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| Author | Topic: Song And Dance |
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Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/4/2006 at 6:19:15 PM ET
For research purposes I've been listening to various different recordings of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song And Dance and am astounded that the RCA RED SEAL CD featuring Bernadette is probably the worst sounding recording of this show.
Bernadette is so wonderful but those luscious top notes on "Nothing Like You've Ever Known" and "Tell Me On A Sunday", in particular, seem distorted somehow.
Is it just my "cloth ears" or do any of you also think that this RCA recording is a very bad one?
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  Sister Rose
Registered User
Registered:
5/4/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 10/4/2006 at 7:03:14 PM ET
You're not the only one...probably a few people here saw it live, but unfortunately I didn't. I watched it at the NY Performing Arts Library archives and she sounded terrific - that was a video recording of a live performance and it put the official cast recording to shame. I'm not sure why it's so bad...it's a shame too because she really shone on the stage.
http://sarahbsadventures.blogspot.com/
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 10/4/2006 at 7:19:25 PM ET
Yes, it truly is a shame. That recording has always had a notorious reputation for poor sound quality.
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 10/4/2006 at 7:36:24 PM ET
The recording quality is terrible - the volume continually changes but there is also the fact that Bernadette was VERY sick when it was recorded. I might be getting my stories mixed up but I believe this recording happened around the time that she was out of Song and Dance for a bit because she was back in SITPWG for the videotaping and she had pnemonia (or was either getting it or getting over it). So she had been singing this very difficult role for 8 shows a week for several weeks prior, was sick, rehearsing a Sondheim show and made this cast recording (I believe in one day). It's a shame the recording could not be put off until her schedule and health were more accomodating.
I too have seen the Library recording and I'm so glad I have. It's like night and day.
"I'm one star away from Dolly Parton ... and Raymond Massey is between us. I hope we don't suffocate him." Bernadette Peters receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, April 24, 1987
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 10/4/2006 at 8:04:19 PM ET
moljul, I think you are exactly right; the Sunday video was taped Oct 21-25, 1985. I know Bernadette said that she had pneumonia during that taping. (I don't think she specified whether she had it, or was just getting over it, or what.)
S&D was recorded September-October 1985, from the liner notes on the CD.
So, it looks like she recorded S&D when she either had pneumonia or was recovering-not the best circumstances.
I don't know how things are recorded, but I wonder if they just didn't have the technology then that they do now--better equipment, computerized things, whatever, which might have helped the sound problems.
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 10/4/2006 at 8:15:33 PM ET
I'm trying to remember. Did RCA always have a reputation for lesser quality cast albums? I think one of the recording companies produced a line that was considered inferior. Was it RCA Red Seal? We need a show tune audiophile to chime in.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/4/2006 at 8:30:02 PM ET
Whether she was ill or not there is surely no doubt that Bernadette sings quite exquisitely throughout this entire recording. Lloyd Webber's music certainly tested her voice and while one can hear the occasional "rawness" in her vocals the fact is that those high notes are superbly sung.
I rather think it is the "technical" sound quality of the recording that lets the whole thing down ... surely the fault of RCA Red Seal?
Strange, because RCA Red Seal has been producing superb operatic recordings for years ... so, you would think that they might have done a better job on this Andrew Lloyd Webber outing?
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 10/4/2006 at 8:41:40 PM ET
Probably a bit off-topic, but I couldn't resist quoting Stephen Holden's review of the CD--in part:
"Miss Peters has always oozed a cuddlesome Shirley Temple-like sweetness and vulnerability. This quality, which used to seem more like an adorable child-star affectation than an deep-seated trait, has proved to be an essential ingredient of Miss Peters's personality. A delivery that once seemed coy and cutesy has deepened and ripened into an honesty and compassion that pour out in singing that is childlike but also resilient. This sweetness permeates Miss Peters's two little-known solo album gems, ''Bernadette Peters'' (MCA-3230) and ''Now Playing'' (MCA-5244), which MCA Records released in the early 80's, and it was even more striking in the show, ''Sunday in the Park With George,'' in which she stood as the only voice of wisdom and heart in a cutthroat art world.
With her hint of a Cockney accent, her capacity for wonder, and her endless openness to feeling, Miss Peters's Emma is a very special creation. The reverse of the standard innocent American abroad, she is a rosy-cheeked English girl adrift in big, scary America where she finds ''the men are different, they seem at first quite normal, but I really fear they're not.'' Miss Peters does everything in her power to colloquialize the songs and to impart a spontaneous emotional charge even to the most stilted verbiage. Over the course of the album, she grows sadder and more sophisticated without losing her essential goodness. It is a tour-de-force performance that probably no other contemporary singing actress could have delivered with such credibility and lighthanded grace. "
NY Times, January 26, 1986
(Holden has pretty much held onto his view of Bernadette through the years, I think)
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 10/4/2006 at 9:18:03 PM ET
Thanks, Jean. Not off-topic at all.
