pixeltracker

Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?

Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?

laura is broadway Profile Photo
laura is broadway
#1Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:12am

Sorry if I sound ignorant, and I know he was trained by Hammerstein. But who else inspired him? And who are his favorite modern theatre composers?

dramarama2 Profile Photo
dramarama2
#2re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:17am

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

I hear he likes Guettel. Not sure about older influences.


A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.

BigFatBlonde Profile Photo
BigFatBlonde
#2re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:18am

I know he has mentioned Harold Arlen as a favorite a few times in interviews.

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.


What great ones do the less will prattle of

sondheimboy2 Profile Photo
sondheimboy2
#3re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:27am

I read that he considered Boy George's score for "Taboo" to have been very underrated.


"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music "Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70 "Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba

scaryclowns223 Profile Photo
scaryclowns223
#4re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:27am

Apparently he gave "Adding Machine" a standing ovation. But that could just be hearsay...

frontrowcentre2 Profile Photo
frontrowcentre2
#5re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:32am

I dout he said anything negative about Jason Robert Brown - he is very careful not to crticize other living composers.

He claims to admire all the greats of Broadway's formative years: Arlen, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers, Gershwin. His classical influences are mainly late 19th century and early 20th century: (Ravel, Stravinsky) I can hear echoes of Faure and Debussy in SUNDAY. And Sondheim credits Bernard Hermann as his inspiration for SWEENEY.


Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

DooWahDiddy Profile Photo
DooWahDiddy
#6re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:33am

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

Can you direct me to a cite for this quote? I'd be curious to read what he has to say about Brown's work.

sferezy
#7re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:37am

Samuel Barber.

JudasIscariot Profile Photo
JudasIscariot
#8re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:47am

Wasn't he tight with Jonathan Larson?

frontrowcentre2 Profile Photo
frontrowcentre2
#9re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:58am

Yes, he even recorded the "phone message" for the original New York production of TICK... TICK... BOOM!


Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

bk
#10re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:17am

"He claims to admire all the greats of Broadway's formative years: Arlen, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers, Gershwin. His classical influences are mainly late 19th century and early 20th century: (Ravel, Stravinsky) I can hear echoes of Faure and Debussy in SUNDAY. And Sondheim credits Bernard Hermann as his inspiration for SWEENEY."

Not to nitpick, but it's Herrmann. And you left out Kern - he even wrote the liner notes for a Columbia Kern album. And he had a mutual admiration society with David Raksin. I also know he was a big fan of composer Robert Ward, who wrote the opera of The Crucible and who is one of the great unsung American classical composers.

Sondheim_Geek Profile Photo
Sondheim_Geek
#11re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:20am

I'm also interested to hear what he would say about JRB. I thought he would be a fan of him, if anything.

I imagine that he would like Frankel/Korie a good deal.

DooWahDiddy Profile Photo
DooWahDiddy
#12re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:24am

Wasn't he tight with Jonathan Larson?

Yeah, but didn't he walk out at intermission of Rent? (Pre-Broadway, before Larson died)

B3TA07 Profile Photo
B3TA07
#13re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:37am

"Apparently he gave "Adding Machine" a standing ovation. But that could just be hearsay..."

Everyone gives shows standing ovations these days. re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?


I know he's been influenced by Steve Reich, and he liked "Spring Awakening." That's just what I've heard.


-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/

BobbyBubby Profile Photo
BobbyBubby
#14re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 2:41am

Sondheim's theory on standing ovations is quite interesting. He says they are the audience congratulating themselves on taking the time and money to make it ot the show.

ljay889 Profile Photo
ljay889
#15re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:18am

he liked "Spring Awakening."

- You sure that was Sondheim? I know Arthur Laurents publicly stated that he liked SA a lot.

Weez Profile Photo
Weez
#16re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 3:25am

Bobby - I don't think that's a theory so much as a fact.


dgjbear
#17re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 4:53am

Where did you get that from Dramarama? He was sat behind me at Parade at the Donmar in London in December 2007. He really seemed to be enjoying himself too.

Gypsy9 Profile Photo
Gypsy9
#18re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 5:29am

bk: I was interested in your mentioning composer Robert Ward who I believe was a professor at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. Ward wrote a commisioned piece for NYC's St. Cecilia Chorus in 1964 and I was a member of that chorus at the time. It was based on John Kennedy's inaugural address "Let The Word Go Forth".

In an interview with Frank Rich, Stephen Sondheim mentioned that among his favorite shows were Jerome Kern's SHOWBOAT and George Gershwin's PORGY & BESS.


"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"

Timmer
#19re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 9:31am

Several years ago, in an interview with the New York Times magazine, Sondheim listed "50 Songs I Wish I'd Written." If anyone can find the link, that might give us an idea of the answer to this question.

givesmevoice Profile Photo
givesmevoice
#20re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 10:20am

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but a quick Google brought up this article:
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000312mag-sondheim.html


When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

nobodyhome Profile Photo
nobodyhome
#21re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 10:31am

The other day here, there was a thread in which the shows he likes were discussed, including a quotation from him:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?page=2&thread=987388&boardid=0

Btw, in a recent conversation with Frank Rich at Oberln, he did cite The Wiz as one of his favorite shows.

Here's the Times article:

https://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000312mag-sondheim.html?scp=1&sq=sondheim%20songs%20i%20wish%20i'd%20written&st=cse

He himself cited Britten as a major influence on Sunday in the Park With George. He's not that big a fan of Debussy, but he loves Ravel. The Ravel piano concerto for the left hand was the subject of his college thesis, and he once gave Oscar Hammerstein a recording of the piano trio for his birthday. He hears more Ravel than Debussy in his own music.

Apart from the Broadway composers whose work he loves (and his favorites are probably Gershwin, Arlen, and Kern, in that order), he has mentioned (in addition to Ravel) Brahms, Stravinsky, and particularly Rachmaninoff, who may be his second favorite composer.

He has twice been on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs. The second time, in 2000, he named the Brahms second piano concerto as his favorite piece of classical music.

If I get the chance, I'll write a bit more later.

Updated On: 1/10/09 at 10:31 AM

nobodyhome Profile Photo
nobodyhome
#22re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 10:44am

In the talk with Rich at Oberlin, he said of Adding Machine, "[W]hether one likes it or not, that's serious stuff. It was an attempt to use the complexities of music in different ways, and lyrics and the stage, too. And I think anybody who would think for two seconds of putting that on in a commercial theater should have his head examined."

I heard that he not only stood at the show, he was also heard cheering so I'd guess he did like that. If that's true.

nobodyhome Profile Photo
nobodyhome
#23re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 11:09am

Here's a link to Sondheim's 2000 Desert Island Discs choices:

http://www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=64

I know that somewhere his choices from the first time he was on were published, but I can't remember where. I know that on that list he included a recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra (and Sondheim's record collection was so old at the time that the recording he cited was Fritz Reiner's first recording, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, long out of print at the time since it was supplanted by Reiner's later Chicago recording) and a recording of Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales (I think the orchestral version rather than the piano version).

Gypsy9 Profile Photo
Gypsy9
#24re: Who are Stephen Sondheim's favorite composers?
Posted: 1/5/09 at 1:36pm

Co-incidentally, this morning I played Bartok's CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1956 in Chicago's Orchestra Hall and digitally remastered in 1993. Reiner and the Chicago Symphony were dynamite together. If you don't know Bartok, this is the recording you should get. It is available on Amazon.com for about $6.00. Read the reviews it gets!


"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"