Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

Started by Albion, October 22, 2020, 07:34:22 AM

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Albion

Are there any admirers out there of this multi-faceted composer away from the enduring and popular association with W.S. Gilbert? There is far more to Sullivan than is commonly believed or that his somewhat maligned reputation warrants! In the last 20 years the vigorous Sir Arthur Sullivan Society based here in the UK has fought his corner magnificently and sponsored many significant and revelatory discs. The following is a list of recommended professional recordings which are all well worth investigating, but perhaps those interested might first explore the discs marked with an asterisk:

Incidental music to The Tempest (1861-62)/ Incidental music to Macbeth (1888)/ Overture Marmion (1867) - Dutton Epoch 2CDLX 7331
Suite from The Tempest (1861-62)/ Symphony in E The Irish (1863-66)/ Overture In Memoriam (1866) - Chandos CHAN9859*
Overture The Sapphire Necklace (1863-4)/ Incidental music to The Merchant of Venice (1871)/ Incidental music to Henry VIII (1877), etc. - Marco Polo 8.223461
Ballet L'Ile Enchantee (1864)/ Ballet music from Thespis (1871) - Marco Polo 8.223461
Oratorio The Prodigal Son (1869)/ Boer War Te Deum (1900) - Hyperion CDA 67423
Oratorio The Light of the World (1873) - Dutton Epoch 2CDLX 7356*
Incidental music to The Merry Wives of Windsor (1874)/ Suite from Macbeth (1888)/ Incidental music to King Arthur (1895) - Marco Polo 8.223635
Cantata The Golden Legend (1886) - Hyperion CDA 67280 (now available as download or archive CD)*
Romantic Opera Ivanhoe (1891) - Chandos CHAN10578(3)*
Original English Opera Haddon Hall (1892) - Dutton Epoch 2CDLX 7372
Ballet Victoria and Merrie England (1897) - Marco Polo 8.223677
Romantic Musical Drama The Beauty Stone (1898) - Chandos CHAN 10794(2)*
Songs (1855-1900) - Chandos CHAN 10935(2)


Unfortunately the professional recording (again for Dutton Epoch) of one of Sullivan's most attractive choral works, the Sacred Musical Drama The Martyr of Antioch (1880), has had to be put back to 2022 at the earliest because of the current pandemic...

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

kyjo

I know the Irish Symphony, the highlight of which is the delightful, catchy scherzo. The other movements can be a bit "four-square" at times IMO, but the whole piece is well worth hearing. I heard part of the Suite from The Tempest on the radio once and it sounded very promising!
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Albion

Yes, given it's date, the symphony blew a breath of fresh air into British music and confirmed Sullivan's growing reputation as a great prospect. Only now is it being realised that he did indeed fulfil that promise...

;)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

#3
Quote from: Albion on October 22, 2020, 07:34:22 AM
Suite from The Tempest (1861-62)/ Symphony in E The Irish (1863-66)/ Overture In Memoriam (1866) - Chandos CHAN9859*
Oratorio The Light of the World (1873) - Dutton Epoch 2CDLX 7356*
Cantata The Golden Legend (1886) - Hyperion CDA 67280 (now available as download or archive CD)*
Romantic Opera Ivanhoe (1891) - Chandos CHAN10578(3)*
Romantic Musical Drama The Beauty Stone (1898) - Chandos CHAN 10794(2)*

Given the length of the list of discs given in the first post, I've marked the five recordings above with an asterisk which will give a good overview of Sullivan's achievements in several genres: symphony, overture, incidental music, oratorio, cantata and romantic (not comic) opera...

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on October 23, 2020, 03:11:05 AM
Given the length of the list of discs given in the first post, I've marked the five recordings above with an asterisk which will give a good overview of Sullivan's achievements in several genres: symphony, overture, incidental music, oratorio, cantata and romantic (not comic) opera...

:)

Rarely considered is Sullivan's work in the field of Chamber Music.  There's a first movement from a string quartet that he wrote when on the Mendelssohn scholarship in Leipzig as well as a brief salon-esque Romance for quartet as well.  The string quartet movement does sound Mendelssohnian but its good enough that you are genuinely sorry he didn't either complete the student work or return to the genre in maturity.  This disc offers a good overview;


Albion

Quote from: Roasted Swan on October 24, 2020, 01:05:32 PM
Rarely considered is Sullivan's work in the field of Chamber Music.  There's a first movement from a string quartet that he wrote when on the Mendelssohn scholarship in Leipzig as well as a brief salon-esque Romance for quartet as well.  The string quartet movement does sound Mendelssohnian but its good enough that you are genuinely sorry he didn't either complete the student work or return to the genre in maturity.  This disc offers a good overview;



