journal.nonesuch.com

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Below is information on just some of the many events going on this weekend across the globe featuring Nonesuch artists. Enjoy!

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Violinist Leila Josefowicz will join the Saint Louis Symphony, led by conductor Marin Alsop, for three performances of John Adams's The Dharma at Big Sur this weekend at Powell Hall in St. Louis. Also tonight, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Raymond Leppard will perform Adams's Violin Concerto at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, Spain, featuring violinist Chlöe Hanslip, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI led by Trevor Pinnock will perform the composer's 1990 orchestration of Liszt's The Black Gondola, in Turin, Italy.

Saturday night, the San Francisco Ballet presents the Mark Morris Dance Group's Joyride, featuring Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, as part of the continuing New Works Festival.

Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine gets three playings this weekend: Saturday night at the Saenger Theater in Mobile, Alabama, by Scott Speck and the Mobile Symphony, and Bloomington High School in Bloomington, Indiana, by Jose Valencia and the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra; and Sunday night at Royal Albert Hall, London, by Mark Gooding and the Harrow Young Musicians Philharmonic.

More information: boosey.com.

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Kronos Quartet plays the last of three performances at the Mondavi Center at the University of California, Davis, tonight: John Cage's Thirty Pieces for String Quartet with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Tickets: mondaviarts.org.

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Laurie Anderson will bring Homeland to the Moscow International Performing Arts Center in Russia on Saturday. On Sunday night, Laurie will join the weekend-long Symposium on Sound, a gathering of scientists, performers, and artists, at Leiden University in the Netherlands, for a discussion of the event's theme of mutual influence between art and science, especially as it relates to sound. Info: veenfabriek.nl.

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T Bone Burnett continues his tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at New Orleans' famed Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest. The three are scheduled to take the Acura Stage this afternoon at 3:30 PM. Next, they'll head to Birmingham, Alabama, where they'll play the BJCC Arena Saturday night. Tickets: nojazzfest.com (4/25); bjcc.org (4/26).

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Bill Frisell closes out his two week residency at New York's Village Vanguard with performances all weekend. Playing with Bill are Chris Cheek on sax, Ron Miles on trumpet, Tony Scherr on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums. Tickets: villagevanguard.com.

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Satyagraha, Philip Glass's 1980 opera centered around Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa, continues tonight at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The performance is sold out. More information: metoperafamily.org.

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Richard Goode will perform a free concert in New York City as part of the annual Free for All at Town Hall concert series. See the post in today's Nonesuch Journal for more information.

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Emmylou Harris takes the stage at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in downtown Nashville tonight for Premiere Evening, an annual fund-raising event to benefit the Center's educational and cultural programming. Tickets: tpac.org.

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k.d. lang's continues the Australian leg of her Watershed tour at the Entertainment Center in Adelaide Saturday night. Tickets: theaec.net.

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Brad Mehldau is in Quebec, Canada, tonight for a solo show at the Palais Montcalm. He returns to the States on Saturday for a performance with the trio with whom he recorded the new album Live at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, and a Sunday night show at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theater in Philadelphia. Tickets: palaismontcalm.ca (4/25); hop.dartmouth.edu (4/26); pennpresents.org (4/27).

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Youssou N'Dour will perform a special benefit concert tonight at New York's intimate venue Joe's Pub as part of a fund-raising effort for the Youssou N'Dour Foundation and his worldwide advocacy efforts. The acoustic set will be modeled on the smaller sets he leads at his club in Dakar. Tickets: joespub.com.

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Randy Newman will play a solo date tonight at the Riley Center at Mississippi State University's Meridian Campus. Tickets: msurileycenter.com.

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Nicholas Payton stays close to home for New Orleans' Jazz Fest. He and his quintet will take the stage in the WWOZ Jazz Tent at 4:05 PM on Sunday. Among the other performers at this year's festival are Stevie Wonder and Al Green, as well as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with T Bone Burnett (see above). Tickets: nojazzfest.com.

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Steve Reich's Eight Lines will be performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain led by Ludovic Morlot tonight at Cité de la musique, Salle des concerts, in Paris.

Reich's Desert Music, will presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Saturday, as Drumming will be performed by percussionist Colin Currie at the Concert Hall in Perth, Scotland. Currie earned four stars in the Herald (UK) for his performance there earlier this week of Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood that "mesmerised." Also Saturday, the Smith Quartet brings the Triple Quartet to the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building in Oxford, England.

