comes close to matching the sheer perfection of the original. Ramona Mallory's breathless (at at times very breathy Anne) lacks the quiet sadness that her mother (Victoria) infused into her performance, and is at times too strident when restraint is called for. Leigh Ann Larkin tends to rush the phrasing in "The Miller's Son" and Alexander Hanson channels a bit too much Noel Coward into his performance as lawyer Frederick Egerman.

The extra dialogue stretches the recording onto a second discs but at 86 minutes it seems curious to have some of teh dialogue included while other segments are omitted. Since the label has gone to expanse and expense of a 2 CD set, why not fill the discs out more giving us a slightly abridged version of the entire show. An idea of what could have been is discovered in the final tracks where for the first time we can enjoy all the little reprises that link the many scenes as our story winds to a conclusion. The argument is that recordings are for music not dialogue, but if that is true then why include any of it. Truth is, with a few edits this recording could probably have been squeezed onto a single disc.

Nevertheless, what is presented here has been intelligently laid out act by act on the two Cd's and you can easily enjoy the performances even without consulting your libretto. Those who are new to the show will delight in discovering Stephen Sondheim's dazzling words and music and Hugh Wheeler's smartly done reduction of Ingmar Bergman's screenplay for SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT. Those who are already familiar with the original recording may find some individual moments less satisfactory but overall this is a very fine recording of a very fine show.

The songs are taken at a pace where you are able to hear every word--a thrill. Some of the arrangements are nice, and almost make up for the lack of size of the "orchestra." On other tunes, in particular the awful Glamorous Life, which sounds like a bad polka, the lack of instruments and the quality of the arrangements (you can't call them orchestrations; it's a busker's band)really hurt. Also, the Miller's Son, apart from feeling under-rehearsed (as do a couple of other numbers), makes you wonder why you should listen to this version, when you can hear the balls-out, fully orchestrated one in the original, not to mention A Weekend in the Country (and if you've never heard that French horn or whatever it is, in the original, I supposed its absence doesn't matter, and yet...) On the whole, though, I really missed the lushness of the original, and Tunick's orchestrations (after you listen to the original a few hundred times for the music and lyrics and the fullness of character in the voices, listen a few hundred more to Tunick's orchestrations--he's a lifelong hero of mine (while we're on the subject, probably my favorite Tunick is his work on Another Hundred People--that rushing force of energy that just keeps building; I still can't listen without my inhalor.

I really liked the Frederick. He lacks the sense of authority, robustness, and occasional menace (for instance, cf Cariou's "What was that?" in You Must Meet My Wife; this guy seems flustered, while Cariou seems to be implying a warning--anyway, that's what I hear), but he's pretty good, anyway. Henrik, though, seems weak-voiced and insufficiently tormented, and I miss the high notes in Later (though see the French horn above). I was really waiting to hear Angela Lansbury do Liasons--the only reason I bought it. It was a fine performance, but...Lansbury's is a very fine acting job, while there was no Gingold, only Madame A.

It's no shame to be no Glynis Johns--no one could ever match her performance, it isn't possible. Zeta-Jones does a nice job, but why spend your valuable time on earth listening to her modestly okay song-stylings when you can listen, over and over again, to a real person actually living in real time, albeit over and over again?

The ability to hear every single word, some of the arrangements, the guy playing Frederick, Angela Lansbury--all good reasons to listen, at least now and then.

What a lovely gift for Stephen Sondheim on the coming occurrence of his 80th birthday. I live far from New York, so I was very happy to learn this beautiful show was to be recorded.

Perhaps most amazing is the fact this show seems to work no matter the configuration. Here the orchestra has been reduced to what I would call a chamber orchestra, and it sounds wonderful. Years ago I saw New York City Opera's production with Sally Anne Howes and Regina Resnik - completely different, of course - but just as wonderful. I quickly accustomed myself the the lightness of this interpretation, which, I think, helps focus the attention on the characters.