Yes, that is a lovely disc as well. Perhaps not essential but certainly one for those who catch the Sullivan bug! The Duo Concertante for cello and piano is splendid... Indeed it is a pity that he didn't write more chamber music with such an innate melodic gift, as indeed it is that the second symphony rumoured in 1868 never came to fruition. At the time of his death there were no doubt many unfulfilled projects in his mind: until he was effectively ousted by Leeds and Charles Villiers Stanford after the 1898 Festival (which he had conducted since 1880), he hoped (with what was perhaps wishful thinking) to supply another choral work for the 1901 Festival. If Britain had a stronger tradition of full-length ballet, along the lines of Russia and France, he (along with Frederic Cowen and Edward German) may well have contributed to that particular genre to the benefit of the national repertoire. As it is, we must be grateful for what he did achieve during his 40-year career.

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Biffo

After checking my collection, I have more non-operatic Sullivan than I remembered -

Irish Symphony x 2 (Groves, Hickox)
Cello Concerto in D x 2 (both Mackerras who reconstructed the work)
Overture di Ballo
In memoriam
Suite from The Tempest
Te Deum

Stretching it a bit - Opera Overtures (not all by Sullivan himself) and Pineapple Poll (arr. Mackerras)

Not a lot and I haven't listened to it for a while. Finally, I am not a complete Savoyard - I like Pinafore, Pirates, Patience and Mikado - the rest I can live without.

Albion

#7
Quote from: Biffo on October 25, 2020, 04:19:42 AMNot a lot and I haven't listened to it for a while. Finally, I am not a complete Savoyard - I like Pinafore, Pirates, Patience and Mikado - the rest I can live without.

Absolutely fair enough - my personal favourites amongst the operas with Gilbert are Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1884), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888) and The Grand Duke (1896)!

Incidentally, if you want to hear the best complete cycle of the thirteen surviving collaborations (minus Thespis, 1871, for which most of the score is lost), seek out the series broadcast (after years of delay: recording began in 1984) in 1989 by the BBC complete with dialogue conducted variously by Charles Mackerras, Barry Wordsworth and Ashley Lawrence. These are, or were available in excellent off-air recordings "for study purposes" from Chris Webster's Sounds on CD catalogue. It is criminal that these aren't commercially available as the musical and dramatic standards are exemplary - from the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive (gsarchive.net):

The BBC Complete Broadcasts
In 1966, the BBC undertook the massive task of recording and broadcasting all of the extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas with complete dialogue. The operas were broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on Sundays at noon, one every two or three weeks. The series was then repeated in late 1967/early 1968. The BBC recruited excellent casts, headed by former D'Oyly Carte patter baritone Peter Pratt. Only a few other singers with D'Oyly Carte experience participated, but most of the artists had top-flight light opera credentials.

Most of the operas in the 1966 series were conducted by Stanford Robinson. Some years later, he told a meeting of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society that he had carefully corrected the orchestra parts D'Oyly Carte provided, rectifying many inconsistencies, traditional "wrong notes," and other errors. Afterwords the D'Oyly Carte, far from expressing any gratitude for his efforts, carefully removed all his annotations and sent him a bill for the clean-up.

One oddity of the series was the casting of different performers in the music and the dialogue (for most parts, at any rate). At the same Gilbert and Sullivan Society meeting, Stanford Robinson explained that the music and dialogue were recorded at different sessions, and for the latter, actors were used because they were cheaper than singers. As Michael Walters observed, "Presumably those (like Peter Pratt) who did both dialogue and music were those who were willing to be paid a lower rate for the dialogue sessions." Leon Berger added that most of the the actors used were already in the BBC repertory company and may have been on retainer.

In 1984, the BBC started to record the whole canon yet again. As before, the parts were taken by top-flight light opera singers, including a former D'Oyly Carter here and there. Unlike the earlier BBC series, they spoke their own dialogue. Eight of the operas were conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, one by Ashley Lawrence, and the remaining four by Barry Wordsworth. The project took five years to complete, and none were broadcast until the entire set was recorded. The broadcasts were finally heard in late 1989 on BBC Radio 2.

Chris Webster was able to fill in the recording dates (some of them only approximate) for the 1989 series:

Opera                   Conductor                    Rec. Date

Ruddigore                   Charles Mackerras       1984
Princess Ida           Charles Mackerras       1984
Pirates                   Charles Mackerras   Feb. 1985
Trial                           Charles Mackerras   Mar. 1985
Yeomen                   Charles Mackerras       1985
Pinafore                   Charles Mackerras   Jan. 1986
Mikado                   Charles Mackerras   Jun. 1986
Gondoliers                   Charles Mackerras       1986
Patience                   Ashley Lawrence       1988
Iolanthe                   Barry Wordsworth   Jan. 1989
Sorcerer                   Barry Wordsworth   Mar. 1989
Utopia                   Barry Wordsworth       1989
Grand Duke           Barry Wordsworth       1989

Obviously Mackerras's involvement with the series came to an end for some reason as yet unexplained, and there was a considerable time lag before the recordings resumed. The series was undoubtedly intended to be completed much earlier, and one imagines BBC executives getting itchy as the years dragged on. One also wonders at the sequence of the recordings; aside from delaying the three least-popular operas to the end, there is no apparent pattern in the order of the recordings.

