Among the composers featured are , Nico Mulhy, Steve Reich, , , , Fred Hersch, Jake Heggie, Frederic Rzewski, , Ricky Ian Gordon, Gabriel Kahane and Thomas Newman.
鈥淚 created this project,鈥� De Mare said in a statement, 鈥渂ecause I wanted to show Sondheim鈥檚 influence on composers of many different genres and also to enhance and add to the piano repertoire with a whole new body of work."
About the project composer-lyricist Sondheim's stated, 鈥淚 was flattered and intrigued. Over the years I鈥檝e heard songs of mine harmonized differently, and I鈥檝e also heard arrangers change one note and completely kill the harmony. But the pieces [here] are by serious composers, not arrangers. Nearly all of them totally surprised me, taking approaches that would never have occurred to me - very few of these re-imaginings are built like a song. They鈥檙e much more free-floating, there鈥檚 much more of a fantasia about them.鈥�
The repertoire includes pieces from such shows , , Company, , , , , , , , Assassins and Passion.
In conjunction with this release, de Mare will perform the 鈥淩e-imaginings鈥� in concert this fall. Performances will feature selections from the "Liaisons" album at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA (Sept. 18) and a performance of all 36 piano works - split up over three concerts in New York at Birdland (Sept. 24), The Sheen Center (Oct. 22) and Symphony Space (Nov. 19).
