Judy Collins: A Love Letter To Stephen Sondheim

Judy Collins was known as a folk singer-songwriter in the 70s when she recorded Stephen Sondheim's 'Send in the Clowns' from his 1973 musical "A Little Night Music" and it became an unlikely chart topping hit for both of them. Everyone from Streisand to Sinatra has recorded it, but Collins' is the minted version everyone remembers. Ever after a huge Sondheim fan, Collins has finally weighed in on a garden full of his show tunes with her concert "A Love Letter To Stephen Sondheim" last year at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver (her hometown) that was beautifully filmed by Francois Lamoureux for a PBS fundraiser and is now out on DVD.

Collins performed with the sumptuous Greeley Philharmonic in fine collaboration with conductor Glen Cortese and pianist-arranger Russell Walden. Collins glided onstage with her acoustic guitar slung over her gorgeous sparkling indigo dress and launched into "Chelsea Morning" the Joni Mitchell classic that was a hit for both singers in 1969. Almost 50 years later Collins silvery folk soprano is as crystal as ever, and if you are of a gay hippie of a certain age, there is no holding back tears of nostalgia, hearing her silver folk soprano as clarion as ever.

From there she launches into some of Sondheim's most challenging repertoire with shimmering interpretations such vintage classics as "No One Is Alone"(from "Into the Woods", "Sunday" and "Move On" ("Sunday in the Park With George"). Collins in such fine voice you actual can hear (maybe for the first time) the fine line lyrics of Sondheim's aria "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" from "Sweeney Todd" and perhaps for the first time you can hear the lyrics as something other than a operatic novelty.

Collins brings so much interpretive craft to a forgotten Sondheim classic "I Remember Sky" from a TV show starring Anthony Perkins called "Evening Primrose" and even brings out the sharpest ironies on "The Gun Song" ("Assassins") that would seem so much out of her reach. She gives another nod to her hometown fans with a medley of John Denver hits "Leaving on a Jet Plane/Country Road," but returns to the Sondheim catalogue with spirited versions of "There Won't Be Trumpets" ("Anyone Can Whistle") the always goofy "Finishing the Hat" (Sunday in the Park") and the deeply moving "Take Me To The World" ("Evening Primrose").

There are some misses, most glaringly 'Being Alive' the finale of "Company" and an challenging slow burning Broadway belter that is always overshadowed by defining performances by Patti Lupone, Raul Esparza and even in its original version, by late actor Dean Jones. Collins also struggles to hit the dramatic gravitas to that ultimate "Follies" anthem "I'm Still Here."

Late in the concert Collins revisits "Sends In The Clowns" and her voice on this song is still so arresting, words fail, except to say that her vocal artistry is even more impressive now, at age 77, in our tin-ear age. Take a lesson pop music fans- no auto-tune necessary here.