To date, none of the BBC recordings has been released commercially. A number of G&S fans have lobbied the BBC for their release. (The BBC has made many important opera recordings over the years, some of which have made it onto disc.) The BBC's current position is that the task of obtaining permission from all the performers is too onerous.

Nevertheless, the recordings are listed here for their historical importance. Many collectors have copies taken off the air, and it is not unreasonable to hope that the series will appear on CD, eventually.


Some hopes....

::)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

#8
Quote from: Biffo on October 25, 2020, 04:19:42 AMStretching it a bit - Opera Overtures (not all by Sullivan himself)

Indeed the overtures we now know as standard were not all written by Sullivan:

Thespis (1871) - Sullivan
Trial by Jury (1875) - no overture
The Sorcerer (1877) - Hamilton Clarke (1840-1912), written for the 1884 revival, the original run used the Graceful Dance from the incidental music to Henry VIII
HMS Pinafore (1878) - Alfred Cellier (1844-1891)
The Pirates of Penzance (1879/80) - Alfred Cellier
Patience (1881) - Eugene D'Albert (1864-1932)
Iolanthe (1882) - Sullivan
Princess Ida (1884) - Sullivan
The Mikado (1885) - Hamilton Clarke
Ruddigore (1887) - Hamilton Clarke, replaced in 1921 with an overture by Geoffrey Toye (1889-1942) after several numbers were cut
The Yeomen of the Guard (1888) - Sullivan
The Gondoliers (1889) - Sullivan
Utopia Limited (1893) - no overture, but a brief introduction using the Act II Drawing Room Music - Sullivan
The Grand Duke (1896) - Sullivan

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Scion7

The New Grove on his immediate posthumous reputation:

. . . among the critics, academics and other formers of musical taste, disparagement of Sullivan's status began virtually with his death. The obituary by Fuller Maitland in The Cornhill Magazine (C1901) recognized the skill of the operettas but accused him of prostituting his talents:
"The Offenbachs and Lecocqs, the Clays and the Celliers, did not degrade their genius, for they were incapable of higher things than they accomplished ... But if the author of The Golden Legend, the music to The Tempest, Henry VIII and Macbeth cannot be classed with these, how can the composer of 'Onward, Christian Soldiers' and 'The Absent-Minded Beggar' claim a place in the hierarchy of music among the men who would face death rather than smirch their singing-robes for the sake of a fleeting popularity?"
The first edition of Ernest Walker's History of Music in England (1907) not only applied the term 'disgraceful rubbish' to such songs as The Lost Chord and The Sailor's Grave but also impugned the artistic worth of his concert works. Sullivan was labelled as 'after all, the idle singer of an empty evening' (a reference to William Morris's self-deprecation as 'the idle singer of an empty day'). Such attacks may now be seen in the context of partisanship for the concept of a 'British musical renaissance' supposedly beginning with the generation after Sullivan (Stanford, Parry and Mackenzie). Undeniably, however, public performance of works other than the operettas underwent a swift and severe decline in the half-century following the composer's death, almost his only remaining champion being Sir Henry Wood, who in 1942 – at the height of World War II – initiated and directed a Sullivan centenary concert at the Royal Albert Hall.


His revival may have begun with:

A major defence of Sullivan's art was raised in various writings by the British (American-resident) scholar Nicholas Temperley ...
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

I would like to see the score of that string quartet (movement).  Written at 16, sure, it's all youthful passion and so on, but it is very listenable.
The CD notes don't go into detail about it - whether or not it was meant as a single movement work (or exercise), or whether that is the only portion of it found in the box at that store.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Albion

#11
Quote from: Scion7 on October 27, 2020, 06:14:25 AMHis revival may have begun with:

A major defence of Sullivan's art was raised in various writings by the British (American-resident) scholar Nicholas Temperley ...


Thomas Dunhill (1877-1946) was an early champion with Sullivan and his Comic Operas - A Critical Appreciation (1928), albeit limited to one genre. Percy Young's 1971 study is also largely sympathetic, but it is only in the last thirty years or so that Sullivan's overall achievement has been increasingly recognised and treated to proper academic study and professional revival,

Quote from: Scion7 on October 27, 2020, 06:59:46 AMI would like to see the score of that string quartet (movement).  Written at 16, sure, it's all youthful passion and so on, but it is very listenable.
The CD notes don't go into detail about it - whether or not it was meant as a single movement work (or exercise), or whether that is the only portion of it found in the box at that store.

