Sir Arthur Sullivan - The Golden Legend : Part One

[@vcaus]

Thank you so much for posting this magisterial performance, Chris. What a revelation it is after the lacklustre offering from Hyperion! Soloists, chorus and especially the orchestra, all superb.

[@jonathanfinney7821]

Is it necessary to blow out another's candle? In order for another's to shine more brightly? re: "What a revelation it is after the lacklustre offering from Hyperion!" I find Mark Wilde to be very touching in the "love scene" in part 2 for Hyperion

[@jockmoron]

What an interesting and informed thread of comments here, thanks so much. I am listening to this performance, it sounds very spectacular indeed. But, I have to say, Sullivan will always be most remembered for his work with Gilbert - high Victoriana like this has a serious problem gaining traction nowadays. Interesting that this cantata's popularity at that time so mirrors the incredible popularity of the writer of the words, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and how both have suffered from changing public tastes to be so unfairly relegated to the second rate. I have a great fondness for Victorian art, architecture and music, serious, popular and salon - Excelsior! is a great favourite of mine to sing.

[@webrarian]

I've lived with Sullivan's "serious" music for decades now. The early "Tempest" music is fresh and delightful as is the symphony. But his choral music does, for me, tend towards stodginess. "The Golden Legend" has some wonderful moments with masterful orchestration. The 1872 "Festival Te Deum" is early enough still to have a freshness which, to me, the larger works lack. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is seeing a change in his fortunes at the moment, but there seems to be a conscious veering away from one of his finest and formerly most popular works, "Hiawatha". Here Longfellow and current (to me) misplaced sensibilities come into play. We need a W.S. Gilbert to burst that particular bubble.

[@treesny]

@@webrarian The incidental music to "The Tempest," though clearly influenced by Mendelssohn, is indeed lovely; it's a pity that the only complete recording is long gone from the catalogue. This broadcast of "The Golden Legend" is fantastic, and makes a far better case for the best of the score than the commercially avauilable recording. All that said, I've been listening to various recordings (audio & video) of "The Mikado" and it is truly a masterpiece -- on both Sullivan and Gilbert's part. I can understand why the composer might have felt hurt when a friend said as much to him, but I can only agree. The hardest thing in the world is to compose something that seems effortless and spontanous, and in number after number that's what Sullivan did.

[@johnpolhamus9041]

Superb! The Golden Legend is really Sullivan's great opera and should be staged by ENO in an unambiguously medievalist production. It is everything that Ivanhoe is not, although I'm still not convinced that Ivanhoe has ever been given its full vigour. This is just wonderful!

[@webrarian]

I fear we're more likely to see it staged in Germany these days 😞

[@johnpolhamus9041]

No doubt. But...in another age...

[@annestanyon4980]

I'd heard of it, but never heard it until now...AMAZING!!! What a revelation! A very different work to the Hyperion recording - Mackerras and his cast are simply superb!

[@webrarian]

I've listened to the Hyperion recording once since I bought it. I suppose that says it all, really. We have Sarah Walker herself to thank for reminding me I had this. The wonders of Facebook! And don't you think Brian Rayner-Cook was superb? One small slip (in Part Two) but otherwise you'd never guess he'd only had a few hours to learn it.

[@Scaw]

Thanks for this. I know the G&S operas well, but your channel reveals a Sullivan that I haven't heard before.

[@annestanyon4980]

Astonishing! Big thanks to Ms Walker...and of course, to your good self!

[@treesny]

Interesting footnote. Franz Liszt had set the entire first scene of The Golden Legend, "The Bells of Strasburg Cathedral," in his 1874 choral work "Excelsior!" (in German, I believe). In April, 1886, the elderly Liszt made his final visit to London, where one of the people who ushered him around the city was... Sullivan, whose Golden Legend was to have its premiere in October of the same year.

[@webrarian]

Judging from what I've just been listening to on here, Sullivan stayed well away from any hint of referencing Liszt's work. And the newspapers show no record of it being performed here within Sullivan's lifetime. The "Liszt Festival" of April 1886 seems to have been quite something as it was his first visit to England in forty years, and he was aged 76. He was met at Dover by Sir Alfred Littleton (of Novello's) and Alexander Mackenzie - and a doctor in case of seasickness. Sir Alfred held a reception at his home in Sydenham which was attended by leading musicians including Sullivan, Sir George Grove, Carl Rosa, Otto Goldschmidt ("Mr Jenny Lind"), Frederick Cowen, Dannreuther, Ebenezer Prout, Berthold Tours and Stainer. An illustration in 'The Graphic' of a reception at the Grosvenor Gallery shows Sullivan standing just behind Liszt. A couple of days later Mackenzie conducted a performance of "St Elizabeth" with the audience including the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh. The "Novello Choir" performed (guess who had published it?) with Albani and Santley as principal soloists. And then the Abbé went on to meet - "by express command" - the Queen. That meant he missed a second performance of "St Elizabeth".

[@treesny]

@@webrarian Thanks so much for your detailed history! And for the record, I didn't mean to imply that there was any influence in choice of subject, just a genuine coincidence.

[@christopherrose8605]

I attended this performance and have waited for someone to make it available, so thank you very much. It has far greater, raw force than other performances, and this makes it a great deal more coherent. The strings and chorus can seem thin in other recordings, but here they are thoroughly convincing. It shows pre-eminently the need to do Sullivan well; the work repays the effort.

