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Composers discuss their contributions to a fascinating Sondheim tribute
In 2006, pianist Anthony de Mare came up with the notion of having various composers reimagine works by Stephen Sondheim as original piano pieces that he would perform. When producer Rachel Colbert joined the project in 2007, Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim for the Piano quickly grew in scope and is now close to being fully realized.
Part of de Mare's vision was to have the works commissioned from a wide variety of first-class musical talents - classical, jazz, musical theatre and less easily categorized composers. He succeeded. Most of them were already enthusiastic fans of Sondheim's work, but for a few they began with only a limited awareness. De Mare compiled and presented to the composers a wish list of songs that were both favorites and would work well as piano pieces, although they were not restricted to it - and several chose pieces not on the list.
On April 21, 2012, a concert at Symphony Space marked the New York premiere of 17 of the planned 36 pieces. (The follow-up concert is scheduled for March 9, 2013.) The article below comes from interviews (mostly by telephone) with 15 of those composers.
Known for large orchestral works, which include electronics, Mason Bates might seem a surprising participant in this project. But his "Very Put Together," based on Sondheim's "Putting It Together," is a thrilling pianistic work. Bates describes the song as perhaps "the least appropriate Sondheim number to be transcribed for the piano" - it's long, complex, does not reduce easily and has two wonderful tunes. But so taken with the song's "energy and wit," Bates sparked and rose to the challenge.
Of the song's two primary tunes, he describes the main theme ("bit by bit, putting it together") as "chipper and almost patter-like," and the secondary theme ("art isn't easy") as "lyrical." Using the song's title literally, he decided to put the themes on top of each other with, as he puts it, "a flurry of figuration running above and below them." That flurry generates an exciting piece, full of manic energy that never lets up. Quite a workout for Mr. de Mare.
Derek Bermel decided that, rather than do variations or embellishments on...