On Sunday, Reich's Cello Counterpoint will be performed at the Purcell Room in London by Endymion and his Vermont Counterpoint can be heard at Ford Hall at Ithaca College, with Melissa Wertheimer on flute.

More information: boosey.com

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The national tour of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, based on the 2005 Broadway production helmed by John Doyle, began its run at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre early this week. Performances continue there through May 4. Tickets: sweeneytoddtour.com

"Sweeney Todd" Touring Company Wins Five Independent Reviewers Awards

The national touring company of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, based on the 2006 Tony Award-winning John Doyle-directed production starring Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris, has won five awards from the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE): Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Lauren Molina), Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Ben Magnuson), Best Actress in a Musical (Judy Kaye), Best Musical Director (David Loud), and Best Visiting Production. The awards were announced yesterday at the Boston Center for the Arts. For more information, visit stagesource.com.

New York Magazine Celebrates 40 Years of New York Culture

New York magazine is celebrating its 40th year with a special anniversary issue. In it, the magazine's culture critics give their take on the most essential New York works of art since the publication's inception, creating "The New York Canon: 1968-2008."

The classical music list, written by Justin Davidson, offers a wide range of artists and events, from Steve Reich's Drumming, which premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 1971, to the John Adams-curated opening-week festival of Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in 2003. Among the other quintessential New York moments in between are Laurie Anderson's United States I-V, the epic, two-night event in 1983 from that "great American raconteuse"; the US premiere of Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1991, which, despite the surrounding controversy, "contained ravishing music"; and Audra McDonald's 1998 debut solo album, Way Back to Paradise, with music by emerging songwriters like Adam Guettel, and the "killer concert at Joe's Pub" that launched it.

Listen to Audra perform "The Allure of Silence" (Adam Guettel / Lindy Robbins) from Way Back to Paradise:

Included in the theater canon, according to New York magazine's Jeremy McCarter, is the arrival of Stephen Sondheim's Company in 1970, which "brought new complexity and darker shadows to Broadway" ("Even now," McCarter writes, "other songwriters are struggling to catch up."), and the 2005 revival of the composer's 1979 work Sweeney Todd.

On the pop music list, by Hugo Lindgren and Ben Williams, is Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain in Light, on which David Byrne and Brian Eno create a sound that would inspire for decades to come, and The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs, "a distinctly New York masterpiece."

To read the complete list from New York magazine, visit nymag.com.

Stephin Merritt Plays Guest DJ on KCRW

The Magnetic Fields' tour in support of their latest Nonesuch release, Distortion, may have come to a close, but that just means more time for Stephin Merritt to share another of his many talents: DJing. He stopped by the KCRW studios in his newly adopted hometown of Los Angeles this past Sunday to play guest DJ on Gary Calamar's late-night show.

Stephin discussed his move from the East Coast and spun some of his favorite '60s pop tunes. The show's host cites The Banana Splits' "I Enjoy Being a Girl" as his favorite tune of the night. You can listen to the hourlong set at kcrw.com.

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Click here to add the Distortion CD plus the free album MP3s, with the exclusive bonus download "The Man of a Million Faces," directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $14. 

Rolling Stone: "Sweeney Todd" "A Bloody Wonder," Now One of Year's Best DVDs

"There is no question what DVD you should snatch up this week," writes Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers. "It's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." He continues:

The Two-Disc Special Edition is that rare DVD package that actually deserves to be called "special." This is one of the best DVDs of the year, packed with juicy bonus features and showcasing sound and image that set a new gold standard. Directed by Tim Burton and starring his muse, Johnny Depp, the film version of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway classic is a bloody wonder, intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending. Depp received an Oscar nomination as Best Actor and he deserved to win if Daniel Day-Lewis hadn't blown the category away in There Will Be Blood ... I'd place Depp along with James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line as the best performances ever by non-singers in a musical.

To read the complete review, visit rollingstone.com.

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Click here to add the Sweeney Todd deluxe-edition CD, with all 20 songs from the film, plus the free album MP3s, to your Shopping Cart now for only $21.

"Sweeney Todd" Out on DVD Today

The Tim Burton-directed film version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Helena Bonham Carter as his cohort in crime, is available now on DVD, in both a two-disc special edition and a single-disc DVD.

The special collector's edition includes an in-depth look at the Sondheim musical, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film, and the history of the legend of the Demon Barber, among a number of additional special features. You can watch the composer discuss the musical and its film adaptation at nonesuch.com/sweeneytodd.

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Click here to add the Sweeney Todd deluxe-edition CD, with all 20 songs from the film, plus the free album MP3s, to your Shopping Cart now for only $21.

"Sweeney Todd" DVDs to Be Released April 1

The Tim Burton-directed film version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, will be available on DVD beginning April 1, in both a two-disc special edition and a single-disc DVD.

Playbill reports that the two-disc version will include an in-depth look at the Sondheim musical, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film, and the history of the legend of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, among a number of additional special features. For further details, visit playbill.com.

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Click here to add the Sweeney Todd deluxe-edition CD, with all 20 songs from the film, plus the free album MP3s, to your Shopping Cart now for only $20.98.

Oscars Go to "There Will Be Blood," "Sweeney Todd"

At last night's Academy Awards ceremony, the creative teams behind There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street both picked up statuettes.

There Will Be Blood star Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor in a Leading Role. In his acceptance speech, he signaled out his director, describing the film as having sprung "like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson." Day-Lewis had been nominated in the category three times previously and won in 1989 for his performance in My Left Foot. Robert Elswit earned the award for Best Cinematography; this was his first win, after having been nominated for the 2005 George Clooney film, Good Night, and Good Luck.

Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd was recognized for Best Art Direction, with awards going to Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo. This was the ninth nomination for Ferretti and the seventh for Lo Schiavo; the duo won for Art Direction for Martin Scorcese's 2004 film, The Aviator.

For complete coverage of the awards, visit oscar.com.

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Click here to add the There Will Be Blood CD plus the free album MP3s, with three exclusive bonus downloads, directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $15.98.

Click here to add the Sweeney Todd deluxe-edition CD, with all 20 songs from the film, plus the free album MP3s, to your Shopping Cart now for only $20.98.

NPR: "There Will Be Blood" Score "Sublime"; "Blood," "Sweeney Todd" at Sunday's Oscars

Tune in to ABC this Sunday night at 8 PM ET to catch the 80th annual Academy Awards, red-carpet glitz and all. Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, will be hosting the ceremonies again this year.

The Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actor, Johnny Depp; Art Direction; and Costume Design.

Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood shares the distinction, with No Country for Old Men,  of being the most nominated film this year, each in the running in eight categories. There Will Be Blood is nominated for Picture of the Year; Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson; and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. The film is up for Art Direction, Cinematography, Sound Editing, and Editing, as well. Jonny Greenwood's score for the film, while among the most critically acclaimed soundtracks of the year, was deemed ineligible due to a Motion Picture Academy technicality.

NPR's Lars Gotrich calls the glitch "both unfortunate and unfair. The soundtrack perfectly exemplifies the main character, the cinematography, and the film's structure all at once." NPR has made the track "Henry Plainview," titled after the film's lead character, its Song of the Day and is streaming the piece on its site.

Gotrich says Greenwood was an "inspired choice" to compose the film's score, calling him "a modern-day John Cale, studying first in classical composition before moving into rock and then seamlessly commingling and alternating styles." He points in the selected track to "glissandos falling like angels from paradise" and concludes: "It's the stuff of what philosopher Edmund Burke called 'the sublime': art that has the power to destroy."

To read the article and listen to the track, visit npr.org.

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As perfectly suited to the film as Greenwood's score is, today's Houston Press reports that Greenwood's music works just as well on its own:

The album works marvelously well because it's a change of pace and Greenwood's writing is so strong ... It will leave you feeling exhausted---in a good way---and transported to another place, the very essence of a successful score ... However wary you might be of bringing soundtracks home and listening to them outside their original context, There Will Be Blood is worthy not because of Greenwood's status, but because of his compositional talents.

To read the full review, visit music.houstonpress.com.

For all the details on this Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, visit oscars.com.

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Click here to add the There Will Be Blood CD plus the free album MP3s, with three exclusive bonus downloads, directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $15.98.

Click here to add the Sweeney Todd deluxe-edition CD, with all 20 songs from the film, plus the free album MP3s, to your Shopping Cart now for only $20.98.

Sondheim's "Company" to Air Tonight on "Great Performances"

As the Sondheim lyric goes, "Life is company," and tonight on PBS stations across the country, it's all the truer: The 2006 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of the composer's 1970 musical, Company, will make its broadcast premiere on PBS's Great Performances. The show airs at 9 PM ET on WNET Thirteen in New York City. Visit pbs.org for local listings; you'll also find a complete multimedia site dedicated to the performance, including a video excerpt from the show's opening number, "Company."

Click on the play button here to listen to that track off the cast recording of the production, available on Nonesuch Records:

And here's another track, the unforgettable "Ladies Who Lunch," from the same recording:

The San Jose Mercury News's Charlie McCollum was originally doubtful that TV could capture what he calls "one of the brightest lights on Broadway in the 2006 season." But, he writes, Great Performances has done a remarkable job at giving the PBS audience an intimate look at director John Doyle's "inspired reinterpretation of one of Sondheim's finest pieces."  McCollum concludes:

It was all wonderfully sophisticated, stylistically and challenging, on a human level. It also, it turns out, makes for wonderful television ... Those who love the musical theater should be grateful to Great Performances for capturing the revival with style and flair. For devotees of Sondheim or otherwise, this is a rich production that should not be missed.

Newsday's John Crook concurs. He credits Stephen Sondheim's "dazzling score" as being the "musical pulse of the show," and speaks with the production's lead, Raúl Esparza, who says: "I am sure that Company is the best work I have ever done." To read the article with more of the candid interview with Esparza, visit newsday.com.

"There Will Be Blood," "Sweeney Todd" Earn Top Design, Editing Awards

There Will Be Blood took home top honors at last Saturday night's Art Directors Guild's Production Design Awards, with Jack Fisk winning the excellence in production design award in the period-film category.

And the editor of Sweeney Todd, Chris Lebenzon, took top honors from his peers last night when he picked up the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award (pictured at right) for feature film, musical or comedy.

To purchase the soundtracks to both films, visit the Nonesuch Store.

Serving Up Oscar Party Suggestions

The Oscars are less than two weeks away, and now that the Writers Guild strike has been resolved, it's set to be full of Hollywood glitz and glamor. If you're planning your own Oscar-night festivities and wondering what you might serve to match Mrs. Lovett's meat pies for a tie-in to triple nominee Sweeney Todd, fans on the ChowHound boards have come up with some rather creative solutions, from blood sausage to blood oranges to a few less appetizing suggestions. You can read all the ideas and offer one of your own at chowhound.com.

New Lang, Kronos Albums Now Available in the Nonesuch Store

Watershed, k.d. lang's first-ever self-produced album and her first collection of new, self-penned tunes since 2000's Invincible Summer, is now available in the Nonesuch Store. You'll find two versions of Watershed: the full-length album (pictured at left), on which k.d. puts her famous voice "to sunning new effect" (Daily News); and a special, deluxe package (pictured at right) with an additional bonus disc of live recordings and video footage. As always in the Nonesuch Store, with every CD purchase, you'll be able to download the album tracks instantly, either at the standard-sized 128 kbps or larger, audiophile-quality 320 kbps, at no additional charge.

For more on the record, visit nonesuch.com/watershed, where you can listen to three album tracks---"I Dream of Spring," "Je fais la planche," and "Sunday"---watch all six segments of the video interview series with k.d. recently posted to the Nonesuch Journal, and find information on k.d.'s upcoming tour schedule. You can find all the latest and archived Journal postings on k.d. by clicking here.

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Another new addition to the Store this week: Kronos Quartet's recording of composer Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic, with pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Riley wrote the piece, which the Los Angeles Times says "brims with joy," for the Quartet, his longtime musical collaborators, in 2004. Included with the purchase of the CD on the Nonesuch Store, as an exclusive bonus download, is "Tusen Tankar," a traditional Scandinavian folk song arranged and performed by Kronos.

For all Kronos-related Journal entries, including information on the group's performance later this month in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, click here. One of the pieces on the Carnegie Hall program is the world premiere of a piece by Fernando Otero, who also has a new album available in the Nonesuch Store: his "impressive" and "thoroughly original" (Newsday) Nonesuch debut, Página de Buenos Aires.

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Visit nonesuch.com/store for all the albums now available as CDs with instant MP3 downloads: Pat Metheny's Day Trip, The Magnetic Fields' Distortion, the Sweeney Todd motion picture soundtrack, and Jonny Greenwood's score to the film There Will Be Blood.

"There Will Be Blood," "Sweeney" Earn Evening Standard Film Awards

Jonny Greenwood picked up an Evening Standard British Film Award last night for Best Film Score for his contribution to There Will Be Blood. The film's star, Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor.

Helena Bonham Carter was recognized as Best Actress for her work both in Sweeney Todd and in the small, independent film Conversations with Other Women.

Winners were chosen by a panel of London film critics last December and handed out at last night's ceremony. Bonham Carter was accompanied by her partner, Sweeney director Tim Burton. Greenwood was joined by his band mate Thom Yorke, as his wife is due with their third child.

For all the coverage of the event, visit thisislondon.co.uk/standard.

Evening Standard: Five of Five Stars for "Sweeney the Spectacular"

The Evening Standard (UK) gives Sweeney Todd a perfect five out of five stars, dubbing the film "Sweeney the Spectacular" and calling it "just about perfect." Film critic Charlotte O'Sullivan gives fair warning, though, that once Sweeney Todd takes hold of its viewers, it isn't likely to let go.

With melodies that "tiptoe under our skin and refuse to leave," she writes, Sweeney brings filmgoers to a "heightened state" that once entered makes it difficult not to sympathize with the murderous barber, played by Johnny Depp, and his partner in crime, played by Helena Bonham Carter. In fact, thanks to the actors' "increasingly intense performances ... it becomes impossible."

To read the review, visit thisislondon.co.uk/film.

Times (UK): Four Stars for Burton's "Wonderful Adaptation" of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd"

As Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd gets set to open in the UK this weekend, Times film critic James Christopher follows up his first glowing report following the film's London premiere with a follow-up four-star review, declaring the film a "wonderful adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s musical ... that Burton was born to film."

To read the latest Times review, click here; for the earlier report, click here.

With the film now open in Australia as well, the Melbourne Herald Sun chatted with the film's director and its star, Johnny Depp, about the pair's ongoing successful working relationship. The Herald Sun's Paul Kent also offers his praise for the actor's successful portrayal of the Demon Barber:

Sondheim's scores are notoriously difficult, yet Depp reveals a remarkable voice and receives fine support from his co-stars ... Depp, typically, leaves all other versions of Todd dead in the water.

To read Kent's article, visit news.com.au/heraldsun.

To purchase the film's soundtrack CD with an instant high-quality download of the music at no extra charge, visit the Nonesuch Store.

Multiple Oscar Nominations Go to "There Will Be Blood" and "Sweeney Todd"

The nominations for the 80th Academy Awards have been announced. Congratulations go to There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd, which have received a combined 11 nominations.

There Will Be Blood was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year; Paul Thomas Anderson was nominated twice, both for Director and Adapted Screenplay; and Daniel Day-Lewis is among the nominees for Actor in a Leading Role. The film also earned noms for Art Direction; Cinematography; Film Editing; and Sound Editing.

For Sweeney Todd, Johnny Depp was also nominated for Actor in a Leading Role, and the film received noms for Art Direction and Costume Design.

For more information and the complete list of nominees, visit oscars.com. The Awards will be handed out in Hollywood on February 24.

Helena Bonham Carter Sings Sweeney's Praises; Her Role of a Lifetime

While on the set filming Sweeney Todd in the UK, Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Demon Barber's cohort in crime, Mrs. Lovett, spoke with the Independent's Nicola Christie about the role she'd waited a lifetime to play.

It wasn't a role that was simply handed to her, either, despite her relationship with the film's director, Tim Burton. It was only when the show's composer, Stephen Sondheim, gave her the OK that Bonham Carter's place was secured, and the couple could "burst into tears" of joy.

While there was speculation among some at the start about whether Bonham Carter or the film's lead, Johnny Depp, could match singing chops with their already well-tested acting chops. That's since been put to rest, as the stars are more than happy to attest on one other's behalf.

"Johnny's singing voice is very sexy," Bonham Carter tells Christie. "He really sings from the gut, and it's a very emotional role. His singing is very naked and very touching."

As for Depp, he calls his co-star "very brave" for taking on such a daunting role. "Without question," he says, "that's the toughest part in the movie and she beautifully made it her own."

To read the article, visit arts.independent.co.uk.

Leading up to next week's UK launch of the film, the Daily Mail's also got coverage of the stars' musical preparation for the film, concluding that for all of Depp's early self-doubt about pulling of the challenging vocals, "In the end, Depp's fears proved completely unfounded."

To read that article, visit dailymail.co.uk.

