CD Review: Sondheim Unplugged – Various Artists

SONDHEIM UNPLUGGED – Various Artists (Yellow Sound – YSL567353)

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[This review was written before the death of Stephen Sondheim on 26 November 2021]

With masterly musical direction and piano accompaniment by Joseph Goodrich we have a cornucopia of Sondheim. Not only the recognisable songs from the musicals but others that maybe are a little more obscure. And the artists! What a selection of voices! Fantastic hearing Teri Ralston, a Sondheim favourite from Company, A Little Night Music, Putting It Together, etc and an old friend of mine Alton Fitzgerald White. I’m not picking out favourites as every artist is great in their own way. However, the lesson that comes from this double CD is just how amazing Sondheim songs can sound without a full orchestra behind them.

There are 42 tracks on this release to savour: ‘Something’s Coming’, ‘Broadway Baby’, ‘What Can You Lose?’, ‘The Right Girl’, ‘The Boy From’, ‘Sooner or Later’, ‘Someone is Waiting/Pretty Women’, ‘Everybody Ought to Have a Maid’, ‘I Remember’, ‘The Glamorous Life’, ‘ Ariadne’, ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’, ‘Multitudes of Amys’, ‘In Buddy’s Eyes’, ‘Old Friends/Like It Was’, ‘Good Thing Going/Growing Up’, ‘By the Sea’, ‘Send in the Clowns’, ‘Children and Art’, ‘Being Alive’, ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’, ‘Agony’, ‘What More Do I Need?’, ‘No One is Alone’, ‘ Changing/Beautiful’, ‘Let Me Entertain You/Broadway’, ‘Unworthy of Your Love’, ‘Live Alone & Like It’, ‘ There Won’t Be Trumpets’, ‘Your Eyes Are Blue’, ‘The Story of Lucy and Jessie’, ‘Talent’, ‘Not While I’m Around’, ‘The Road You Didn’t Take’, ‘On the Steps of the Palace’, ‘Maria’, ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’, ‘Someone in a Tree’, ‘Rain on the Roof’, ‘I’m Still Here’, ‘Color and Light’ and ’Sunday’.

Artists taking part in the recording: Marquee Five, Michelle Dowdy, Nicholas Rodriguez, Aaron Ramey, Lucia Spina, Brian Charles Rooney, Alton Fitzgerald White, Jim Brochu, Lina Koutrakos, Blaine Krauss, Eric Michael Gillett, Jacob Hoffman, John Treacy Egan, Teri Ralston, Donna Vivino, Michael Winther, Liz McCartney, Sally Mayes, Danielle Ferland, Christina Bianco, Carole J Bufford, Scott Coulter, Tally Sessions, Jeff Kready, Melanie Vaughan, Courter Simmons, Kate Loprest, Annie Golden, Karen Mason, Gabrielle Stravelli, Stearns Matthews, Victoria Cook, Hunter Ryan Herdlicka, Julie Reyburn, Erica Spyres, Alice Ripley, Jacob Hoffman, Natalie Arneson, Marta Sanders, Claybourne Elder and Charlie Levy.

Okay not every track hits the spot but 90% of the time they do but it is just terrific to sit down and listen to this double album and marvel, once more, at the exceptional talent that is Stephen Sondheim.

Nick Wakeham