Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Brigantine |
The revival cast recording (with Rebecca Luker)I got a copy of this to listen to when I was in the show a few years ago, but didn't listen to it all that much as I was already so familiar with the music.But I pulled it out and started listening to it again, and... I am really not impressed. Is it a bad cast? Bad recording? I loved Rebecca Luker as Magnolia, but in this she sounds... just... weird. Like she's trying too hard to say "I'm not trying to sound like Julie". the only voice I really like is the Captain's. And why does it sound like both Captain and Maria call Kurt "Cort" in the Lendler(sp?) dance scene? Your thoughts? |
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| what_the_heck013 |
Yeah, I definitely agree that Luker is trying to hard to be a soprano Maria but not sound like Julie Andrews.
My personal favorite recording is the one with Mary Martin. I think after the film, Maria magically became a soprano role, but I prefer it played by a contralto. |
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| Brigantine |
Any ideas on why it sounds like "Cort" instead of Kurt? | ||
| what_the_heck013 |
I think that's the weird attempt at an ambiguous European accent. | ||
| Yip1982 |
How very funny you should mention this. I would say that I liked this much more than most of you. Luker's Maria is, at least to my ears, sublime. The only problem I have with this disc is that the sound seems so very compressed, and that the volume seems to be too low. Nevertheless I still recommend it to those who want an SOM cast album.
Yes, I can tell that Kurt's name wasn't pronounced as you would be used to, but I think this is how the name is supposed to be pronounced in German. |
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| what_the_heck013 |
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| RainbowJude |
Recordings of THE SOUND OF MUSICTrying to select a definitive recording of The Sound of Music - if there is such a thing - is a difficult task because of varying performances as well as the varying versions of the score.The 1959 cast recording of The Sound of Music is interesting as a museum piece, but not much more. The playing of the score is more than a trifle heavy-handed and the singing all but stalls. South Pacific aside, Mary Martin is a Broadway diva whose appeal I've never understood. Although the show was created for her, she is far too mature for the role and you can hear it. The recording preserves the score as it was heard in 1959, meaning that: "My Favourite Things" is sung by Maria and the Mother Abbess (in a weakly contrived dramatic situation); we get both of the Max and Elsa songs, which really don't conceptually fit into this show despite their own considerable merits as songs; and the duet for Maria and the Captain is the dirge-like ballad "An Ordinary Couple, which sounds like a defeat rather than an affirmation. The 1961 London cast recording is in a similar vein - but if you're going for one of the early recordings, the OBCR is probably the one to choose. The 1965 film soundtrack gives us a radiant Maria in Julie Andrews who manages to find considerable range in the material, a sharper group of children that doesn't sound like there is syrup dripping off their chords and a great set of orchestrations by Irwin Kostal that truly brings the score to life. There are some cuts in the score owing in part to Ernest Lehman having focused the stronger points of the book and having dramatically improved upon some of the weaker areas; the Max and Elsa songs are cut so you'd have to look for them elsewhere and "An Ordinary Couple" is replaced by the much better but still not perfect "Something Good". "My Favourite Things" is shifted from the office of the Mother Abbess to the bedroom scene and "The Lonely Goatherd" becomes a puppet show later in the film, both creating a far clearer picture of the growing attachment between Maria and the children. Together, these various aspects work to form a score that is far more conceptually cohesive. The 1998 cast recording takes its cues from a production that tried have its cake and eat it by incorporating material from both the original stage show and the film, while adopting certain aspects of the film's structure. Rebecca Luker is a Maria in the Julie Andrews mode - youthful and resilient, while still finding some depth in the material and Patti Cohenour finally gives us a Mother Abbess who sounds like a vital, dynamic and inspiring woman rather than a dusty voice from the past, one who is capable of running a convent and convincing a young postulant to follow the right path. The Max and Elsa songs are there, delivered in fine form by Fred Applegate and Jan Maxwell (with Michael Siberry along for the ride in "No Way to Stop It"), and the only things missing are "An Ordinary Couple" (supplanted by "Something Good") and the concert reprise of "Do Re Mi" (which is deleted to make room for "The Lonely Goatherd", for which a place had to be found after its replacement in the bedroom scene by "My Favourite Things"). The recording also incorporates a slightly altered version of the film's "I Have Confidence". The 2006 cast recording, from the West End, follows a similar approach to the 1998 Broadway recording. However, Carrie Fisher never achieves the range of Luker (or, for that matter, Andrews on the soundtrack). Both versions of "My Favourite Things" appear here and "The Lonely Goatherd" becomes a game in the garden for the children. While it's pleasant enough, there's nothing special about this recording to edge it ahead of the others. If you want to collect a representative set of recordings for the show, I'd lead with the 1965 soundtrack, complemented by the 1998 cast recording. To this, add the 1959 cast recording if you really want to own "An Ordinary Couple". You only need the other recordings if you're a completist or a die-hard fan. (There is also a studio cast recording form 1987 with Frederika von Stade which, a breathtaking "Processional" aside, is rather restrained.) Later days David |
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| Yip1982 |
