Richard Rodgers - The Sweetest Sounds
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DVD details
Actor: Richard RodgersDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Wellspring
DVD Reviews of Richard Rodgers - The Sweetest Sounds
DVD Review: The Music of Richard Rodgers . . . The Sweetest Sounds
Summary: 5 Stars
"The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears."
~ The Sound of Music ~
Words & Music by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
One of my favorite composers, the brilliant Richard Rodgers, known as the "Broadway Baby" had been composing music since age nine and by eighteen had his first Broadway show. Having written 900 some melodies for more than 70 shows in a career that spanned for seven decades, he was one of the most prolific composers of all-time in the league with George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.
If you're a fan of his music, you'll love this documentary narrated by Tony Roberts about his celebrated life as a composer. His collaborations with two of the most talented lyricists in American music history, Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, resulted in the most remarkable and most-loved musicals of all-time. He had also briefly collaborated with Stephen Sondheim.
The highlights are archival snippets from performers Frank Sinatra (I Could Write A Book and The Lady Is A Tramp), Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music), Louis Armstrong (You'll Never Walk Alone), composer/arranger/pianist Richard Rodney Bennett and singer Marie Cleer Haran (Manhattan and The Lady Is A Tramp), Mel Torme (Blue Moon - his the biggest hit), Lena Horne and Lionel Hampton (Where Or When), Barbara Peters (My Romance), pianist Barbara Caroll (My Funny Valentine), John Coltrane (My Favorite Things), Gordon McRae (Oh What A Beautiful Morning), Barbra Streisand (Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered), Jan Clayton and John Raitt (If I Loved You), and Diahann Carroll ("No Strings" 1962 Tony Award for Best Actress In A Musical). The show "No Strings," Richard Rodgers wrote both the music and lyrics himself and for the first time in Broadway history, the orchestra had no strings section.
This documentary also features film clips and interviews with his daughters, Linda Rodgers and Mary Rodgers, Julie Andrews, Maureen Mc Govern, Max Wilk (writer), Ethan Morden (theater historian), Jonathan Schwartz (music historian), John Mauceri (conductor), Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer), Barbara Cook (singer), and his grandson, Adam Guettell, among others.
His very first show "The Garrick Gaieties" was a hit and over the next five years, 15 Rodgers & Hart shows made it to Broadway, "Spring Is Here," "America's Sweetheart," "The Girl Friend" and "On Your Toes," to mention a few.
According to narrator Tony Roberts, "By the end of the 1920's, you couldn't even think of popular songs without talking about Rodgers & Hart. Everyone wanted their music." As a young man, he loved to watch Jerome Kern shows and he once told lyricist Sheldon Harnick that "his God was Jerome Kern."
After his marriage to Dorothy, Hollywood opened its door to Rodgers & Hart with the invention of talking pictures. While he was in Hollywood, he missed his family so much and of course, Broadway. One of his daughters said: "My father wrote my mother that he was experiencing an intense feeling of depression." His daughters' periodic visits to Hollywood eased his depression.
These are some of the most remarkable quotes I've transcribed from the interviews:
"He does very subtle things that make the tunes unique." ~ John Mauceri ~
"When he was writing there were very strict rules: no singing, no whistling, no noise." ~ Linda Rodgers ~
"Rodger's wife, Dorothy, knew that she was just number two in his life. Theater was his first love." ~ Theodore S. Chapin, Rodgers & Hart Organization ~
"My father grew up with a lot of fear and anxiety. He was afraid of heights, planes, tunnels. He was very unhappy unless he was writing." ~ Mary Rodgers ~
"His music is amazing, stunning, life changing melodies - little Rodgers' factory of melodies from the early twenties until he died. To me, there has been no greater composer in the world than Richard Rodgers. ~ Jonathan Schwartz ~
Mr. Rodgers, who had a reputation of writing melodies so quickly, died of cancer of the larynx on December 30, 1979.
Indeed, Richard Rodgers' wonderful music will live in the hearts of those who truly appreciate tuneful melodies that he brilliantly created. He was truly an exceptional and a very prolific composer.
"If somebody wants to sing my songs after I'm gone, nobody will be happier than my dead body." ~ Richard Rodgers ~
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