Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano Anthony de Mare

• Stephen Sondheim (1930-): A Little Night Fughetta
• 1A Little Night Fughetta (44.1kHz)01:41
• Color and Light
• 2Color and Light (44.1kHz)05:36
• Finishing the Hat - 2 Pianos
• 3Finishing the Hat - 2 Pianos (44.1kHz)03:20
• The Ladies Who Lunch
• 4The Ladies Who Lunch (44.1kHz)07:19
• Perpetual Happiness
• 5Perpetual Happiness06:01
• Birds of Victorian England
• 6Birds of Victorian England (44.1kHz)03:04
• Johanna in Space
• 7Johanna in Space05:56
• You Could Drive a Person Crazy
• 8You Could Drive a Person Crazy03:01
• That Old Piano Roll
• 9That Old Piano Roll04:38
• Sorry/Grateful
• 10Sorry/Grateful (44.1kHz)06:59
• No One Is Alone
• 11No One Is Alone (44.1kHz)04:03
• A Bowler Hat
• 12A Bowler Hat05:17
• I'm Excited. No You're Not.
• 13I'm Excited. No You're Not. (44.1kHz)05:15
• The Demon Barber
• 14The Demon Barber (44.1kHz)05:06
• Send in the Clowns
• 15Send in the Clowns (44.1kHz)05:49
• The Worst (Empanadas) in London
• 16The Worst (Empanadas) in London04:53
• I Think About You
• 17I Think About You (44.1kHz)09:00
• Very Put Together
• 18Very Put Together (44.1kHz)03:08
• I'm Still Here
• 19I'm Still Here06:43
• Love Is in the Air
• 20Love Is in the Air04:05
• Epiphany
• 21Epiphany (44.1kHz)05:05
• Pretty Women
• 22Pretty Women (44.1kHz)03:44
• Paraphrase (Someone in a Tree)
• 23Paraphrase (Someone in a Tree)05:42
• In and out of Love
• 24In and out of Love (44.1kHz)05:59
• Another Hundred People
• 25Another Hundred People (44.1kHz)07:17
• Into the Woods
• 26Into the Woods08:57
• Every Day a Little Death
• 27Every Day a Little Death (44.1kHz)05:18
• Merrily We Roll Along
• 28Merrily We Roll Along05:39
• Notes on 'Beautiful'
• 29Notes on 'Beautiful' (44.1kHz)05:27
• Being Alive
• 30Being Alive (44.1kHz)04:45
• Not While I'm Around
• 31Not While I'm Around02:55
• The Ballad of Guiteau
• 32The Ballad of Guiteau05:53
• Now
• 33Now03:22
• A Child of Children and Art
• 34A Child of Children and Art08:24
• Going... Gone
• 35Going... Gone07:38
• Everybody's Got the Right
• 36Everybody's Got the Right (44.1kHz)04:36
• Sunday in the Park - Passages (Encore)
• 37Sunday in the Park - Passages (Encore) (44.1kHz)05:20
• Total Runtime03:16:55

Info for Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano

US concert pianist Anthony de Mare pays tribute to Stephen Sondheim in a fascinating project. De Mare invited contemporary composers from a broad variety of genres - from Sondheim's own world of musical theatre to jazz, classical, pop, film and beyond - to 're-imagine' a Sondheim song of their choice as a piece for solo piano.

Sondheim is more than America's pre-eminent composer of musical theatre, and his influence has resonated far beyond Broadway. Contributing 're-composers' include Steve Reich, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Wynton Marsalis, Nico Muhly, William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, Michael Daugherty, Frederic Rzewski, Mary Ellen Childs, Duncan Sheik, Nils Vigeland, Gabriel Kahane, Tania Leon, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson, David Shire, Thomas Newman and more - in total, 36 composers representing seven countries and 29 Grammy, Pulitzer, Tony, Academy and Emmy Awards!

Among the Sondheim songs featured are Being Alive, Pretty Women, I'm Still Here, The Ladies Who Lunch, No One Is Alone, Johanna, Finishing the Hat, the title numbers from 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Into the Woods', and, of course, Send in the Clowns.

'Each of the composers is having a conversation with Mr. Sondheim,' Anthony de Mare told the New York Times, 'with his material but also his influence, his musical wit and his craft.' Sondheim's response? 'To hear composers take my work and take it seriously... it's a thrill.'

'Not just inventive piano arrangements of the songs but new compositions written in the composers' own styles... It was fascinating to hear how each composer approached the song. Mr de Mare's playing was dynamic and stylish, requiring formidable virtuosity... I loved it.' (The New York Times)

Anthony de Mare, piano

Anthony de Mare
is one of the world’s foremost champions of contemporary music. Praised by The New York Times for his “muscularly virtuosic, remarkably uninhibited performance [and] impressive talents”, his versatility has inspired the creation of over 60 new works by some of today’s most distinguished artists, especially in the speaking-singing pianist genre, which he pioneered over 25 years ago with the premiere of Frederic Rzewski’s groundbreaking 'De Profundis'.

Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano is a landmark commissioning and concert project that perfectly expresses his vision to expand both the repertoire and the audience for contemporary music. Most recently, the Chicago Sun-Times declared “that de Mare’s passion and vision almost radiate from the stage … he causes all involved – composers, performer and audience members -- to think about how music is made and how we listen to it.”

As creator, performer and co-producer of The Liaisons Project, de Mare has added another 27 composers to the list of those he has commissioned, and another 36 compositions to the contemporary piano repertoire. Exclusive new works from Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Wynton Marsalis, Mark Anthony Turnage, Mason Bates, Eve Beglarian, Andy Akiho, DBR, Ethan Iverson, Duncan Sheik and William Bolcom, among others, bring the work of musical theater maestro Stephen Sondheim into the concert hall while spanning the classical contemporary, jazz, film, theater and indie worlds.

Sold-out houses and raves in the New York Times greeted the first New York premieres of The Liaisons Project at Symphony Space. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times extolled Mr. de Mare’s “formidable virtuosity” and “dynamic & stylish playing.” Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle raved that “Liaisons is a revelation… de Mare’s playing was superb throughout, a combination of lyrical reflection and extroverted pyrotechnics.” In a live onstage interview, Mr. Sondheim called the project “flattering… to hear composers take my music and take it seriously is a thrill.”

The full 3-CD box set recording of the project, produced by Judith Sherman, is now complete and will be released on ECM in September, 2015 accompanied by another major national tour. Upcoming performances include all 36 Liaisons pieces performed in a 3-concert series in New York at Birdland, The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, and Symphony Space. The adaptability of the program to jazz, theater and classical spaces speaks once again to the range of de Mare’s versatility as a performer.

Mr. de Mare was invited to perform on Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series special event “Reich and Sondheim: In Conversation” earlier this year, and Liaisons was chosen to represent Mr. Sondheim’s oeuvre in the festivities surrounding his receipt of the 2013 Medal of Honor from the MacDowell Colony at the Monadnock Music Festival. An excerpt from the project was also recently featured in the HBO documentary “Six by Sondheim”.

He has performed Liaisons programs across the U.S., Canada and Cuba including Virginia Tech Center for the Arts, The Ravinia Festival, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Schubert Club in Minneapolis, Mondavi Center at UC Davis, Rockport Music Festival, the Cliburn Series in Fort Worth, and Music at Meyer in San Francisco.

Mr. de Mare's performances over the years span five continents, allowing him to develop a growing fan base that extends far beyond the traditional contemporary music audience. In addition to The Liaisons Project, he has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, James Mobberley, Meredith Monk, Jerome Kitzke, David Rakowski, Pulitzer Prize winners David Del Tredici, Aaron Jay Kernis and Paul Moravec, jazz legend Fred Hersch, and the Tony Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown, among others.

He has been profiled by the Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker, the New York Times, Time Out NY, The Contrapuntist, BroadwayWorld.com, among others, and has been heard in performance and interviews on nationally syndicated shows with WNYC’s John Schaefer, NPR, WQXR and numerous stations across the country.

Since his debut with Young Concert Artists in 1986, his accolades and awards include First Prize and Audience Prize at the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (The Netherlands) and The International Competition of Contemporary Piano Music (France). He gave his Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2005. Among his best-known performances are his national tour of The American Piano (with pianist Steven Mayer); Playing With Myself, a multi-media concert event that enjoyed a sold-out run at HERE Arts Center (New York, 2001); Missing Peace, an eclectic series of old and new works inspired by the exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama at The Rubin Museum in NYC; Cool ~ A Journey into the Influence of Jazz and Unities: Music of Pride and Celebration. Mr. de Mare has also collaborated and performed with the Bang-On-A-Can All Stars, Meredith Monk/The House, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among many others.

Mr. de Mare has nearly twenty recordings in his discography. In addition to the current release of LIAISONS on ECM, his recording SPEAK! ~ The Speaking-Singing Pianist (Innova) is the first disc devoted completely to the genre he created over twenty years ago. Both SPEAK! and Out of My Hands (KOCH Entertainment) were short listed for Grammy Awards in 2011 and 2005 respectively. For Out of My Hands, American Record Guide raved that “his exquisite touch and impassioned beauty of utterance imbue this program with artistry of the highest order.” American Record Guide also named Wizards and Wildmen: Piano Music of Charles Ives, Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison (CRI /New World) as one of 2000’s Ten Best Releases. Other acclaimed recordings include: Pianos and Voices: Music by John Cage and Meredith Monk, an unprecedented pairing of these two mavericks of the American avant-garde (Koch), Frederic Rzewski - Anthony de Mare (O.O. Discs), and Oblivion, with cellist Maya Beiser (Koch).

Currently professor of piano at Manhattan School of Music and New York University, his commitment to education is evidenced by his residency work at universities across North America, in which he has inspired a whole new generation of pianists and contemporary music advocates, encouraging them to initiate creative strategies as innovative entrepreneurs.

Booklet for Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano