Something's Gotta Give

To this day, music from classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals continues to enjoy immense popularity with audiences and performers alike. Here Simon Keenlyside, one of the world’s most charismatic and sought-after operatic baritones, presents Something’s Gotta Give, an album devoted to songs from musicals – songs that require every bit as much attention to text and interpretation as Lieder, and often the same mastery of vocal technique as operatic arias. Scarlett Strallen, a regular presence of West End and Broadway stages, partners Keenlyside in duets and sings two numbers on her own. They are joined by David Charles Abell, a musician steeped in the tradition of musical theatre, who conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in wonderfully lush original orchestral arrangements, a number of which have been specially restored for this recording.

The programme includes some of the best-loved numbers in the repertoire, including Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day’, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’’, and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ from Fiddler on the Roof. The range represented, from the emotional tour de force of ‘Soliloquy’ to the charming character song ‘Reviewing the Situation’, showcases the many facets of Simon Keenlyside both as an extraordinary vocalist and endlessly charismatic performer.