"Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" Harvey Evans, Jonathan Hadary, David Green

This was all the more remarkable given that the concert had offered a number of excellent performances during the preceding 11 and 1/2 hours.

First of the final three was "Someone in a Tree," featuring Evan D'Angeles, Alvin Ing, Telly Leung and B.D. Wong, the cast members who had performed it in the recent, rather indifferent Roundabout production of Pacific Overtures. Outside the production, the performances seemed much stronger (and perhaps they were), and the emotional content of the song - one of Sondheim's favorites of his own work - has rarely been delivered as powerfully.

This was followed by Barbara Cook's "In Buddy's Eyes," another known quantity, or so I thought in advance. I have seen her perform it a number of times, and it's always been a lovely performance, but one that I felt was a bit lacking in the despair that underlies the song. For whatever reason, the great Ms. Cook seemed to find that quality on Saturday in a way that I don't recall her doing before. How remarkable for a performer who has been singing a song for 20 years to still find new depths in it.

Then the Juilliard Choral Union brought the concert to a close with Jason Robert Brown's arrangement of "Sunday," that paean to the transcendent qualities of art, and this was enough to leave any Sondheim lover with tears streaming down his face.

Of the performances during the preceding 11 and 1/2 hours, I would have to write a great deal to give credit to everyone who did justice to the richness of the material with which they were entrusted on this special occasion. Perhaps it isn't surprising that there were so many excellent performances, given that Sondheim provides good singing actors with such tremendous opportunities to demonstrate their skill. But I do want to mention just a few.

Not having seen the original production of Assassins made the appearances of original-cast members Patrick Cassidy and Annie Golden singing material from the show especially fascinating for me. Both performers have stated in interviews that they never felt secure that they were giving good performances in the original production, but both delivered powerful and authoritative performances at Wall to Wall. Mr. Cassidy gave us a Balladeer who seemed more idealistic and less cynical and detached, one who seemed to have a much greater personal stake in the issues at hand, than other performers I've seen in the role. And Ms. Golden seemed completely at one with Squeaky Fromme when singing "Unworthy of Your Love" (in which she was paired with the excellent Alexander Gemignani from the Roundabout production), with the song's distressing sentiments pouring forth in the most direct way possible. Watching Ms. Golden, I could only think, "Other people may do this well, but she owns this song, it's hers."

Similarly, I had never seen George Lee Andrews sing "Silly People," since it was cut from A Little Night Music before the show opened on Broadway. While they were probably right to cut the song, the riveting performance of Mr. Andrews made it clear that he must have performed it very well indeed during the show's tryout in Boston.

Elaine Stritch

And, of course, the appearance of Angela Lansbury and George Hearn, delivering a slightly truncated performance of "A Little Priest," was thrilling.

Inevitably, the concert was a somewhat uneven affair - there were some performances in which the lack of rehearsal time seemed all too clear; not all of the performers were of the first rank, and a few major performers were not at their best. But with so much to be grateful for, how can we complain?

Of the many other excellent performances, I do want to mention two that particularly stood out for me.

Telly Leung and Eric Jordan Young delivered a performance of "Poems" from Pacific Overtures that had a thrillingly disciplined and original sense of characterization and interaction. This was one of those rare performances of a song you've seen performed many times that makes it entirely fresh, fascinating, and thrilling.

And Sheldon Harnick, singing with Michael Arden, delivered a heartfelt performance of "Free" that was lovely indeed.

Michael Cerveris

Several pianists - Rob Berman, Sam Davis, Chris Fenwick, Lanny Meyers, and Josh Rosenblum - shared the bulk of the accompaniment duties, and they were superb. Fenwick's crystalline playing of the solo interludes in "A Bowler Hat" (sung by Telly Leung) produced a stunning effect.

All in all, it was a great day.