Search - Richard Rodgers - The Sweetest Sounds on DVD

A GOOD OVERVIEW OF DICK

ALAIN ROBERT | ST-HUBERT,QUÉBEC | 12/23/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you have to choose between this visual document and the biography released in november,don't hesitate to buy the video or dvd. Why? Because it's the facts that are featured here and not the gossips of which no word should be said at all. The daughters of Mr. RODGERS: LINDA and MARY talked about their father's complex personnality and say along the way that the music was more emotional than the man. The portrait of LORENZ HART is also interesting; Mr. RODGERS's patience with LORENZ shows the compassion of a man who knew the value of a partnership. Personnaly, because I am a huge RODGERS and HART fan, I really liked this segment a lot. Those were the days of the AMERICA we like best, between the two world wars. So many of AMERICA's greatest achievement in music happened during those years. 90 minutes of RICHARD RODGERS who was the greatest composer of his time is certainly worthy of your time. This visual biography was first shown on PBS last autumn."

The Music of Richard Rodgers . . . The Sweetest Sounds

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 11/27/2006

(5 out of 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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The man was a genius

William Jurgens | Fountain Hills, AZ United States | 09/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The only way to describe the musical composition of Richard Rodgers is that he was a genius, it's just that simple. In every age is seems like we are visited by someone who just seems to have a certain gift, an ability to communicate in an artistic medium such as music, so that all can understand. As Mozart wrote popular music of his own time, (it is the ages that have determined this to be called the classics), it is Richard Rodgers music that the future ages will consider classics. This is not so hard to imagine, considering Oklahoma still draws sells out shows in a revival of the musical, and it first premiered over 60 years ago, his music will transcend the ages. One could ask, how could this beautiful music come from a depressed, hypochondriac with a drinking problem, then I will simply respond with Mozart. Mozart had many of the same human frailties as Richard Rodgers, or Visa Versa. Like Mozart, Rodgers was also something of a prodigy getting his first show to Broadway by the age of 18. In short, this program captures the essence of this genius. You probably won't keep a dry eye while watching, the experience is just that moving, but when it is over, you will know that you have visited the presence of greatness. In addition to having a tremendous respect for Richard Rodgers, you may find your faith in the human endeavor renewed just a bit, remembering the greatness that the human mind and spirit can achieve.

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A well done documentary about an insanely talented man

Kathleen Donaldson | 02/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Featuring in depth interviews with friends, family and co-workers as well as rare film clips of Rodgers shows such as "No Strings", "Pal Joey" and "Babes and Arms", this is a very well done documentary.
Although it doesn not cover the era of Rodgers and Hammerstein as fully as it covers the era of Rodgers and Hart (perhaps because of Hart's horrific and awful fall into the world of alchohal and depression), it does give us information about the man. Besides being a musical genius, Richard Rodgers had many demons. However, when he was working on a show, he truly produced The Sweetest Sounds."