The consensus seems to be that this superbly-crafted quartet movement is a stand-alone work, possibly an exercise in the form. It is published by Kevin Mayhew -https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/string-quartet-score-sheet-music/17240554

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on October 27, 2020, 11:36:06 AM
Thomas Dunhill (1877-1946) was an early champion with Sullivan and his Comic Operas - A Critical Assessment (1928), albeit limited to one genre. Percy Young's 1971 study is also largely sympathetic, but it is only in the last thirty years or so that Sullivan's overall achievement has been increasingly recognised and treated to proper academic study and professional revival,

The consensus seems to be that this superbly-crafted quartet movement is a stand-alone work, possibly an exercise in the form. It is published by Kevin Mayhew -https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/string-quartet-score-sheet-music/17240554

:)

My String Quartet has performed the quartet movement in concert - as part of a "rare quartet" programme - we coupled it with 2 of Rachmaninov's similar student/exercise movements.  The Sullivan is very well laid out for quartet and gratefully written for the instruments.  For such a student work it shows a real understanding of string writing.

Albion

Quote from: Roasted Swan on October 27, 2020, 03:33:58 PM
My String Quartet has performed the quartet movement in concert - as part of a "rare quartet" programme - we coupled it with 2 of Rachmaninov's similar student/exercise movements.  The Sullivan is very well laid out for quartet and gratefully written for the instruments.  For such a student work it shows a real understanding of string writing.

Sullivan seemed to have an innate gift for instrumentation, having learned much from his father who was a professor at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall from its opening in 1857 to his death in 1866 - certainly his graduation score for the Leipzig Conservatory (expanded for the London premiere), the incidental music to The Tempest (1861-62) doesn't put a foot wrong in the orchestration and astounded the critics (and Charles Dickens) who first heard it at the Crystal Palace on 5th April 1862...

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

For those wishing to access a sympathetic and early biography of Sullivan, I would recommend the Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement, Volume 3: Sullivan, Arthur Seymour by Frederick George Edwards -

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1901_supplement/Sullivan,_Arthur_Seymour

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Albion on October 28, 2020, 02:10:03 AM
Sullivan seemed to have an innate gift for instrumentation, having learned much from his father who was a professor at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall from its opening in 1857 to his death in 1866 - certainly his graduation score for the Leipzig Conservatory (expanded for the London premiere), the incidental music to The Tempest (1861-62) doesn't put a foot wrong in the orchestration and astounded the critics (and Charles Dickens) who first heard it at the Crystal Palace on 5th April 1862...

:)

My "discovery" of the non-Gilbert Sullivan was an EMI/Greensleeves LP (this image is the USA version I guess);



resonantly recorded with a opulent "In Memoriam" which is probably still my favourite version.  But the "Tempest" and "As you like it" suites were also a revelation......

Albion

Yes, those are super performances by Vivian Dunn recorded in splendid analogue sound from 1972 which, together with Charles Groves' 1968 LP of The Irish Symphony and Overture di Ballo, truly pioneered the modern revival and reassessment of Sullivan's "other" music. They have never been out of the catalogue...

:)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

#17
The recent splendid Dutton disc (CDLX 7404) of Sullivan's early ballet L'Ile Enchantee (1864) and other works from his early decade of mature composition has been extremely well received. John Andrews is a marvellous conductor of this repertoire and a great advocate of Sullivan (The Tempest, Macbeth, The Light of the World, Haddon Hall) so it is great that the prospective recordings of The Martyr of Antioch and The Chieftain will also be under his baton, filling major gaps in the professionally-recorded discography.

On this particular disc the playing of the BBC Concert Orchestra is beyond reproach in what is a highly elaborate orchestral score, much more so than Sullivan's first cantata Kenilworth (also 1864). Robin Gordon-Powell, Librarian of both the Sullivan Society and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has produced ground-breaking authoritative full orchestral scores of both the early ballet and Princess Ida. These editions are beautifully printed and derived from the original manuscripts and early orchestral parts. Robin has now published most of Sullivan's choral works plus Ivanhoe and The Beauty Stone and the results have been used for the recordings that have fuelled the Sullivan revival: John Wilson will use the new orchestral score and parts for his performance of Princess Ida in 2023.

Robin can be contacted through the Sullivan Society for anybody interested in acquiring these excellent scholarly editions ("The Amber Ring"))...

https://sullivansociety.org.uk/links-resources/?v=79cba1185463#music-publishers

 :)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

Albion

The two outstanding Chandos sets of songs






have covered most of his output in the genre, but David Owen Norris recorded the remainder separately as videos with student singers. Here they are as MP3s...

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/b9ip0m2qbwc8n/Sullivan+Songs

 :)
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)