Stephen Sondheim’s best-known musicals get new spatial audio remasters

Stephen Sondheim is granting one posthumous wish. The famous musical theatre composer worked with and advised the spatial audio remastering of some his most popular works before his death 2021. Companies, Sweeney ToddYou can also find out more about the following: Into the Woods. He was also involved in the planning of an audio release. Assassins. The remastering of these four Sondheim classics, co-produced by Didier Deutsch and Peter E. Jones is now available to you for listening enjoyment.

The four musicals are available in Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format via Amazon Music Unlimited and Tidal HiFi, and in Dolby Atmos format via Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal. Two different spatial editions are available for the musical recordings to enhance your home listening experience.

“These spatial editions have the advantage of explicitly moving the action up and down and back to front as well as from left to right,” said Jones, via BroadwayWorld.com, “so the listener is given a three-dimensional experience versus the usual two-dimensional one — an experience that supports the story being told. Also, the higher audio resolution will treat the listener familiar with the original releases to subtle details unable to be heard in these recordings until now.”

As a teenager I listened to many of these soundtracks. The experience of hearing them as spatial audio was incredible. It is amazing how the new positioning of the singing voices has a significant impact on the sound. I was able to close my eyes, and visualize the actors moving around the stage with their voices moving back and forth.

That said, the spatial audio aspect does not take over the entire experience — and that’s by design. Darcy Proper, the remastering engineer, put it this way to BroadwayWorld.com: “First and foremost, we wanted to keep the intent of the shows intact. The effect should add to the song without becoming a distraction. This is an attempt to take stereo music beyond its current limits. We wanted to make it more immersive and engaging, making it easier for the listener to hear and feel the action without them thinking too much about the technology.”

Masterworks Broadway allows you to listen to four musicals at once (or choose your favorite).