Arthur Sullivan - Incidental Music (Andrew Penny)

Information

Composer: Arthur Sullivan

• (01) The Merchant of Venice
• (08) Henry VIII
• (12) The Sapphire Necklace: Overture (arr. Roderick Spencer)
• (13) Overture in C Major "In Memoriam"

Emmanuel Lawle, tenor

RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Andrew Penny, conductor

Date: 1992 / 2021

Label: Marco Polo / Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555181

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Review

The incidental music and other miscellaneous pieces by Arthur Sullivan on this album remain very rarely played, although the incidental music was popular enough in Sullivan's own time. The two pieces of incidental music for Shakespeare plays date from the 1870s, in other words, from the first part of Sullivan's better-known career as half of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta-writing team. They do not comprise full sets of incidental music but are intended for specific scenes in The Merchant of Venice (the masque scene, complete with an Italian-language song) and Henry VIII. In a way, they occupy a very satisfying middle ground between the operettas and the composer's big operatic and orchestral works that never quite emerge into a distinctive voice. They are full of Sullivan's melodic gift, and they are imaginative and fresh programmatic pieces. There is also a reconstructed bit of Sullivan's lost early opera The Sapphire Necklace (it must be out there somewhere, antiquarians!), which survives only in a fragment arranged for brass band and has been reconstructed from that. This is strong enough that other organizations might easily pick up and perform the work as realized here. The album closes with an Overture in C major, composed as a memorial for Sullivan's father; it contains much of the composer's characteristic joy despite its somber subject. The performances by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under the baton of Andrew Penny, with tenor Emmanuel Lawler, are ideal and reflect the group's history as a light music ensemble. Sullivan's non-Savoy music has been gradually emerging from obscurity, but this early example of the trend remains an unusually strong entry in the catalog.

-- James Manheim, AllMusic

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Arthur Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Sullivan composed 23 operas, 13 major orchestral works, eight choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous hymns and other church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. The best known of his hymns and songs include "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Sullivan

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Andrew Penny is an English conductor who was born in Hull, England. He entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1971 to study the clarinet with Sidney Fell. Subsequently he studied with Sir Charles Groves and Timothy Reynish as a postgraduate, and also with Sir Edward Downes. Since 1982 Penny has been Musical Director of the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra. He has made over 35 recordings for the Naxos and Marco Polo labels since 1992. Much of his repertoire is of British Music and includes symphonies by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Havergal Brian and film music by Vaughan Williams and Walton.

https://www.naxos.com/person/Andrew_Penny_31809/31809.htm

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