Masterworks Broadway Announces More Winter 2016 CD Releases!

Masterworks Broadway announces a slate of releases for Winter 2016 including the release of three classic albums from the archives – Sweet Charity (February 12), Salad Days (March 18), and Kismet (April 15). And, on February 26, Masterworks Broadway releases The Essential Stephen Sondheim, celebrating the 85th birthday year of the legendary theater composer and lyricist. Upon release, each title will be accompanied by new album pages and photos.

Winner of the 1967 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical, Sweet Charity stars Juliet Prowse as everyone’s favorite dance-hall hostess in the Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields musical. Also featuring Red McLennan, Josephine Blake, and Paula Kelly, the production originated in Las Vegas at the newly opened Caesar’s Palace earlier that year. Sweet Charity – The Original London Cast Recording will be officially released for the first time on CD in the U.S. February 12, 2016.

Stephen Sondheim, the pre-eminent Broadway composer and lyricist of the modern era, has been awarded eight Tonys, eight Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer Prize, five Oliviers and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Essential Stephen Sondheim spans this iconic artist’s unparalleled career, from West Side Story (1957) through Passion (1994), and also includes important works from his forays into television and film. This new 2-CD collection features performances by Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Ethel Merman, Jason Alexander, Angela Lansbury, Elaine Stritch, Victor Garber, Barbara Cook, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Dean Jones, Glynis Johns, Marni Nixon, Lee Remick, Jim Walton, Lonny Price, Peabo Bryson, Nancy Wilson and many more. The Essential Stephen Sondheim will be released on February 26.

The Wiz LIVE! on CD December 18

Sony Music Masterworks and Broadway Records have released on CD the original soundtrack of the NBC “The Wiz LIVE!” today, December 18., 2015.

“The Wiz LIVE!” soundtrack features the well-known hits “Ease on Down the Road,” “A Brand New Day” and “Home,” plus the new song “We Got It.” Written by Grammy Award winners, NE-YO, Mason Jr. and Oremus with Elijah Kelley, “We Got It” was performed in the broadcast by cast members NE-YO and Kelley, along with Shanice Williams, David Alan Grier and The Wiz ensemble.

NBC’s highly rated production of “The Wiz LIVE!” was broadcast December 3 and will re-air December 19. Rising star Shanice Williams (Dorothy) leads an all-star cast featuring Queen Latifah (The Wiz), Mary J. Blige (Evillene), David Alan Grier (Cowardly Lion), NE-YO (Tin Man), Elijah Kelley (Scarecrow), Uzo Aduba (Glinda), Amber Riley (Addaperle), Common (Bouncer), Stephanie Mills (Aunt Em) and Cirque du Soleil.

The Original Soundtrack of the NBC Television Event "The Wiz Live" Releasing on CD

Sony Music Masterworks and Broadway Records will release the original soundtrack of the NBC

Television event “The Wiz LIVE!”.  “The Wiz LIVE!” soundtrack features the well-known hits “Ease on Down the Road,” “A Brand New Day” and “Home,” plus the new song “We Got It.” Written by Grammy Award winners, NE-YO, Harvey Mason Jr. and Stephen Oremus with Elijah Kelley, “We Got It” will be performed in the broadcast by cast members NE-YO and Kelley, along with Shanice Williams, David Alan Grier and The Wiz ensemble. The single “Home” performed by Williams will be available digitally on November 27. “The Wiz LIVE!” soundtrack will be released on CD on December 18.

NBC’s highly anticipated production of “The Wiz LIVE!” will broadcast December 3. Rising star Shanice Williams (Dorothy) leads an all-star cast featuring Queen Latifah (The Wiz), Mary J. Blige (Evillene), David Alan Grier (Cowardly Lion), NE-YO (Tin Man), Elijah Kelley (Scarecrow), Uzo Aduba (Glinda), Amber Riley (Addaperle), Common (Bouncer), Stephanie Mills (Aunt Em) and Cirque du Soleil.

Placido Domingo Brings In The Holiday Season With The Release Of His New Album, "My Christmas"

A heart-warming world of Christmas magic comes alive on Placido Domingo's new holiday album, My Christmas (available now on Sony Classical). Available now, the album is filled with seasonal favorites, plus duets with a variety of special guests including Idina Menzel, Jackie Evancho, Placido Domingo Jr., The Piano Guys and others.

My Christmas features Domingo performing his favorites numbers like "Guardian Angels," the haunting song composed by Harpo Marx and made famous by Mario Lanza with Idina Menzel, fresh from her triumph as the voice of Queen Elsa in Disney's Frozen; "Pie Jesu" the pure, ethereal melody from Andrew Lloyd Webber with Jackie Evancho, the 15 year-old American singing phenomenon, who is also the youngest top-10 debut artist in USA history; "White Christmas," the evergreen Irving Berlin classic with his son Placido Domingo Jr.; and "Silent Night" with The Piano Guys, whose witty mash-ups of classical favorites and pop standards have been seen over half a billion times on YouTube.

Other artists featured on My Christmas singing holiday classics with Domingo include the German superstar Helene Fischer ("What Child Is This"), whose albums have sold more than 9 million copies to date; the French heart-throb tenor Vincent Niclo ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"); and the New Zealand singer Hayley Westenra performing "Loving Christmas," a new song written by Placido Domingo Jr.

Warm Up with Quadriga Consort's New CD, Winter's Delights

Early Christmas Music and Carols from the British Isles, France and Canada Performed on

Period Instruments

Packed full of engaging and appealing seasonal offerings, Winter's Delights is Quadriga Consort's new album and welcome addition to Yuletide.

