Sullivan: Incidental Music

Sullivan: Incidental Music

8.555181 (Naxos, CD)

REISSUE (9 July 2021)
Tracks: 13
Booklet pages: 6
℗ 1992 Naxos Rights US Inc
© 2021 Naxos Rights US Inc
Main country of recording: Ireland
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Sullivan: Incidental Music published on 15 May 2022

Emmanuel Lawler, tenor (tracks 2 and 9)
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Andrew Penny, conductor

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900):

Masquerade from The Merchant of Venice (1871)
1 Introduction
2 Barcarole (Sérénade)
3 Introduction et bourrée
4 Danse grotesque
5 À la valse
6 Melodrama
7 Finale

Incidental Music to Shakespeare's Henry VIII (1877)
8 March
9 King Henry's Sing
10 Graceful Dance
11 Water Music

Sullivan, orchestrated by Roderick Spencer, after Charles Godfrey Jr's military band arrangement:

12 The Sapphire Necklace - Overture (1864)

Sullivan:

13 Overture in C. In Memoriam (1866)

Recorded 13-16 April 1992 at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland.

Previously released on Marco Polo 8.223461.

Arthur Sullivan achieved worldwide fame as the composer who joined librettist W.S. Gilbert to create the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. However, his success with these ‘Savoy Operas’ has overshadowed his other works, including a considerable amount of music for the theatre that was wildly successful in its day. Sullivan’s suites of incidental music for Shakespeare are among his most attractive compositions, with Henry VIII becoming extremely popular. Charles Dickens was ‘perfectly enchanted’ by The Sapphire Necklace, and the Overture in C is both a memorial for Sullivan’s father and a celebration of Victorian Britain.