I was concerned that Catherine Zeta-Jones would give us one of those "Hollywood-Stars-Gone-A-Slumming" performances. But no, she'll have none of that. Judging only from the recording, of course, I think she is absolute magic here. She actually seems to understand the songs. We're often reminded that Sondheim did not write this role for a trained singer, but for a fine actress. How refreshing that in Zetta-Jones we have a fine actress whose singing voice is quite lovely. This, I think, is a huge stretch for her, and she is to be congratulated.

Everyone else in the cast does just fine, with a special nod to Alexander Hanson. And, of course, Angela Lansbury. She doesn't erase the memory of the magnificent Hermione Gingold. No one could do that. However, she shows us that there is another way. The years have made her a very wise artist. She knows exactly what she is capable of and, in a most intelligent, dramatic and musical way, gives us everything she's got. Bless her.

I just heard the cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's new "Love Never Dies". Unlike some others, I never compare Mr. Webber and Mr. Sondheim. I think they both do what they do quite well. That said, I can't help but comment that, with all it's lush orchestration, myriad characters and Puccinian ripeness, Mr. Webber seems unable to accomplish in 2 1/2 hours what Mr. Sondheim accomplishes here in five minutes: he makes me believe.

I was lucky enough to catch this revival in New York and was totally enthralled. I have the original cast album with Glynis Johns but this new recording blows that one out of the water.

More music than the original and pieces of dialogue require this album to be put on 2 discs but there isn't a bad song in the show. The spoken words help the listener better understand the story; so well, I think, you might not even need to read the synopsis in the liner notes. Basically the show is about the relationships of the young, the middle-aged, and the old as the lives of several adult intertwine. Some of Sondheim's greatest songs are here: Send in the Clowns, A Weekend in the Country, and the Miller's Son are just some of them.

The only negative I give it is Catherine Zeta-Jones' rendition of Send in the Clowns, but nowhere near as scenery-chomping as her performance of this song on the Tony's.

This is the crowning glory for anyone's Sondheim library or your Broadway collection. You won't be disappointed.

Even though it would be difficult to beat the heartbreaking, moving intrepretation of Send In The Clowns that Glynnis Johns created in the original cast, Katherine Zeta Jones comes close. A much better performance here than what she gave on the Tony's. The rest of the recording is delightful, presenting every note of the score which is delicous. Angela Lansbury can do no wrong and here she gives the ultimate performance of Madam Armfeldt. I saw the original cast on Broadway, and meaning no disrespect to the late, great, Hermione Gingold, her performance of Liasons slowed the show down and nearly put the audience to sleep. With Lansbury it is a true tour-de-force and a highlight of the show. The rest of the cast are marvelous, with the exception of the screechy Ramona Mallory as Anne. Her parents are the original Anne and Henrik, Victora Mallory and Mark Lambert, so a fun story that she was playing Anne, though without the glorious voice of her mother. However for the character, it seems to work.
A fantastic companion to have with the OBC recording, get both!

It is fantastic to have a recording with a lot of the original dialogue ,spoken by a stellar cast.A superb disc wish I could have seen the show .Well this is the next best thing,

May I suggest that those who have derided this revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" are spending too much time probing for cracks in its facade?

Catherine Zeta-Jones is superbly cast as Desiree Armfeldt, a bombshell singing actress who unwittingly plays two men like a puppet. Making her New York theater debut in this production, in this role, has to be one of the soundest and smartest career moves a Hollywood star has made in the past year. She fits the role like a glove and vice/versa. This is pitch-perfect casting at its finest, and how fortunate that it is well-preserved on record.

The blending of Alexander Hanson, Ramona Mallory and Hunter Ryan Herdlicka on "Now," "Soon" and "Later," respectively, is sublimely Sondheim. The listening experience these actors bring to their songs is exceptional. This is what audiences flock to the musical theater for. The recording is crisp and clear, without the orchestration drowing out the actors as many contemporary theater recordings often do.

