Sony Masterworks Broadway has released remixed and remastered original cast recordings of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Company, Into the Woods, and Assassins. The enhanced masters are believed to be the last recording project that Tony-winning composer and lyricist Sondheim consulted on prior to his passing in 2021.
The new releases offer an immersive audio experience with Sony's new 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos. Sony's 360 Audio Reality, available to listeners via Amazon Music and TIDAL HiFi, sets listeners inside a 360 spherical sound field, amplifying every note and instrument. Dolby Atmos, available to listeners via Apple Music, Amazon Music, and TIDAL, adds more clarity, depth, and space to the music.
Sondheim advised on the new immersive masters for Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, and had consulted on the plans for Assassins before his passing. All four masters are from the original productions of each show. With these new editions, alongside the enhanced audio experience, special details have been added, including the beginning of "Tick Tock" that was cut from the original Company release and the recordings that followed.
These new editions were co-produced by Didier C. Deutsch and Peter E. Jones, archivist for The Sondheim Foundation. Joining Deutsch and Jones as producers in the studio were Ronald Prent, who was also the mixing engineer, and Darcy Proper, the remastering engineer.
“I think the recordings themselves are considered definitive, being that they are the ‘world premiere’ versions, never to be heard quite the same way again, as revivals change many things like the orchestrations,” Jones says. “Having been successfully translated into these new audio formats makes them even more definitive, and they will remain so until the next innovation comes along that can translate them to yet another generation of listeners. That very idea alone was important to Sondheim, and I think he’d be pleased with how splendid this first series has turned out.”
To find where to stream the enhanced cast recordings of Sweeney Todd, Company, Into the Woods, and Assassins, click here.
