Opus Two Celebrates World Premiere Recording on Bridge Records of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music: Suite for Violin and Piano Arranged by Veteran Broadway Composer Eric Stern
The acclaimed Opus Two violin-piano duo's world premiere recording of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music: Suite for Violin and Piano arranged by veteran Broadway composer Eric Stern will be released on November 19, 2021 on Bridge Records(4010). The recording is available for pre-order at https://bridgerecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-little-night-music-suite-for-violin-and-piano and upon release can be streamed on Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and purchased via iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play, among others.
The four-movement suite, including Night Waltz, You Must Meet My Wife, A Weekend In The Country, and Send In The Clowns, is based on Stephen Sondheim's 1973 Tony-award-winning musical A Little Night Music, inspired by Ingmar Bergman's 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night. The show's most famous song Send in the Clowns became a pop standard recorded by Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughan, and Barbra Streisand, among others. With a limited number of chamber music scores in his catalogue, Sondheim fans will be delighted to welcome this new addition to the violin/piano duo repertoire.
A Little Night Music: Suite for Violin and Piano is the third in a series of Broadway arrangements by Eric Stern commissioned by Opus Two. Stern's earlier arrangements for the Duo include unforgettable songs from George Gershwin's Girl Crazy and Leonard Bernstein's Candide. In this Sondheim suite like the others, Stern explores the many expressive possibilities of the violin and piano, forging an exquisite partnership that is at once orchestral and intimate, allowing both instruments to sing and dance.
Stern's imagination and skill capture the charm and flair of each song in this world premiere recording. Says Stern, "I was in college when I first heard the cast album of A Little Night Music, and it is no exaggeration to say that it changed my life. Until then I couldn't have imagined that a Broadway score could be capable of such lyric and musical sophistication and subtlety. In A Little Night Music Sondheim blends American Musical Theatre tradition with European Operetta sensibilities to create a unique and memorable musical world. I am extremely grateful for Sondheim's permission to arrange this suite and I hope that, stripped of his poignant, unparalleled lyrics, the brilliance of this music shines through all the more."