Angela Lansbury's performance as the caustic, world-weary Madame Armfeldt, however, is the most striking element of the disc. In both her singing (solo on "Liaisons," one of Sondheim's most narrative - and impressive - lyrics, ensemble in "The Glamorous Life) and spoken word dialogue pieces - an above-average amount of which are included - she characterizes so deftly and profoundly that she absolutely transcends the confines of a mere recording; her performance is absolutely preserved. It is a pleasure, and surely the most memorable element of the recording and production as a whole.

Not all tracks fair ideally, though. The delightful, exceptionally talented Erin Davie sounds crisp on "Every Day a Little Death," but without the immediacy of live performance Mallory's performance on the song falls short. The ebullience Aaron Lazar projects in "In Praise of Women" is not as effective on disc, either. Even Leigh Ann Larkin, an absolute powerhouse on stage in "The Miller's Son," sounds only adequate here.

Those who only hear the recording will be given the impression that something mildly enjoyable took place on stage at the Walter Kerr in New York, which is unfortunate since the production, performed live, is nothing short of marvelous and utterly professional. However, Lansbury alone makes the recording worthwhile, and Zeta-Jones' star-power greases the wheels considerably. Certainly a worthwhile disc for its intended audience.

I am a fan of the 1973 recording, having listened to it quite a bit in anticipation of seeing the show on Broadway in May of 2010. While that version is excellent, I think that this on has its charms as well.

The two-disc format allows for a lot of dialogue to be included, which is a big plus, especially on songs like "Send in the Clowns," where Fredrick's presence explains a lot of Desiree's emotions. Catherine Zeta-Jones sounds great, as she did on the stage. A bit brassy, yes, but she's playing an actress, so it works for me. I wish the bedroom scene with the Count, Fredrick and Desiree had been included, as it was played to comic perfection on the stage, with spot-on timing and a healthy dose of chemistry. We had excellent seats and I was a bit awe-struck by Ms. Zeta-Jones, who looked amazing.

Mr. Hanson is wry and self-deprecating here, and his "Now" is perfectly syncopated and enunciated, a very tricky thing for a singer to pull off. I would like to see him with Bernadette Peters, just to see what, if any, chemistry they have together.

I also liked Aaron Lazar's take on Carl-Magnus and Erin Davie's on Charlotte. Their chemistry on stage was also palpable, and Ms. Davie turns in a wonderful take on "Every Day a Little Death" that has a much more palpable sad edge to it than the '73 version.

I am less a fan of Mr. Herdlicka as Henrick; too shrill and whiny, as others have said. His "for GOD's sake!" on "Later" is about an octave too high and is cringe-worthy for me! Ms. Mallory is neither great nor bad for me, just a little too overwrought. Ms. Larkin has a nice turn on "The Miller's Son," another tricky one for a singer, but she handles it with aplomb. Her scenes with Frid were gems on-stage, very sexy and playful.

Finally, Ms. Lansbury is as legendary as I'd hoped, although she enunciates "Liasons" as "Lay-sons," where I am used to Hermoine Gingold's "Lee-ay-sons," a minor point, but she also injects some life into that song and it is much less "plodding" than the original. It's great that we can still see an adult, intimate show like this in 2010 - stop grousing, people!

there's a lot consider in assessing this new, more complete cast recording of A Little Night Music. It takes its cue, not just from the current fad for chamber-music reductions of big Sondheim musicals, but also from Trevor Nunn''s decision to make the show more like Chekhov. In other words, a certain psychological realism and ambiguity replace the broader, louder Broadway style we hear on previous albums. These voices sing intimately, for the microphone rather than for a theater audience. In that regard, this new set is a great success, and having seen the production in London, I can attest that no one can aim the charge of coldness at it -- always a problem when Sondheim wanted mass success.

