Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>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.

Sir Charles successfully deferred his own excellent style (c.f.  "Pineapple
Poll") to Sullivan's journeyman cobbling, in a work swiftly written was he
was still young - although the last movement is very well worth hearing.

The unprejudiced may go to the "Irish" Symphony and incidental theatre
music for a fairer impression of "Sullivan without Gilbert".

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"