Richard Rodgers: Command Performance

​Please note: This CD is only available on demand. Please allow at least four weeks for shipping and delivery.

This CD amounts to a thrilling archaeological dig. Even Ted Chapin, President of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, was shocked at the discovery. Chapin had no idea that in the 1920s the young turk Richard Rodgers, who was already reinventing American musical comedy, recorded a significant number of piano rolls showcasing Rodgers & Hart songs. All 14 are featured in RICHARD RODGERS: COMMAND PERFORMANCE, a release that Chapin praises as “impeccably produced and packaged. What a treat!”

Writing in the international Gramophone magazine, Donald Rosenberg observes that “the piano rolls shed new light on the composer’s enterprising language and melodic gifts….There are plenty of surprises to alter our perception of Rodgers’s creations. Tempi are generally fleet, rhythms buoyant and accents pronounced….This CD is an illuminating addition to Rodgers scholarship and a release musical theater mavens will treasure.”

In addition to the piano rolls, the CD features Rodgers’s demos from the 1934 film musical Mississippi (with the composer providing his only recorded vocals); a priceless 1937 radio appearance in which Rodgers is joined by Lorenz Hart, Don Ameche and Charlie McCarthy; and other rare recordings of the composer at the piano or conducting his music.

Annotators include Ken Bloom, William Bolcom, Michael Feinstein, Hugh Martin, Albert Petrak and Bill Rudman.

Track List 

1    The Girl Friend
2    The Blue Room
3    Mountain Greenery
4    What's the Use of Talking
5    Where's That Rainbow
6    Selections: A Treein the Park / Where's That Rainbow? / Maybe It's Me / a Little Birdie Told Me So
7    My Heart Stood Still
8    Selections: With a Song in My Heart / Baby's Awake Now / Yours Sincerely / You Never Say Yes / Why
9    No Bottom
10    Roll, Mississippi
11    Soon
12    Pablo, You Are My Heart
13    Down By the River
14    The Steely Glint in My Eye
15    The Notorious Colonel Blake
16    It's Easy to Remember
17    [Part 1]
18    [Part 2]
19    Falling in Love with Love (From the Boys from Syracuse) / Lover (From Love Me Tonight)
20    Radio Air Check: My Heart Stood Still - Richard Rodgers, Rodgers, Richard
21    A Wonderful Guy
22    Waltz for a Ball
23    Radio Interview: Richard Rodgers Talks About Hart and Hammerstein - Richard Rodgers, Spoken Word