The world premiere recording of Richard Rodgers's complete score!

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! was first performed in 1943; and was a significant turning point in the history of musical theater. It was the first musical to put drama and plot to the fore; portrayed by rounded; believable characters. It swept aside traditions that had their roots in vaudeville – star turns; comic sketches; and endless lines of high-kicking chorus girls. Oklahoma! does feature dance; but in the hands of the choreographer; Agnes de Mille; this was idiomatic to the plot; and revolutionary in terms of the fifteen-minute dream-sequence ballet at the close of Act I. The first collaboration between composer and writer; the show was a hit; running for more than five years on Broadway; and paving the way for their masterpieces to come.

John Wilson’s long-held fascination for researching original musical theater scores of this period and bringing them anew to modern audiences reaches a milestone with this world première recording of the original score in its entirety (no cuts) and in the original orchestrations for twenty-nine-piece orchestra made by Robert Russell Bennett for the original production. His outstanding cast features Nathaniel Hackmann; Sierra Boggess; Jamie Parker; Louise Dearman; Sandra Marvin; Rodney Earl Clarke; Nadim Naaman; and Leo Roberts; ably supported by the ‘Oklahoma!’ Ensemble – twenty-two artists drawn from London’s West End. Wilson comments: ‘I love the connective tissue of the piece; the scene-change music; the ballet; the songs that sometimes get cut; the underscoring. And when so many vastly different new versions are appearing on stage; it’s more important than ever that we have a document of the actual source material.’

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Of course, this isn’t a remake: it’s a 21st-century Oklahoma! that treats this score with the respect due to a masterpiece and the full-blooded emotional engagement demanded by a living work of art. You wouldn’t mistake it for a live theatrical performance; the singers and orchestra are too skilfully balanced for that. But the revelation of Bennett’s full orchestral palate, the generosity of the singing, and the effortless verve of the Sinfonia’s playing more than compensates.

The original cast recording is already essential listening for anyone who loves Oklahoma! – and now this is, too.

-- Musicals Magazine

If most of the songs are either sweetly romantic or bouncing with energy, there is one section that approaches the darker side of the protagonists’ lives and that is Jud Fry’s solo that sums up his position as an outsider – ‘Lonely Room’ to which Clarke brings a sense of loss and he even gets to sing his own swan song in a duet with Curly for ‘Pore Jud is Daid’. I suppose Rodgers and Hammerstein left the best song for the end of the show, not that the rest of the score is anything but excellent. It is of course the title number, ‘Oklahoma!’ which brings the show to a magnificent finish and includes, naturally enough, an encore.

With every note from the original production, every scene change and every dance sequence included on John Wilson’s magnificently complete recording of Oklahoma!, who could want or ask for anything more?

-- MusicalTheatreReview.com

John Wilson proves an exceptional advocate, bringing to the piece the same expertise and mastery he would accord to the symphonic repertoire of which he has become an equally admired interpreter...An essential set for fans of the piece.

-- BBC Music Magazine