Sondheim at the Proms

It is Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and so a Prom dedicated totally to him and his music took place at the Albert Hall last night.  I am a huge fan of Sondheim as back in the 80s my then husband was in a London production of Follies.  My post on this is here so I won't repeat all I have said, save to say that I had a long chat with Sondheim who was charming, delightful and genuinely interested in what I had to say. And how do I know that?  Because I was at a backstage party and we were surrounded by the great and the good, Cameron McIntosh, Eartha Kitt, Julia McKenzie, Daniel Massey and others and not once did he let his eyes stray to see if he could find somebody more interesting to chat to (and there were plenty believe me).  Lovely man.

My favourite of his works are Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd as I know these best, but last night we also had excerpts from Company, Merrily we Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Entire concert was quite superb, packed house having a whale of a time. Stand out performances:  Julian Ovenden who I have only known as an actor playing Foyle's son in Foyle's War.  He has a simply gorgeous tenor voice and brought the house down with a big number from Company, also duetting in Too Many Mornings, a quite gorgeous lyrical song, from Follies.

Simon Russell Beale - knew he had been a chorister as a boy but did not know he could still sing. He and Daniel Evans, who I don't know at all, duetted on Everybody ought to have a Maid from a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, it then turned into a trio with Julian O joining in and then, to a huge roar of laughter and applause from the audience, became a quartet as Bryn joined them dancing and singing and hamming it up. Quite wonderful.

Ah Bryn - well what can I say? All Random readers know  how much I adore him and just a couple of weeks ago saw him as Hans Sachs and here he was, not only being funny and witty as detailed above, but turning in a terrifying performance as Sweeney Todd. I saw him do this a few years ago and the contrast between his raging at his enemies and then his longing to see his long lost daughter, was heartbreaking. This is some of Sondheim's most powerful music.

BUT, even though all the above was stupendous, gorgeous and marvellous, all of this was upstaged by the sublimely beautiful Dame Judi Dench.  She recently said in a newspaper interview that she hated being called a National Treasure but I am afraid whether she likes it or not, she is and will always remain so.

She made her entrance to the most tremendous shout from the audience and made her way to the front of the stage and while it was clear she wanted to get into the part of Desiree from A Little Night Music, she had to acknowledge the applause before it would stop. She was wearing a black velvet dress slit up the side and she looked quite quite beautiful.   Send in the Clowns is the most well known of all Sondheim's songs, it has been sung and recorded hundreds of times (I have seen the show with Jean Simmons in this part and Dorothy Tutin among others), but it is Dame Judi who reduces me to tears. Sondheim says that each song is a mini-play and for the time it was being sung, you could see Judi immersing herself totally in her part. She has a husky voice just perfect for this song.  It was originally written for Glynis Johns who has a similar speaking voice and who, after a lifetime of smoking, had terrible breath control, so it was written in these short phrases so that she could manage to sing it.  Very pragmatic of Sondheim, but out of this has come one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs, full of sadness at lost love and opportunities.

I am inserting a link here to a concert performance given by Dame Judi which gives you some idea of her interpretation of this song.  I recorded last night's performance on my posh new digi-box so am hoping to be able to download Send in the Clowns though I am pretty sure somebody else will get it up on YouTube before me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE3dLzIYKs8&feature=fvw

At the end of the evening the entire ensemble was on the stage singing Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George, and all the artistes were at the front joining in and I honestly thought the roof of the Albert Hall was going to do a take off into the stratosphere (they had a Dr Who concert the previous week so it could be likely...) and the applause, shrieking and screaming was deafening. Sondheim then came onto the stage and the noise levels got even louder.  I was hoping that the audience would sing Happy Birthday and they may well have done but the BBC had to leave as the broadcast had come to an end.

A simply stunning evening. Gosh, the Proms this year so far have been staggeringly good. Last year there was hardly a single concert that I would have gone out of my way to listen to, this year my Prom Prospectus is full of ticks and crosses and exclamation marks and we have another five or six weeks to go.

Coming up soon is another concert of music from the Hollywood musicals. I tried to get a ticket for this but failed as it had sold out in ONE, yes ONE hour so I am trusting to the Beeb to broadcast it on TV as they did last year.  That proved so popular they have shown it three times since.

If you have missed the Sondheim Prom it is on iPlayer for the next week - please don't miss it. Music making like this doesn't come along very often.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/for-one-night-only-dame-judi-to-perform-at--the-proms-2036177.html

Comments

[JHS]

OMG, I adore Sondheim. Always have. And was fortunate to see my all-time favorite Sondheim showing, "A Little night Music," on Broadway this past April. Catherine Zeta-Jones was fabulous and certainly deserved that Tony. Now Bernadette Peters is doing the role, and I'm certain she is brilliant. Thanks for the clip of Dame Judi. Breathtakingly perfect!

[Doulton]

Thank you for the wonderful review and the link. Fantastic!

[carole]

I absolutely loved the whole thing. So lucky to be able to watch it even if not able to be there.
I thought I recognised Daniel Evans but couldn't place him, thankfully Google sorted it out, he played Cedrick Love in a Cold Climate which was on tv years ago, I taped it then and re-watched it not long ago. All these surprising singers.
I am now even more besotted with Bryn, and as for Dame Judi....wow, how to be 75 encapsulated.

[Elaine Simpson-Long]

Breussel - I knew it was Glynis Johns heaven knows why I put Johnston I will correct ASAP!

Pleased to hear that Annabel as it was wonderful. the BBC have shown it three times since then and each time I loved it more. Hopefully they will do the same for this one. Ihave it recorded on my brand new super box and there it will stay.

[Annabel]

It was good wasn't it - I've never seen a Sondheim musical, but know some of the songs. All the principal singers were wonderful.

BTW, my Dad tells me they're releasing a CD of the MGM prom from last year. I absolutely adored that evening, the orchestra was so lush. I hope this next one is on the BBC too.

[bruessel]

Thanks for your review, I have recorded this and will watch it shortly. Just a minor correction: the actress the song was written for is Glynis Johns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glynis_Johns

[Simon T]

Thanks for sharing Judi's performance with more people - I find it breaktakingly moving, as you know.

[Tanya]

Always loved his words, never ever got his music. Almost everything sounds the same.

[Sheila Beaumont]

I found out yesterday that our classical station in Los Angeles will start its annual airing of the BBC Proms broadcasts next Saturday. I'm really looking forward to them, especially after all your raves about this year's Proms!