Sunday tributes for Stephen Sondheim

Don’t want to have two separate Sondheim discussions at the same time so I’m posting this article here. Not sure everyone will share my enthusiasm for these folk infused interpretations of Sondheim’s work. I’ll be the first to tip by hat to the value of precision when it comes to presenting his work. That said, I have to agree with none other than GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS in their decision to release Eleri Ward’s recordings. Interpretation is always tricky - I think of several well known attempts to reinterpret Laura Nyro’s music which just make me return to the originals. With regard to Ms Ward - I’ll have to say that I am so very pleased at how her voice sounds over something many times above the level of phone or computer speakers. She has voice which deserves to use this material. I hope you’ll give this recording a try.

Remembering Stephen Sondheim | NYT News

Most of this material is already well known to hard core Sondheim fans.  It was nice to see this even a few days after his passing.

Another article...

Finally - a very obscure recording by a young artist who offers interpretations of Sondheim songs.  Personally I've not taken well to these in the past.  Ms Ward is certainly, for me, a lovely exception.

Huge loss. As distinctive and important a “voice” in his genre as were the likes of Ellington, Parker, Coltrane, Beatles……….in theirs. 

The world will always be grateful to Stephen Sondheim.

He was blessed to be so admired by so many.

That collaboration with Leonard Bernstein on West Side Story should more than guarantee him an artistic immortality.

This is a little more upbeat.  Something I need on this very sad musical weekend.

Not sure why this didn’t go in last message.

from that article...

"Only in September he announced the new musical, Square One, which he was writing with dramatist David Ives. It will now never be finished. Absurd though it sounds for a man of his age, it makes his death yet more untimely."