Sondheim Evening: A Musical Tribute (1973 Concert Cast)  (Audio CD) 
by Stephen Sondheim

Affectionately referred to as the "Scrabble album" for its playful cover art, Sondheim Evening: A Musical Tribute was the first of many tribute albums celebrating the music of Broadway's greatest modern composer, Stephen Sondheim. In 1973, however, he was still a relative newcomer whose work as a lyricist was more celebrated than his early efforts as a composer, which included Company and Follies. Accordingly, this tribute deviates from later efforts by including a few songs for which he only provided lyrics, but somewhat surprisingly, it also sets a trend by unearthing rarely heard selections--from Saturday Night and Evening Primrose--as well as songs cut from various shows, including A Little Night Music, which had just premiered a few weeks earlier). And that cast! Members of the original companies--including Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera, Dorothy Collins, Alexis Smith, and Donna McKechnie, just to name a few--as well as Sondheim himself singing "Anyone Can Whistle" from the piano. Obviously, later tribute albums have more material to work with and similar all-star rosters (though they sometimes resort to gimmicks such as men singing women's songs), but this one has yet to be topped. --David Horiuchi