Re: Recordings of THE SOUND OF MUSICI feel very heartened by your detailed breakdown of the various Sound of Music albums. I like the way you analyse them carefully and objectively. (Funny I felt the same way you did at some points.) I think your assessment will be an invaluable guide to those who need to read a comparative breakdown of the various recordings. |
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| Mark Walton |
Re: Recordings of THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Irwin was also the conductor; in that role, much of his work seemed to be managing the sheer power of his very powerful orchestra (probably about 75 pieces, as it was for Mary Poppins a year earlier). In particular, Irwin took great care that the orchestra never overpowered the kids, least of all the little ones. The best example was for Kym Karath's line in "So Long, Farewell": As she pushed her way backward upstairs, singing "The sun has gone to bed and so must I", Irwin slowed his tempo to a crawl; I can visualize him physically reining in the orchestra to reduce its volume to just barely audible over Kym's voice. He repeated that in the reprise of "My Favorite Things", just before Maria's return from the Abbey: The kids, mainly the younger ones, started singing listlessly; Irwin cut in the orchestra behind them, allowing it to drift along with the kids - until Maria's voice cut across. As the kids' spirits soared, and they started singing more energetically, Irwin powered up behind them to near maximum. Throughout "Do-Re-Mi", the kids were very exuberant; Irwin keyed his power accordingly. Near the end, he went from minimum, to just slightly above (through the "do-mi-mi" sequence), then suddenly ripping loose at max power for the final chorus. The last suggests to me a French TGV driver entering a high-speed line, then slamming his power controller wide open, and whoosh! |
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| Salome |
Rainbow Jude really doesnt understand that the max/elsa duets DO fit and are sadly missed if they are ever cut.
I hated Siberry's Von Trapp voice in teh revial it was weak..it was not the rich Theodore Bikel voice at all..but Jan Maxwell and Fred Applegate are brillaiant as Elas and Max. Patti Cohneour is the finest mother abbess since patricaia neway ..and rebecca luker does her bet with sappy songs as maria. |
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| RainbowJude |
Max and Elsa
On the contrary, RainbowJude really does understand the problem with the Max/Elsa duets. Emphasizing again that the songs have their own individual merits, he would like to point out that they turn the dramatic purpose of the show - to reveal that those who discover "the sound of music" in their lives are the people who survive and truly live rather than merely existing - into a lie. Allowing Max and Elsa to sing, when it is clear that they do not possess "the sound of music" spiritually because of their blind materialism and apathetic politics, is simply poor judgment in terms of dramaturgy. No matter how good the songs are on their on terms - no matter how much of a respite they give us from the rest of the show - they do not support the super-objective of the play as a whole. They all but render it neutral. The issue here is not "to cut or not to cut", because that option is not really on the table for any production of The Sound of Music. The issue here is about textual analysis. All things being said and done, the songs should have been cut at the outset: this isn't a Brechtian play where the music is meant to inspire critical engagement rather than dramatic involvement. But - to compensate for this - the rest of the score would have had to be considerably sharpened. However, the tight timeline against which, out of unfortunate necessity, the show was written didn't allow for for the kind of editing and revision that any show needs before it is frozen. As such, The Sound of Music will never be an artistic masterwork like South Pacific. At the same time, given the context of its creation, it is almost ridiculous to expect it to be. Later days David |
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| Salome |
you simply dont cut 2 of the only 3 good songs in the piece because of your personal opinion. | ||
| RainbowJude |
Mas and Elsa Songs
This isn't about personal opinion; it's about grounded textual analysis. A new point. Casting the thematic, conceptual and narrative issues mentioned in my previous post aside for a moment, can the songs, when objectively assessed really be considered technically better than other songs in the score? Let's look at the songs technically for a second. Musically, the harmonic progression is nothing more complex than anything else in the show. Even though "How Can Love Survive?" arguably begins with a more interesting choice of chords and note combinations, it settles into the same harmonic loop in the same way as all of the songs in the show do and, barring the musically interesting verse prior to the song proper, "No Way to Stop It" is little more than a series of scale runs. It terms of the lyrics, Hammerstein gives us his usual carefully constructed lines in terms of rhythm and metre but can't get away from some self-conscious rhymes in "How Can Love Survive?" Rodgers, in the marriage between music and lyrics, does a less than perfect job by bending words to fit his melody in a way that, when Andrew Lloyd Webber does it, gets people up on their soapboxes decrying the fact that he can't set lyrics to music. This is not the perfect blend of music and lyrics we see in "Edelweiss" or the technically skilled setting of lyrics to melody we see in "My Favourite Things". Furthermore, the questioning irony that has to lace the Captain's performance in "No Way to Stop It" in order to make the scene that follows fall into place isn't explored musically. Music in a musical of this style should reveal sub-text; there is a gap between the truth of the action and the song. So, to counter your argument, on what basis other than opinion should the songs be included in the light that (a) they don't serve the play dramatically and (b) they aren't impeccable technically? And on what basis other than opinion are they "2 of the only 3 good songs" given that their they are arguably flawed in terms of both conception and execution? Later days David |
