MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Sir Arthur SULLIVAN (1842–1900) & Sir William S. GILBERT (1836–1911)
The Mikado (1885) [90.48]
The Mikado – Owen Brannigan (bass)
Nanki-Poo – Richard Lewis (tenor)
Ko-Ko – Sir Geraint Evans (baritone)
Pooh-Bah – Ian Wallace (baritone)
Pish-Tush – John Cameron (baritone)
Yum-Yom – Elsie Morison (soprano)
Pitti-Sing – Marjorie Thomas (contralto)
Peep-Bo – Jeannette Sinclair (soprano)
Katisha – Monica Sinclair (contralto)
Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
Pro Arte Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent
rec. No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 5-6 May, 15 June, 3 August 1956. ADD
CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE 2134442 [54.26 + 36.22]
Experience Classicsonline

 
This was my first recording of The Mikado; bought in the 1970s. I was attracted by the operatic nature of the cast. Even now, one of the recording’s virtues is the fine array of voices which were assembled. The conductor, Malcolm Sargent, had a distinguished history as a conductor of Gilbert and Sullivan, having worked with the D’Oyly Carte company in the 1920s. He also recorded some of the operas with them at that time. He returned to the Savoy Operas in the 1950s when he recorded nine of them for EMI, all with singers from opera and oratorio rather than the D’Oyly Carte roots. Sargent also recorded Yeomen of the Guard and Princess Ida in the 1960s with the D’Oyly Carte people for Decca, with Elizabeth Harwood in the soprano parts.
 
As with other operas in the series, the cast consists of seasoned opera professionals rather than G&S specialists. This we get good voices and secure musical performances, but not everyone will be entirely happy with the results. It helps that the recording was able to take advantage of the superbly crisp diction prevalent among English singers during the 1950s.
 
Central to the performance are the trio of baritones, Sir Geraint Evans (Ko-Ko), Ian Wallace (Pooh-Bah) and John Cameron (Pish-Tush). These three provide strong performances, fine musical values and good characterisation so that you are rarely confused as to who is singing. Evans’s Ko-Ko is well sung but sounds a little too nice, a little to refined whereas surely Ko-Ko is the antithesis of this. By contrast Ian Wallace embodies his character completely, adding to the characterisation with his distinctively rotund voice; Wallace’s Poo-Bah sounds fat and self-important.
 
Act 1 places the young couple in the spot-light. Richard Lewis is beautifully lyrical as Nanki-Poo, singing his opening ballad with a nice feeling for the shape of Sullivan’s melodic line. He does, though, sound a little semi-detached from the drama though his performance is finely musical.
 
To my mind, Elsie Morison’s voice sounds a little to fluttery and soft-edged for Yum-Yum. She works well in tandem with Marjorie Thomas’s Pitti-Sing and Jeanette Sinclair’s Peep-Bo.
 
Things perk up considerably in Act 2 when Owen Brannigan and Monica Sinclair appear as the Mikado and Katisha. Brannigan and Sinclair really do sound as if they are appearing in a dramatic production and both characterise superbly with their voices; their opening duet is one of the highlights of the disc.
 
You would never mistake this disc for a recording arising out of live performances but musical values are high. The opera-house voices are well supported by the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and the Pro Arte Orchestra. Sargent favours steady speeds but paces the opera well.
 
Undoubtedly this performance has been overtaken by other recordings. Frustratingly, none of the major sets seem to have recorded the opera complete with spoken dialogue. Probably the most recommendable recording would be Sir Charles Mackerras’s fine account, though this trims the opera slightly to fit on 1 disc, dropping the overture and some repeats. Even though the overture is not by Sullivan it is a loss and might make people think twice.
 
It has its drawbacks but this remains a disc that I would want on my shelves. Its charm lies in its strongly operatic cast who provide superb diction, high musical values and a wonderful opportunity to hear some fine English singers letting their hair down a little.
 
Robert Hugill
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.