Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the original cast recording of Sunday in the Park with George because I’ve been reading James Lapine’s book about the making of the show. I must confess, I don’t think I’ve listened to it since I bought it back around 1990 when it was first issued on CD. Let me preface this by saying I’ve been listening to several cast albums lately, things I haven’t heard in thirty years. And I must say, I am occasionally shocked by how poor some of them are in terms of the recording itself. As you know, for me, the greatest cast album producer in history was Goddard Lieberson. His cast albums are the way these things should sound – alive, present, big, spacious. All one need to is listen to his albums of Gypsy or West Side Story or Subways are for Sleeping or Anyone Can Whistle – they are brilliant because they sound incredible and capture the score brilliantly. He and his engineers were pioneers in that regard. So, when one would occasionally get cast albums from other labels, there was an immediate and noticeable difference. Capitol was fairly consistent and pretty good and the second best to Columbia. RCA was far behind, in my opinion, at least for a lot of their recordings. As an example, I listened to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – great score, great cast, ragged and dry recording. They’re not terrible, but they just don’t have the life that Lieberson brought to the table. But beginning in the digital age of the early 1980s, things took a turn for the worse. Listening to the revival album of On Your Toes, produced by the usually fine Norman Newell, is just small-sounding, which is what happens when you’re in a dry studio – you have to add reverb to provide the space and room tone. This can be done very naturally, and it makes everything sound better. Without it, the band sounds tinny and not as big as it actually is. And I find most new cast albums fall into that trap and I simply can’t listen to them, which is a by-product of having done many cast albums. My whole approach was to get our albums to sound classic Columbia cast albums. When I did the remix of Follies, that was the guiding principle and we succeeded in doing that. Sunday in the Park with George was surprising to me on many levels back when it came out on LP. I loved all the Sondheim cast albums, but Sunday was different. It was an early digital recording, and it sounds like it – clarity but no warmth. And when I heard the CD, I couldn’t understand what I was hearing, really. The band sounded far away, the thing was mastered very low, so had no punch, and then suddenly stuff would jump out at you loudly – that’s just weird mixing. Plus one had to get used to Michael Starobin’s orchestrations, which were a world apart from Jonathan Tunick. I thought much of the score was exquisite and didn’t care for a few things. I’m curious to try a newer recording, but I’m afraid it will just be dry and borings, no matter the cast. I’m pretty sure there’s a newer release of the Broadway cast album and I wonder if its producer went back and fixed it, especially the low volume. And that is the state of the art.
Prior to listening, I did watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray, yet another title I’ve had for six years but had never watched – the Twilight Time release of Francois Truffaut’s The Story of Adele H. Considering I was a huge Truffaut fan, I’m not sure why I never had the desire to see it. I think I knew it was a period piece and I just thought it wouldn’t interest me. So, this was my first time, and I must say I found it to be one of Truffaut’s great ones. Beautifully directed, well-written, nice use of old Maurice Jaubert film music, gorgeously photographed by Nestor Almendros, and with a great performance from the then-twenty-year-old Isabel Adjani. I had not even an inkling what that story was or that it was based on real people and events, Adele H. being the daughter of Victor Hugo. It’s the story of her crazed obsession with a soldier she fell in love with, who now wants nothing to do with her. She follows him, obsesses, and descends further and further into both fantasy and madness. It’s compelling and told wonderfully, it’s only ninety-six minutes long and I really kind of loved it. The transfer is pretty good for MGM/UA – great color, nice clarity – it could be better, of course, as they don’t put any effort in their transfers.
Yesterday was a nice, easy day, which is what I desired. I got up at ten after seven hours of sleep, answered e-mails, was happy that the endless Time Machine back-up had completed successfully before I went to bed, and then Lloyd Cooper and Adrienne Stiefel arrived. We went through Adrienne’s three songs, and then Lloyd and I went through the other stuff, and it all went easily and quickly. After that, I answered e-mails and did a few things on the computer, then went to Gelson’s for food. I got the small chicken Caesar salad, a little chopped liver, two potato pancakes, a piece of noodle kugel. I came home and had the salad and the potato pancakes and kugel – all very good. Then I watched the movie, had some telephonic conversations, paid a couple of horrendously horrendous bills, but mostly I spent a few hours reading the James Lapine book. The print is a bit tiny for my eyes so I can’t read a lot at one time.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty and then she of the Evil Eye arrives and I’ll go to have a breakfast at Barry and Cindy Pearl’s home environment. They have a cat so I must take my Claritin-D as soon as I wake up and it should probably kick in by the time I get there. Once that’s done, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’m having a complete ME day and evening. I’m sure I’ll have some kind of snack in the evening, but mostly I’ll read, watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have a three-hour rehearsal with the singer and her accompanist – that’s out in Santa Clarita. Otherwise, I’ll relax and just putter around the house. Monday is another completely ME day, and then Tuesday we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty, breakfast with the Pearls, hopefully pick up packages, eat a snack in the evening, and then read, watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite great-sounding cast recordings? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have talked about the recording state of the art.