''At Carnegie Hall'' is the fifth live album by American

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Liza Minnelli. Released in 1987, it marks the singer's first work released under the independent label Telarc Distribution. The recordings took place over a period of three weeks at the iconic Carnegie Hall concert hall, located in Midtown Manhattan, in the city of New York, in 1987. Minnelli's 17-day residency at the venue became the longest consecutive period in the concert hall's history. Minnelli performed with a 47-piece orchestra, wearing costumes designed by Halston. The repertoire includes classics from the

Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" i ...

, and songs by artists such as

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

Ethel Merman Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary '' Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...

, and

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

. It also ventures into contemporary pop-rock with the track "Somewhere Out There" by

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

and

James Ingram James Edward Ingram (February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song. After beginning his career ...

, as well as the compositions of

Kander and Ebb Kander and Ebb were a highly successful American songwriting team consisting of composer John Kander (born March 18, 1927) and lyricist Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004). Known primarily for their stage musicals, which include ''C ...

, who were highly present in her career. According to critic Stephen Holden, "her songs, imaginatively arranged by Marvin Hamlisch and conducted by Bill La Vorgna, were accompanied by decisive and powerfully illustrative gestures." The album was released as a double LP/CD, with the complete recording lasting 83 minutes and entirely in digital format. Additionally, a "Highlights" version was released, featuring the album's best moments with an 18-minute reduction in total duration, omitting nine songs in the process and rearranging the remaining ones.

Critical reception

William Ruhlmann, from the ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

'' website, gave the album three out of five stars, noting that the repertoire selection was well chosen and "brilliantly summarized Minnelli's career" by mixing old classics with theatrical songs from her own era, including, of course, the songwriting duo that penned many of her iconic songs,

John Kander John Harold Kander (born March 18, 1927) is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including ''Cab ...

and

Fred Ebb Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Riv ...

. Ruhlmann also reviewed the "Highlights" version of the album, and rated it half a star higher than the complete edition. According to him, the "result was a somewhat simpler recording even more dominated by the medley of

hich he considered the album's highlight now occupying almost half of the runtime."

Commercial performance

On November 14, 1987, the album debuted on the '' Billboard'' magazine's list of best-selling albums, known as the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of ar ...

, at position number 176, marking Minnelli's first appearance on the chart since 1977, with the soundtrack of the film '' New York, New York'' from the same year. On November 28, 1987, it reached its peak position on the chart, at number 156. In total, it remained on the chart for eight weeks, marking her best performance in the 1980s before the release of ''

Results A result is the outcome of an event. Result or Results may also refer to: Music * Results (album), ''Results'' (album), a 1989 album by Liza Minnelli * ''Results'', a 2012 album by Murder Construct * "The Result", a single by The Upsetters * "The ...

'' in 1989.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

References

{{Authority control Liza Minnelli live albums 1987 live albums Albums recorded at Carnegie Hall