Charles Sullivan

Sir Charles Groves’s sturdy yet affectionate reading of Arthur Sullivan’s wholly charming Irish Symphony was always one of the best of his EMI offerings with the RLPO and the 1968 recording remains vivid. In the sparkling Overture di hallo, again, Groves conducts with plenty of character. There are also first-rate performances of Sullivan’s undemanding Cello Concerto from 1866 (in a fine reconstruction by Sir Charles Mackerras – the manuscript was destroyed in Chappell’s fire of 1964) as well as Elgar’s wistful little Romance (originally for bassoon). This is a thoroughly attractive mid-price reissue.

Sir Charles Groves’s sturdy yet affectionate reading of Arthur Sullivan’s wholly charming Irish Symphony was always one of the best of his EMI offerings with the RLPO and the 1968 recording remains vivid. In the sparkling Overture di hallo, again, Groves conducts with plenty of character. There are also first-rate performances of Sullivan’s undemanding Cello Concerto from 1866 (in a fine reconstruction by Sir Charles Mackerras – the manuscript was destroyed in Chappell’s fire of 1964) as well as Elgar’s wistful little Romance (originally for bassoon). This is a thoroughly attractive mid-price reissue.

Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras has always been a champion of the music of Arthur Sullivan. In the early '90's, he began to record the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas with Telarc. Like the Sargent recordings of the '50's, Mackerras uses mostly opera singers–veterans of Covent Garden and of the English and Welsh National Operas but he secured the services of two veteran Savoyards, Richard Suart and the late Donald Adams. Mackerras planned to record at least seven of the Savoy operas, perhaps more, but was forced to suspend the series due to lack of funding as I understand. This fine recording of The Mikado, fortunately, was one of the four he was able to complete.

This 1986 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra and Julian Lloyd Webber as soloist is the best recording of the Sullivan I have ever come across. The three movements, which are played without a break, climb from a brief formal opening, to soar like an operatic aria in the second movement before culminating in a very powerful and melodic finale. The Herbert Cello Concerto n 2 is one of the composer’s most notable instrumental works (although he was a cellist himself, Herbert remains well known primarily for his operettas and musicals). Lloyd Webber’s interpretation of the concerto is flawless.

The mastery of an instrument or a musical language doesn’t necessarily mean that a musician must be frivolous in performance with displays of their masterful technique or engagement in superfluous overplaying. Sometimes it is the restraint that shows the maturity and taste of a performer. Rufus Reid and Sullivan Fortner are musicians who have the easy ability to astonish but show their class in their control.

As well as Sir Charles's first recording of Janácek's Sinfonietta, this 5-CD set also showcases him performing the music of other composers whose music he was particularly famed for the world over.