Some reviewers below feel that too much has been lost by reducing a large pit orchestra to eight instruments. That was more true in the theater, where too much amplification made the ensemble tinny and a bit piercing. On disc we are aware of each individual voice in the orchestra, and the balance with the singers, if not realistic, is still satisfying. The addition of extra dialogue adds the the effect of Chekhov but more so the link to Ingmar Bergman's original sophisticated comedy of manners.

For me, these changes toward more intimacy are a plus, since the words are more essential to A Little Night Music than to almost any other Sondheim musical except perhaps Sunday in the Park With George. My only musical regret is that this work is Sondheim's glowing tribute to the waltz -- it's his Der Rosenkavalier -- and waltzes really soar when the orchestra is sumptuous. What of the other minuses? They come down to two things: the overall tone and the singers' characterization. The tone has shifted away from the original, which was arch and histrionic, with touches of bitter irony and ground glass. This production, because it wants to emphasize each character's psychological uncertainty, throws out much of their worldliness. The tone is no longer aristocratic, in short. We face ordinary people with British accents, not a society ruled by class distinctions.

If you know the show well, this new democratic impulse leads to a loss. Angela Lansbury is a chipper old dame, miles away from the dying, world-weary courtesan who in Bergman's film stood for a lost social order. Fredrik is likable in this recording but totally unimposing, and he sounds seriously too young to be the "old dry as dust" who is mismatched with a young virginal wife. Henrik and Charlotte are stock juveniles, rendered as flimsy when they should be in the throes of romantic crisis and awaekening. Happily, everyone has a good voice. The star of the show, the true glamour role, belongs to Catherine Zeta-Jones, and having heard all the Desirees on disc, I'd count her the least satisfactory, because she is pretending: you never believe that she is anything more than a Hollywood actress putting on a part temporarily. Glynis Johns and Jean Simmons in particular had a richness of tone that echoed with the arch, ironical, privileged, self-aware world that was dying, albeit with a smile. Zeta-Jones doesn't make us feel that the summer night is smiling at the folly of lovers. She's having far too good a time playing in the sunshine.

Comparing a new cast recording to the classic original is a bit unfair but with "A Little Night Music" the comparison is inevitable. This new production is very well sung but well sung can be a problem when there is no conviction, no passion or humor and there is one hurdle all subsequent productions, including this one, can never leap over....."Send In The Clowns." Stephen Sondheim painstakingly tailor-made to fit hand in glove the limited vocal range of Glynis Johns, the original Desiree, and her enchanting, tremulous vocals on this beautiful but melancholic song is impossible to surpass. If you have the chance, play Catherine Zeta-Jones version-then Ms Johns' and you will hear the difference. Zeta-Jones sings it well but Glynis Johns, lived it, breathed it and perfectly conveys the heartbreak and sorrow of the lyrics.

Angela Lansbury. God bless her, makes the most of her thankless role as Madame Armfelt and she is saddled with the snoozy but intricate number "Liaisons". One mis-step of the tricky syllable placements and the song can be a nightmare. I was in the audience back in 1973 when Hermoine Gingold was plodding through the song when suddenly she lost the syllables, she even lost the consonants and her eyes opened wide as she forgot what she was singing-the conductor quietly prompted her and she somewhat recovered but a 5 minute song that night lasted almost twice as long. The audience was polite and understanding but there was no applause and the actor playing Frid the butler pushed her so fast in her wheelchair offstage, I feared she may have whiplash.

But if the truth be known I did enjoy this recording, I didn't even mind the drastically reduced orchestra but I can't forgive the recording for not finishing the opening "Night Waltz" but just fading into dialogue between Madame Armfelt and Her grand-daughter, Fredericka.

Overall a pleasant recording and "A Weekend In The Country" was especially well done but I much prefer the original cast recording with Glynis Johns' glorious "Send In The Clowns".


Just a little curiousity-on the original cast recording, Victoria Mallory plays Anne. On this recording the actress playing Anne is Ramona Mallory. Coincidence? Daughter?