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 10/5/2006 at 8:24:57 AM ET
I'm just so interested in Holden's review of the recording, here's the opening paragraph:
''Bernadette Peters in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Song & Dance' '' (RCA Red Seal HBC1-7162; cassette HBE1-7162, no CD) is a glowing personal triumph for a singer and actress who is rapidly establishing herself as the first lady of the Broadway musical. Performing material whose music borders on kitsch and whose lyrics and story suggest a verbose soap opera, Miss Peters nevertheless projects an astounding emotional generosity and conviction. Almost singlehandedly she turns the inconsequential erotic misadventures of Emma, an English hat designer pursuing a career in America, into a touching romantic fable about love and its defenses and the loss of innocence."
emotional generosity--I'll remember this phrase, it says so much...
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/5/2006 at 2:46:16 PM ET
Jean, thanks for that interesting review. Does he mention the sound quality of the recording at all? I received some MP3 files today and they all have that same distortion in the same songs. Shame, because those songs are so beautifully sung by Bernadette.
... "astounding emotional generosity and conviction" would sum up so much of her work. Am I correct in recalling that she has stated that she went to singing lessons every day while portraying Emma? ....... surely a tad unlikely for the demands of "kitsch" music.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 10/5/2006 at 5:37:03 PM ET
I think the fault in the CD's sound quality lies in the disc mastering. The LP sounds good enough (although it's sound quality is also a bit dull) but the CD transfer is just atrocious. In those days digital audio technology was rather primitive by today's standard, using at best a 16 bit resolution (which was actually only 14 bit when one accounts for dithering, audiophiles!)over analog/digital chains that seem laughable today. Engineers of that era were still trying to work out exactly what the best techniques were, but of course that never stopped any record label from putting out practically anything on CD. Unfortunately a great many valuable musical programs were given this slapdash CD treatment, and are out there in circulation, and record companies are content to keep selling these instead of investing in a proper remaster.
(sorry to get a bit techy here but this is what I do!)
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/6/2006 at 6:20:41 AM ET
leebee, thanks for that very clear explanation. If it is the disc mastering then I suppose we could always hope that we might get a re-mastered version on a future budget release sometme. Who knows? ... it may just be a possibility given the longevity of the Lloyd Webber musical.
While I'm in a "whinging" mood ... I also notice that The Goodbye Girl recording is a wee bit dodgy in parts too. Bernadette is virtually inaudible in parts of the "Paula" duet. I suppose we shouldn't expose these older recordings to the scrutiny of Ipods and MP3 Players and expect great sound quality.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/15/2006 at 3:04:27 PM ET
quote:
Am I correct in recalling that she has stated that she went to singing lessons every day while portraying Emma? ....... surely a tad unlikely for the demands of "kitsch" music.
She's mentioned this several times. Her lessons during the time, I believe, concentrated on her head voice, which she was not using in the score the vast majority of the time.
Have you listened to the recent Tell Me On a Sunday CD? What do you think of the new ending and updates?
Jenn
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 10/18/2006 at 12:06:41 PM ET
I rather like the updated Tell Me On A Sunday. I think the new songs fill out the character and we get a better sense of who Emma is and why she goes looking for a different life in New York. It's one show that definitely benefits from being brought forward in time as I think the Emma of the 80's would seem rather too naive to a modern day audience.
All the references to speed dating and new age therapy "Haven In The Sky" are witty and apt. It is also nice to hear "Mum" speak ... albeit briefly. As far as ALW's new music is concerned ... I don't think there is anything spectacular there but certainly the lovely Somewhere, Someplace, Sometime is a song that I would love to have heard Bernadette sing.
I don't know if you will agree but I think Denise Van Outen is outstanding and I can't find fault with her in any way ... but I do so miss those beautiful soaring Bernadette Peters top notes in the big numbers.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 10/18/2006 at 5:43:16 PM ET
The emails to her friends (and pestering her mum to get an account) were a nice update. However, one line is annoying in one of her email bits. It's the one in which she's describing her apartment-"it's not like Friends or Frasier." Frasier was set in Seattle, not New York.
I think the "Speed Dating" music is dreadful (lyrics not as bad, but with that ridiculous nonmelody, it doesn't matter) The Taylor song is not as dreadful, but lame. "Haven in the Sky"-lyrics are not the problem. It's that terrible music.
I thought the lyrics to the final song were a bit trite, but it's a softer ending.
I think Denise van Outen did a fine job with the material she was given. It's a very different "Unexpected Song"-she turns it into an introspective number. She's cute on the email bits without being annoying. She's very believable (character is no longer named from what I see on the RUG website).
Jenn
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