In early 1960, only a couple of months after the successful Broadway opening of what would turn out to be the final
musical with songs by
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II,
The Sound of Music, the radio network of
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (
CBC) planned a documentary on
Rodgers & Hammerstein and sent
Tony Thomas to New York to interview them. He spoke to each separately on the same day, and those two conversations, each running roughly half an hour, are presented on this album. (The annotations state that the interviews took place in February 1960. In the interview with
Hammerstein, however, he makes a point of noting that the day before had marked the 75th anniversary of the birth of his former partner,
Jerome Kern, which would make the date of the interview January 28, 1960.) Although they took place at the end of the team's partnership (
Hammerstein died on August 23, 1960), these are interesting but hardly definitive interviews.
Thomas spends much of his time with
Rodgers reminding the composer of obscure songs he wrote for shows of the 1920s with his earlier partner,
Lorenz Hart, and getting him to play snatches of these songs on the piano. In speaking to
Hammerstein, he allows the songwriter considerable space to quote his lyrics. While
Rodgers talks about both
Hart and
Hammerstein,
Hammerstein talks more about former partners
Jerome Kern and
Sigmund Romberg than about
Rodgers. But despite the idiosyncrasies of the interviewer, the interviewees prove to be as eloquent and serious-minded as one might expect, and there is plenty of interesting information for the
Rodgers & Hammerstein fan. ~ William Ruhlmann