Time Out London "Sweeney" Site Offers Audio Tour of Todd's London

The Time Out London website is now offering visitors an audio tour of Sweeney Todd's London, among other features of its dedicated microsite for the film. The exclusive tour allows viewers to retrace the steps of the Demon Barber using a printable London map and 17 MP3s of music and interviews with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and fellow cast members to download and bring along on the guided walk through the London streets.

The site also includes the film trailer, an image gallery, details of the story behind the musical, an offer for free tickets to a Sweeney screening in London, and the Time Out review that calls this, the sixth Burton-Depp collaboration, "the peak of their stylized menace."

Visit the Sweeney Todd microsite at timeout.com. Purchase the film's soundtrack at the Nonesuch Store.

Depp Talks to Rolling Stone About Singing Sondheim, "Genius"

Johnny Depp is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone for an article titled "Johnny Sings." In an in-depth interview, the Sweeney Todd star talks to writer Gavin Edwards about his rock 'n' roll roots and the challenges and rewards of tackling the Stephen Sondheim masterpiece:

Sondheim has incredibly beautiful melodies, and what goes along with those melodies are sometimes dissonant, supercomplex chord arrangements that actually shouldn't make sense. They shouldn't go together, but they do somehow, because he's a genius. Doing that music, it becomes emotional organically ... It's build into Sondheim's stuff.

You can find an excerpt of the interview at rollingstone.com, and you can read the complete interview in the January 24 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, on newsstands now.

The Sweeney Todd soundtrack is available now in the Nonesuch Store.

NY Times Talks with "Musical Polymath" Stephin Merritt

In a New York Times profile of The Magnetic Fields' "musical polymath" Stephin Merritt for the group's new record, Distortion, Melena Ryzik reports of the aspirations of this songwriter, known for his "bitterly smart lyricism," to be "'lumped in with Irving Berlin'" and included as a contemporary of Stephen Sondheim. In the article, Jon Nakagaw, a producer of contemporary programming at Lincoln Center, calls Stephin's work "pop in the best sense of that word.”

To read the article and listen to "California Girls" off Distortion, visit nytimes.com. To purchase the new CD and receive a free download of Stephin's "The Man of a Million Faces" with the album, visit the Nonesuch Store.

Golden Globes Go to "Sweeney Todd," Johnny Depp, and Daniel Day-Lewis

Congratulations to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and There Will Be Blood for their Golden Globe wins. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has named Sweeney Todd Best Picture of the Year, Comedy or Musical, and Johnny Depp Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. There Will Be Blood star Daniel Day-Lewis was also a winner for Best Actor in a Drama.

For more information and the complete list of winners, visit goldenglobes.org.

NY Times: Opera Stars Could Learn from Depp's "Sweeney Todd" Performance

The New York Times chief classical music critic, Anthony Tommasini, has kind words indeed for Johnny Depp's vocal performance in Sweeney Todd, going so far as to say that many opera singers could learn a thing or two from the "expression, nuance, intention, and controlled intensity" that comes through Depp's "verbally dynamic" performance. Says Tommasini: Depp's "performance as captured on screen is stunning in every dimension: dramatically, psychologically, physically and, yes, vocally."

In a video interview aired last month on the Nonesuch Journal, Stephen Sondheim stated his preference for actors who can sing over singers who can act, a sentiment Tommasini clearly appreciates. With Depp, though, it was hardly a compromise:

His ear is obviously excellent, because his pitch is dead-on accurate. ... [H]e brings such breadth of statement and lyrical integrity to his phrasing ... Beyond his good pitch and phrasing, the expressive colorings of his singing are crucial to the portrayal.

Tommasini also praises Depp's co-stars in the film, describing Helena Bonham Carter's singing as Mrs. Lovett "lyrical and seductive" and Alan Rickman's portrayal of Judge Turpin as "harrowingly understated ... which comes through in his literate, dry and menacing singing."

Supporting all of the actors is, of course, the music itself, with adaptation to the orchestration by the play's original orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick. With his "inventive" reworkings, says Tommasini, Tunick "has created a soundtrack that has old-fashioned Hollywood film plushness. Yet there is still so much color and detail in his scoring that the orchestra sounds like a pit band for a classic Sondheim show."

In the end, for Tommasini, "the film rests on Mr. Depp’s performance," and if Sweeney turns out to be the actor's only foray into film musicals, he concludes, "what a way to go out."

To read the complete article, visit nytimes.com.

ACE Nominates "There Will Be Blood" and "Sweeney Todd" for Best Editing

The American Cinema Editors have announced the nominees for the 58th Annual ACE Eddie Awards, presented for the year's best in editing for film and television. There Will Be Blood editor Dylan Tichenor, A.C.E., was nominated for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic), and Sweeney Todd editor Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E., for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical). The awards will be handed out on February 17 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

For more information about the award and the list of nominees, visit ace-filmeditors.org.

Entertainment Weekly Recommends "Blood," "Sweeney" for Oscar Noms

Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger handicaps the field of potential Oscar nominees and puts forward the list he'd like to see once the names are announced.

There Will Blood is among those he'd pick for the Best Picture list, with Paul Thomas Anderson on the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay lists. The film's lead actor, Daniel Day-Lewis makes Karger's list for Best Actor, as does Johnny Depp for his performance in Sweeney Todd.

To read the full report, visit ew.com.

Scena Musicale: "Sweeney Todd" Is a "Masterpiece" of a Movie

In his column for La Scena Musicale magazine examining Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, writer and BBC presenter Norman Lebrecht wonders what happens "when a movie outshines the outstanding original." He quotes the composer himself as saying that Burton's Sweeney is "the first musical that has ever transferred successfully to the screen."

Skeptical at first, Lebrecht admits that "even the inner circle of Sondheim purists" see Burton's telling of the tale "as a remarkable reinvention." And, he adds, in all its permutations, "Sweeney never fails." So what does Lebrecht think now that he's seen the film himself?

He calls the casting of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the lead roles as "an irresistible billing," sees Depp as "ideally suited" to play Sweeney, and applauds the entire cast as "heaven-sent." Even the famed Sondheim sound is deepened "more lavishly" when accompanied by additional underscoring made possible by the big-screen adaptation.

"Is this then, as the composer claims, the first stage musical ever to make a successful switch to the movies?" asks Lebrecht, then answers:

After several weeks' reflection, I'd go one further: I cannot recall any modern theatre play—Pinter, Miller, O'Neill, Albee, Neil Simon, whoever—that has made the leap to screen carrying so little of its stage baggage while its character remains intact. Sweeney Todd is a gripping, skillful, troubling, ineradicable masterpiece of a 21st-century movie. All that came before is gaslight.

To read the "Lebrecht Weekly" article, visit scena.org.

London Hosts "Sweeney Todd" European Premiere

Tim Burton, the director of Sweeney Todd, and stars of the film, including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall, were in London last night for Sweeney's European premiere. The BBC website has coverage of the event from the red carpet, including a video interview with Depp, photos, and reports of fans coming from as far away as Japan and Russia for a glimpse of the star.

Visit news.bbc.co.uk for the details.

Times (UK): "Terrific Musical Chemistry" in "Sweeney Todd," Film Burton Was Born to Make

"Chaps, what took you so long?" asks Times (UK) chief film critic James Christopher now that he's seen the result of pairing director Tim Burton with Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. "It was screamingly obvious what a gorgeous couple you would make when the curtain lifted," writes Christopher in his four-star movie review. "I’ve rarely seen a film director so perfectly matched to a musical ... Burton was put on earth to shoot this glorious melodrama."

Christopher has further praise for Burton's "brilliant editing" choices in adapting the original material and lauds his choice of stars for the film, calling the "musical chemistry" between Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter "terrific." There's also a "priceless cameo" from Sacha Baron Cohen and the "sinister pleasure" of Alan Rickman's supporting role.

All in all, there's "something for everyone."

To read the full review, visit entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.

Johnny Depp, People's Choice Favorite, Globe-trots to "Sweeney" Premieres

Johnny Depp, who was named Favorite Male Movie Star this week at the People's Choice Awards, has been traveling the globe for the opening of director Tim Burton's film version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in cities around the world. Depp recently made his way down the red carpet in Tokyo for the Japanese premiere, then flew to London, where he'll attend the film's European premiere tonight at the city's Odeon Leicester Square cinema.

Sweeney Todd opens in Japan on January 19 and in the UK on January 25. The film is open now in the US, with the soundtrack available at the Nonesuch Store.

People: "Sweeney" Soundtrack "Like a Grand Night at the Theater"

"Is there anything Johnny Depp can't do?" ask People magazine. He certainly does seem capable of tackling anything he tries, not least taking on the title role in the "splendid movie musical," Sweeney Todd. Writes People in its review of the film's soundtrack, out now on Nonesuch: "The soundtrack, in vivid fashion, succeeds at playing like a grand night at the theater."