[@webrarian]

I wholeheartedly agree with you on every point, but particularly on the need to avoid judging Sullivan's music on the basis of less than adequate performances. Or anyone's music, for that matter.

[@RagtimeJEB]

Thank you so much for releasing this Chris. It far surpasses the Hyperion recording. Such passion and drive.

[@bbailey7818]

BBC Legends missed a great bet by not releasing this.

[@paulprocopolis]

Most attractive and dignified, with only an occasional hint of 'G&S'. I much enjoyed listening.

[@tonywatson414]

Thank you for putting this up. It's such a good performance (better than the later Hyperion CD) it's a shame it's never been released commercially. One thing, the performance was actually on 15 March 1986, although 16 Oct 1986 was 100 years after the premiere.

[@webrarian]

I think I must have missed writing the date on the cassette and guessed because it was said to be he centenary. Corrected now. I have uploaded Part Two but Hyperion have misidentified it as their recording so it's blocked at the moment.

[@richardallen3810]

Thanks Chris, I only have the Hyperion CD this is superior. I wish for a good CD of Martyr of Antioch. Sir Arthur's orchestration is so rich and detailed. He was a genius, I only wish he hadn't stopped writing opera after Ivanhoe. Shame he didn't live longer and his health was so poor.

[@fritzbasset8645]

If only he had lived as long as WSG...

[@annestanyon4980]

Legendary! Thank you so much!

[@webrarian]

Thanks, Anne. It certainly a fine performance.

[@philhomes233]

I sang 'Prince Henry' more years ago than I care to remember!!!!!.

[@webrarian]

Which performance was that, Phil?

[@philhomes233]

Chris Goddard Did a peformance with the Southwark Singers and Concert orchestra in Clubland, Walworth, London. The Sullivan society were there. Rather good peformance if I remember.

[@webrarian]

I was at a performance of Sullivan's "Te Deum" in Southwark Cathedral around 1975. Was that the Southwark Singers, do you think? The tenor soloist was a young Neil Jenkins. My first experience of "The Golden Legend" was at the QEH around the same time. I think it was only the prologue and it went horribly wrong as the choir and organ came adrift. I have a recording of that...

[@philhomes233]

Chris Goddard Oh dear, I was there!!!! helping out the chorus that time.

[@webrarian]

I have a programme somewhere, as well a dubbing (my own) from the LP.

[@foveauxbear]

Just an amazing work, I bought the full scores from Kalmus in the USA many years ago, still treasure this piece. Never performed, why?

[@CookingAte]

May I know what is the story

[@Bgreengart]

@@CookingAte Go to this link and after arriving there click on the synopsis hyperlink. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Legend_(cantata)#Synopsis

[@ColinGraham1]

@@CookingAte The text is Longfellow's poem. The Prologue depicts a storm raging around Strasbourg Cathedral as Lucifer and his spirits of the air try to tear down the cross from the spire, only to be chased away by the ringing of the bells. This failure foreshadows Lucifer's ultimate defeat. Scene one depicts Prince Henry of Hoheneck at his Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine being tempted by Lucifer. Henry has been stricken with a strange illness, and the famous physicians of Salerno have told him that the only cure is the blood of a maiden who shall, of her own free will, consent to die for his sake. Viewing this as unlikely, he gives way to despair and allows Lucifer, disguised as a travelling physician, to administer alcohol to him in such measure that he is deprived of his position in society and power as a ruler, and becomes an outcast. In the second scene, Prince Henry finds shelter in the cottage of one of his vassals, Ursula, whose daughter, Elsie, moved by great compassion for him upon learning the cure for his illness, offers herself in sacrifice, despite her mother's misgivings. Elsie hopes that by giving her life for Henry, she will become closer to Christ. Elsie and Henry set out for Salerno. Scene three has Elsie and Henry travelling to Salerno, although Henry is disturbed by the fate that awaits Elsie. They pass a band of pilgrims, which is joined by a friar who is really Lucifer in disguise. Lucifer gloats over Elsie's fate, and Elsie and Henry find comfort in each other. The couple arrive in Salerno in scene four, where Lucifer reappears disguised as Friar Angelo, a doctor of the medical school. Despite the opposition of the Prince, who now declares that he intended to do no more than test her constancy, Elsie persists in her resolve to die for him. Lucifer plans to claim Elsie's soul for his own rather than let it rise to Heaven. He draws Elsie into an inner chamber, but at the last minute, Henry breaks down the door and rescues her from the "doctor" and eternal damnation. In the fifth scene, a forester brings the news to an anxious Ursula that her daughter is not dead. Miraculously healed, Prince Henry marries Elsie and is restored to his rightful place. The final scene finds Henry and Elsie on the evening of their wedding day. An epilogue provides the moral and explains that Prince Henry's illness was cured by love. Elsie's devotion is compared to the course of a mountain brook that cools and fertilises the arid plain.

[@ColinGraham1]

Sullivan himself put a moratorium on performances while he was still alive, because he felt it was becoming too popular and overdone. I guess it got forgotten because of being "Romantic" and other works by later composers, such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams, coming onto the scene...

[@nathansmith6666]

Amazing! Does anyone know if video footage exists from this performance? Would be great to see and learn from Mackerras (conducting etc.).