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| Salome |
you aqre looking at it as a musician not an actor or a director. its a play not a vocal concert. | ||
| RainbowJude |
Reading
That's just a ridiculous statement. I never look at any musical purely from the perspective of musicianship and there's nothing to indicate that I'm looking at The Sound of Music as a "vocal concert" rather than a play. BUT... music is one of many active languages in musical; any director, actor, composer, lyricist, librettist or choreographer who ignores that, or who thinks that music is just there because a musical requires music, is a fool. Plain and simple. In any case, my posts on this topic are completely focused on how these songs function dramatically - it takes very basic comprehensive skills to see that - and how these songs function dramatically is intrinsically related to how they are written as well as to their conception and placement. However, I'm not going to rehash the points related to that idea that I've already made in this thread unless I get a reasonable argument with solid justification that compels some kind of riposte or counter-argument. There's no purpose or pleasure in that. Later days David |
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| Yip1982 |
Re: Max and Elsa[quote="RainbowJude"][quote="Salome"]RainbowJude really doesn't understand that the Max/Elsa duets DO fit and are sadly missed if they are ever cut.[/quote]On the contrary, RainbowJude really does understand the problem with the Max/Elsa duets. Emphasizing again that the songs have their own individual merits, he would like to point out that they turn the dramatic purpose of the show - to reveal that those who discover "the sound of music" in their lives are the people who survive and truly live rather than merely existing - into a lie. Allowing Max and Elsa to sing, when it is clear that they do not possess "the sound of music" spiritually because of their blind materialism and apathetic politics, is simply poor judgment in terms of dramaturgy. No matter how good the songs are on their on terms - no matter how much of a respite they give us from the rest of the show - they do not support the super-objective of the play as a whole. They all but render it neutral. The issue here is not "to cut or not to cut", because that option is not really on the table for any production of [i]The Sound of Music[/i]. The issue here is about textual analysis. All things being said and done, the songs should have been cut at the outset: this isn't a Brechtian play where the music is meant to inspire critical engagement rather than dramatic involvement. But - to compensate for this - the rest of the score would have had to be considerably sharpened. However, the tight timeline against which, out of unfortunate necessity, the show was written didn't allow for for the kind of editing and revision that any show needs before it is frozen. As such, [i]The Sound of Music[/i] will never be an artistic masterwork like [i]South Pacific[/i]. At the same time, given the context of its creation, it is almost ridiculous to expect it to be. Later days David[/quote] Thank you once again for being fair and well-reasoned in your views about SOM. You're right that it may be a flawed masterwork, but it strikes such an emotional chord with many people across the world, myself included. |
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| IndigoMedusa |
Sound of Music might not be perfect but it doesn't make me love it any less!!!!! | ||
| Dots Parasole |
Re: Recordings of THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Awwww poor Mary. While I ADORE her beyond belief I do understand why some people don't get her "star" status. My father, who is close to the business, said that Martin was the "Meg Ryan" of her day. That is when Meg Ryan was popular haha. She was America's sweetheart. She had a likeability that was unmatched. She also was a very good actress and had a wonderful voice. |
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| Salome |
and Her son played the greatest character to ever grace a T.V. show. | ||
| lonewriter |
I love the 1998 version the best, I like the West End with Connie Fisher but the 98 Broadway version is better and of course I love Julie Andrews. | ||
| degrassifan |
I'm not so fond of the 1998 Recording. I really like the 2006 West End recording though. But, aside from the movie version, I think the best Sound of Music recording is the 1981 version with Petula Clark. Now, that one is glorious! It was the first version to use "I Have Confidence" & "Something Good." I wasn't alive back then, but based on the recording that I have, I can tell you that the 1981 version of the show was very different. Maria is basically the star. The Captain is hardly featured at all in the recording. The Sound of Music reprise is not included in the recording, as well as the Sixteen Going on Seventeen Reprise, but I know they were in the show. Maria also sings most of "Something Good" and closes out the "So Long, Farewell" reprise. The Captain doesn't even sing "goodbye."
Anyway, the 1981 recording has a bunch of new orchestrations that haven't been used in any other version since then. The title song is dragged out and is up to 4 minutes long; "I Have Confidence" sounds different and Petula Clark sings it a lot more differently than Julie Andrews; the climax in Do Re Mi is slowed down; My Favorite Things sounds different and even sounds more like a Christmas tune; "How Can Love Survive" is at its best in this version. The Do Re Mi reprise is included in the recording, and the end of "Edelweiss" has some new orchestrations too. I think one of the first things that stands out about Petula Clark's performance is that she has a different style of singing. It almost sounds popish. There are other things that are different, but they would be too long to list. I must say though, instead of "My Favorite Things" sung between Maria & the Mother Abbess, they both sing "A Bell Is No Bell," and it sounds just wonderful! "My Favorite Things" takes place in the bedroom, while "The Lonely Goatherd" takes place at a Fair and is sung by Maria, the children, and a pupeteer. "No Way To Stop It" is not even included in the whole show. |