Near the end of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “A Little Night Music,” the orchestra swells into what He is said to have called the Max Steiner momentsomething out of “Casablanca” or “Gone With the Wind.”
Désirée and Fredrik, ex-lovers who reconnect but almost lose happiness again, meet and kiss. The instruments respond with a grand, soulful reprise of the show’s 11 o’clock number, “Send in the Clowns.”
In a “A Little Night Music” concert at David Geffen Hall on Thursday, premiering a new orchestration by longtime Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick, the 53-piece Orchestra of St. Luke’s brought out a fortissimo tutti. Strings and brass soared with the melody, but there was more: sonorous, scaled chords to support it in the low voices and jaunty counterpoint. It was a moment appropriate not only for cinema, but also for opera, where, perhaps, this new orchestration belongs.
Not all musicals are suitable for stages beyond Broadway, but some are. And there has been a resurgence, since Sondheim’s death in 2021, of large-scale revivals of his work. (This, after years of deftly stripped-down productions by John Doyle.) “Sweeney Todd” returned to Broadway with Tunick’s original orchestration for nearly 30 players, crackling with detail and musical drama. Last week, “Follies” was presented at Carnegie Hall with a similarly sized ensemble and a star in the concert cast.
Thursday’s edition of “A Little Night Music” had nearly double the strength. If anyone can be trusted with this work, it’s Tunick. He and Sondheim first collaborated on “Company,” in 1970, and Tunick orchestrated the composer’s final, unfinished performance, “Here We Are,” last year.
The two had a miraculously simple way of working together. Sondheim played and sang his scores on a piano and, based on his touch and vocal shading, Tunick would have had plenty to draw on for the orchestration, teasing out the sound world of each piece. Sondheim was pleased, as were the entertainment academies: Tunick is among the elite class of EGOT artists who have won Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys. This month, he won another Tony, for orchestrating the hit revival of Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.”
Since the original run of Sondheim’s performances, Tunick has adapted the scores for a variety of ensembles. It can be scaled in any direction. the “Merrily” revival has a pit band of just 13 musicians. “Merrily” can withstand this kind of reduction, partly because of Tunick’s brilliance, but also because of the show’s architecture. Some plays, however, thrive on greatness, like “Sweeney” and “Follies” and, yes, “A Little Night Music.”
I’ve heard of “A Little Night Music” being referred to as Sondheim’s “Rosenkavalier,” and that’s not being very generous. Sondheim’s score, one of his finest, shares with Strauss a dreamy waltz feel and themes of the folly of love and the passage of time. In both, there is wisdom behind the comedy.
Sondheim described his score as theme and variations. Numbers, interludes, and underlining are set in waltz time of three beats: 3/4, 3/2, 6/8, and so on, with dance styles such as mazurka and polonaise. The first act finale feels like an opera buff, with eight vocal lines laid out with Mozartian neatness and inevitability.
Tunick’s new orchestration is, on the whole, recognizably the same performance, but slightly richer, its complexity rendered with fresh clarity. (One innovation is the restoration of “Silly People,” a song that was cut early in the show’s out-of-town test.) The structure of Sondheim’s score is better for it: With Tunick’s input, it has less oo-pa-pah support of the basic songwriting and more of a sense of a complete ensemble in which vocal and instrumental lines are equally essential.
There’s sophisticated counterpoint to “Now” and a Ravelian flavor surrounding “Liaisons.” The waltzes have the luxury of a New Year’s Eve concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, with touches like a love-drunk harp and fiery flute. The big tutti on the repeat of “Send in the Clowns” was so loud Thursday, it was easily heard even in the audience’s applause.
This was a presentation with much luxury in scale and casting, though not, apparently, in rehearsal time. The featured singers, including opera star Susan Graham as Désirée and Cynthia Erivo as Petra, would suggest that the Geffen Hall run will improve over its three additional performances. But it wasn’t ready for an audience Thursday.
It moved quickly, in a concert adaptation of Hugh Wheeler’s book by Doyle, and with a light touch from director Marc Bruni, who kept things simple, emphasizing small gestures over elaborate theatrics. But maybe not fast enough. Tunick was played at slow paces that often kept the score down. It was like watching someone hold back a dog that is pulling on its leash. Music wants I run. (Tunick may know this performance inside and out, but even Stravinsky was not the best performer of his own music.)
The Orchestra of St. Luke’s played with a mixture of confidence that was heard throughout the cast. Graham sang with ease and charisma, but during “You Must Meet My Wife” he had to give lines to Ron Raines as Fredrik. Sometimes, you can fudge lyrics, but not those with the precision and spirit of Sondheim. Kerstin Anderson’s very pure Anne was a highlight, paired well with Jason Gotay’s passionate Henrik. and Erivo was suitably applauded for her stage turn in “The Miller’s Son.” Ruthie Ann Miles, the Beggar Woman in the recent revival of “Sweeney,” was an amusingly sour Countess Charlotte, but with a slightly depressed heart, like another famous opera countess, in “Le Nozze di Figaro.”
With awkwardness and lack of balance, with amplification and orchestration often working against each other, this performance seemed to represent the problem of where “A Little Night Music” might find the right home. It is very difficult to rush into the scene. In the past, it was scheduled at the New York City Opera House, which is now pretty much dead. A run at Encores!, where the huge orchestration of Tunick’s ‘Titanic’ was just heard, would be too short.
What this show deserves is a place in the repertoire, with the resources it needs to thrive. Tunick did his part. Who will take it from here?
