One or two small sidelights to Steve's acute review of this CD (which
has in fact been available here in Europe for nearly 10 years):

>In case you're wondering, I don't count the cello concerto as
>Sullivan's, since the only manuscript went up in the Crystal Palace
>fire.  We get instead Charles Mackerras's recollection of the piece.
>The result lacks the professionalism, at least, of Sullivan's other
>orchestral work and doesn't convince me.

The full score was burnt not at Crystal Palace, but in the disastrous
fire at Chappell's, the London music publishers, in the mid-1960s (?) -
alongside with many other priceless items including some Bax full scores.

Then low and behold a set of authentic parts *did* turn up a few years
after Mackerras re-imagined the piece, so what we get nowadays when the
piece is performed is echt Sullivan all right, though I'd agree - with
the exception of the last movement - that the work itself is pretty
perfunctory.

(In parenthesis, the remarkable thing was that Mackerras's recollection
of the original work - based on a surviving solo cello part - turned out
to be almost 100% correct!)

"In Memoriam" ...
>rises to the level of, say, Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, but not Elijah,
>and one comes across a bit of padding here and there, serving little
>purpose other than to change key.

Any work which rises to the level of "The Hebrides" overture - surely
one of the key works in romantic music - has to be something like a
masterpiece!  It's a groundbreaking piece for which familiarity has
bred an undeserved contempt.  Alas, I don't think we can claim so much
for "In Memoriam", with its faint smell of damp Anglican hymnals.

On "Victoria and Merrie England" ...

>Nevertheless, the score remained unpublished, and, as far as I know,
>this is the first recording of any music from the work.  The band performs
>three numbers from over 100 pages of score, and I hope someone sees fit
>to record the thing entire, since the liner notes hint at still-buried
>treasure, including a finale that contrapuntally weaves together folk
>songs from England, Scotland, and Ireland.

It is available absolutely complete, "Britain's Glory" and all, on Marco
Polo 8.223677 (1994) with the RTE Sinfonietta under Andrew Penny.

The D'Oyly Carte under (I think) Royston Nash also recorded a longer
suite from the ballet back in the 1970's.  On the whole the best bits
are the self-borrowings from Sullivan's earlier theatre scores - including
(at two removes) "Thespis".

I fully agree with Steve's summary of the merits of the CPO CD, though
it may be worth pointing out that, as Sir Charles Groves's matchless
reading of the Irish Symphony (EMI) has some cuts, the CPO is the best
complete version in the catalogue.  To quote W.S.Gilbert, the Richard
Hickox version on Chandos "really won't do".

Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK
http://www.zarzuela.net
"ZARZUELA!" The Spanish Music Site