Christopher Webber replies to me:

>>This "Sullivan" cello concerto should be put to rest.  There is no Sullivan
>>concerto.  The manuscript was destroyed in a fire.  What passes for the
>>concerto is Charles Mackerras's recollection of the piece.  It's such a
>>structural mess, I strongly doubt that Mackerras came close to what
>>Sullivan wrote.  Sullivan was, if nothing else, a competent workman.
>
>I'm delighted to inform Steve that this isn't the full picture. A
>complete set of the parts turned up a few years ago (in Birmingham, I
>think) and, amazingly, Mackerras had got it almost 100% right! Only the
>orchestration was ever in doubt, though. A piano score did survive the
>fire, and that's what CM and David Mackie worked from. The puzzling
>structure is Sullivan's own.

Well, that's what goes with the territory of alternate history and
"internal evidence": great embarassment when the facts prove you wrong.
The concerto is undoubtedly the worst piece of Sullivan I've ever heard.

Mackerras's Pineapple Poll (ballet based on the Gilbert and Sullivan
operettas) will generally drive the diehard G&S fan (among which I include
myself) crazy.  It's a brilliant job, and if you really know your Sullivan,
hilarious.  It turns out that Sullivan's tunes consist of interchangeable
parts, and Mackerras jumbles up the puzzle box.  A phrase from, say,
Ruddigore, is followed by a second from Patience.  It's fun to figure
out what comes from what.

Steve Schwartz