English composer and poet Thomas Campion (1567–1620) famously wrote 'Summer hath his joys and Winter his delights,' and the consort has taken this memorable line as its starting point for this attractive collection of popular and lesser-known winter melodies.

The album includes traditional English carols such as "The First Nowell," "The Three Kings" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," together with Scottish tunes such as "Gloomy Winter," "The Traveller Benighted in Snow" and "Leanabh an Aigh" (The Blessed Child), better known in recent years as the hit song "Morning has Broken." From Ireland comes the traditional jig "A Merry Christmas" as well as the medley consisting of "Early in the Morning" (trad. hornpipe) / "The Ivy Leaf" (trad. reel) / "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" (trad. jig). Nova Scotia beckons with "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" and France happily presents "Noel Nouvelet – Sing We Now of Christmas."

There is a charm and freshness to this unconventional edition and, most importantly, a sense of joy and delight in music-making that cannot fail to cheer and lift the spirits, even on the bleakest of winter nights.

Sony Music To Release "HE NAMED ME MALALA" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Sony Music proudly announces the release of HE NAMED ME MALALA (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The original score for the film was written by multiple Grammy® winner and Academy Award nominee, Thomas Newman. The soundtrack will be available on CD October 30. HE NAMED ME MALALA opens in select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on October 2 and nationwide October 9.

 

Academy Award  winning director, Davis Guggenheim says of Thomas Newman's score:
"Watching Tom in his studio was pure artistry. His music brought the film to life pulling the characters' emotional inner lives to the surface, threading and bonding the story together and allowing it to be fully realized."

 

HE NAMED ME MALALA is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley.  The then 15-year-old (she turned 18 this July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls' education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls' education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Yo Yo Ma and Kathryn Scott Release "Songs from the Arc of Life"

"I like to think of Songs from the Arc of Life as an invitation to our audience to remember and imagine what the soundtracks of their lives might be," Yo-Yo Ma says.  "Kathy and I have talked for years about recording an album of music we absolutely love, pieces that express the context of a life, of our lives.  Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age: what do they sound like?"

"I love this title," Stott says, "the 'Arc of Life' – because it is one big arc. Once we arrived at the idea, we began to see a beautiful story, a journey through life's experiences. It has taken us a long time and much discussion, back and forth, to discover what that journey might be, because everyone's journey is slightly different."

Songs from the Arc of Life begins and ends with two, much-beloved settings of the traditional "Ave Maria," opening with the soaring, radiant Bach/Gounod arrangement and closing with Schubert's more serene, contemplative version.

Fantastic Four Original Motion Pictiure Soundtrack Releasing

Sony Music announces the release of THE FANTASTIC FOUR (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) featuring the music of Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass. The soundtrack will be released

on CD on August 14.

FANTASTIC FOUR, helmed by acclaimed director Josh Trank (“Chronicle”), and screenwriters Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg (“X-Men: First Class,” X-Men; Days of Future Past”, “Sherlock Holmes”),  is a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel's first, and longest-running superhero team. Based on the Marvel comic written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the film follows four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe that alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy. The film stars Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Susan Storm, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, and Toby Kebbell as Victor von Doom.

Marco Beltrami is best known for finding a unique approach to scoring in each of his films. For the film “Scream”, he threw away conventional horror music clichés and instead called upon his concert music roots to explore a new sonic landscape. For “The Homesman” Beltrami constructed his own instruments that would meld the archaic and new. The creations were as tiny as a refitted lap steel guitar to giant, cross-ranch cables that could pick up wind and translate it into a haunting glow. Subsequently, his resume has expanded to include films ranging from epic drama to dark comedy. Beltrami has been nominated twice for Academy Awards for Best Score (“3:10 to Yuma” (2007) and “The Hurt Locker” (2008)).

An American in Paris Original Cast Recording Announced for Album Release

MASTERWORKS BROADWAY proudly announces the signing of the Original Broadway Cast Recording of An American in Paris. Produced by Rob Fisher and Scott Lehrer, the album will be recorded on April 20 in anticipation of a June 2 release. 

 

The score of An American In Paris includes the songs “I Got Rhythm,” “Liza,” “’S Wonderful,” “But Not For Me,” “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” and orchestral music including “Concerto in F,” “Second Prelude,” “Second Rhapsody/Cuban Overture” and “An American In Paris.”

 

An American In Paris is directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. Inspired by the Academy-Award winning film and opens on Broadway on April 12, 2015.  An American In Paris brings this classic tale to Broadway for the first time with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and a book by Tony nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Lucas.

Sony Classical To Release The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack To The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the second installment of the star-studded British comedy that follows a group of British retirees who decide to spice up their lives in magical India. In theaters on March 6, 2015, the sequel was once again directed by John Madden, best known for his acclaimed movies Shakespeare In Love (Academy Award winner for Best Picture, 1998), Proof (based on the eponymous Pulitzer Prize winning play, 2005) and The Debt. The beloved first film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movie proved to be an international success, grossing over $136 million worldwide.

The renowned cast has reunited for the film including stars Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup, Tina Desai, Diana Hardcastle and Lillete Dubey.  Additional cast making their debut include Tamsin Greig, with David Strathairn and Richard Gere.  

 

The soundtrack for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel will be available on February 24, 2015 via Sony Classical. Thomas Newman, one of the most respected composers in the movie industry, once again composed the original score. With an illustrious career of over 30 years, Newman has scored more than 70 feature films. Coming from a prominent musical dynasty – his father was the renowned composer Alfred Newman, and singer/songwriter/composer Randy Newman is his cousin – Thomas Newman has thus far been nominated for 12 Academy Awards and has won an Emmy® Award, 2 BAFTA Awards and 6 Grammy Awards.