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Liaisons composition project has matched composers and Sondheim songs
Anthony de Mare's Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano, which began as a notion nearly 30 years ago, has grown exponentially in ambition and scope, and its expanded vision is now almost fully realized.
In 1985, as part of an experiment by the Djerassi Foundation to support a project by a performing artist as opposed to a composer, de Mare created a piano transcription of a favorite piece from Sunday in the Park with George. He originally hoped to write a few such Sondheim transcriptions, but a combination of realizing the time and effort it took, limited experience with such projects and a bout of self-doubt had caused him to abandon the idea. He did play his one transcription at a festival, where the pioneering composer Morton Feldman, who confessed that he revered Sondheim, liked the piece, but told him he thought it would sound better a third higher. De Mare made the change; Feldman was right.
The seed had been planted, but lay fallow until 2006 when de Mare became preoccupied with the idea of resurrecting the project, this time with other composers creating the works. Within a period of a few weeks, he had chance conversations with three composer friends, each of whom responded enthusiastically. Paul Moravec, who had known of and been supportive of the original project, was a strong advocate of extending it to composers of different genres. Frederic Rzewski not only immediately agreed to participate, but also referred to Sondheim as "the Schoenberg of the musical theatre." And Bernadette Speach not only agreed to participate and assist, but also introduced de Mare to the producer, Rachel Colbert, who became central and indispensable to the endeavor. From that new beginning, a fundamental intent was to commission composers to participate whose work was centered on various genres - classical, jazz, pop, musical theatre, experimental - and not to expect or want each piece to be virtuosic, but instead varied in both styles and demands.
Before pursuing the project any further, de Mare and Colbert agreed that they had to approach Sondheim for his approval. Through a mutual friend who worked in the theatre, they were able to get a letter to...