Read the full review in the January 14 issue of People, on newsstands now.

Broadway World: "Sweeney Todd" Shows a Master at His Best

'Tis the season for Sweeney Todd. With the Tim Burton-directed film in theaters across the country now and the national tour of the John Doyle-directed stage version making its way through the States, Broadway World's Beau Higgins writes: "I have come to the conclusion that Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is certainly one of the greatest musicals ever created."

Higgins wonders whether one can truly determine a "best" among all the brilliant works Stephen Sondheim has created. Nevertheless, in reviewing the current tour of Sweeney Todd, Higgins does assert that the musical is "perhaps the finest work ever to grace any theater at any time" and indeed the composer's "truest masterpiece" and "master achievement." He writes:

The words, the actions, the thoughts of the characters, the multi-textured plot; these are simply marvels to behold ... Sondheim’s Tony-winning score is a work of genius ... a word I rarely use. Mr. Sondheim is a genius and Sweeney Todd presents the genius at the top of the world ... His work tells the story flawlessly, enticingly, humorously, thrillingly and with a multi-textured beauty unparalleled in theater scores.

The national tour is crossing the country with the version of the play director John Doyle brought to Broadway in 2005/06, the original cast recording of which is available on Nonesuch. For Higgins, Doyle's reimagining "serves this work brilliantly."

And lest you wonder whether to catch the film version at your local movie theater or the touring company on one of its many stops, fear not, there's room for both. Writes Higgins: "Sweeney is one of those shows that is better the 25th time you see if than the second time you see it."

To read Higgins's review of the national tour, visit broadwayworld.com. For tour dates and locations, visit sweeneytoddtour.com. For more information on the Broadway cast recording, click here.

Playbill: "Sweeney Todd" Soundtrack Soars

Playbill's Steven Suskin makes no bones about being a fan of the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd. With the opening of the new Tim Burton-directed film version, he rejoices in the possibility that millions of new fans will now discover what he and legions of die-hard fans have known for years: "the magic of Sweeney Todd, at root, is in the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim." And as sacrosanct as the original may be for Suskin, "the newly released soundtrack album soars in its own ways."

Suskin recognizes that Burton's choice of casting Johnny Depp in the title role was a surprising one, but is ultimately, "perhaps, the key to the success of the film."

One major boon for the music on screen is the grander scale of its orchestrations, something only Hollywood could bring to Broadway. For the film, longtime Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick was able to supplement his original orchestrations. "And what a difference," writes Suskin. "When those strings soar on the soundtrack, they truly soar." Additionally, "Tunick, being so very good at what he does, knows the value of retaining the quieter moments as well."

For the complete review, visit playbill.com.

NY Times Film Critics Suggest Oscar Noms for "Blood" and "Sweeney"

With the Oscar polls set to close at the end of the week, the New York Times film critics have weighed in on the list of nominees they'd like to see. A.O. Scott, Manohla Dargis, and Stephen Holden all agree that There Will Be Blood should be nominated for Best Director, Paul Thomas Anderson; Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis; and Best Adapted Screenplay. Holden and Dargis also think it should be on the list for Best Picture. Holden is joined by Scott in suggesting the film's Paul Dano for Best Supporting Actor.

Scott also hopes Sweeney Todd will be recognized by Academy voters. He thinks it should be on the list both for Best Picture and for Johnny Depp as Best Actor.

For all the Oscar picks from the Times critics, click here .

The official list will be revealed on Tuesday, January 22. The 80th annual awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 24.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Depp a "Dashing Choice" for "Bloody Brilliant" "Sweeney" CD

In a four-star review of the new Sweeney Todd soundtrack in the Philadelphia Inquirer, A. D. Amorosi says that longtime Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick's new orchestrations are "grandly gothic and sweepingly dusky but not without light." The new setting "makes magic" for the cast, with Johnny Depp turning in a performance that's "reminiscent of David Bowie." Amorosi says that casting Depp in the title role was "a dashing choice" that helps drive this Sweeney "to bloody brilliance."

To read the full review, visit philly.com.

CBS Sunday Morning: "Spellbinding" "Sweeney Todd" Sees Sondheim "Deliciously Served"

"Spellbinding" says CBS Sunday Morning's film critic David Edelstein of Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. "Sondheim, our greatest living theatrical composer and lyricist," Edelstein says, "has never been so deliciously served."

To read Edelstein's review, visit cbsnews.com.