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Donald Macleod delves into George Grove’s support for Sullivan promoting his music at the Crystal Palace

Sir Arthur Sullivan became the most renowned composer of the Victorian era, with his fame spreading across Europe and America too. His output spanned many genres including oratorios, a symphony, chamber music, hymns and anthems, but it was for his collaboration with the librettist W. S. Gilbert on operetta’s that he is best remembered today. He was a personal friend to royalty, and he was knighted when he was in his early forties. He also had a liking for playing cards, buying race horses and gambling, frequently loosing the substantial earnings from the stage works he’d composed. Sullivan became a pillar of the British musical establishment, so that when he died, despite wanting to be buried with his family in Brompton Cemetery, he was laid to rest in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, with an additional service at the Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace.

Sir George Grove scheduled Sullivan’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest in a concert at the Crystal Palace in 1862. Sullivan became an overnight celebrity, and from there he never looked back. Sullivan and Grove lived close to one another in London, and would frequently go on trips abroad together too. Grove often programmed Sullivan’s music in concerts, at a time when the composer was making his way as a paid church organist in fashionable parts of London. Through Grove, Sullivan met important people such as Charles Dickens, Rossini, and Lewis Carroll, as well as striking up a friendship with Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh. Sullivan’s first successful comic opera in 1866 was Cox and Box, and by the end of the decade he was commissioned to compose an oratorio for the Three Choirs Festival, The Prodigal Son.

The Tempest Suite, Op 1 (Act IV Overture) (excerpt)
´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic
Richard Hickox, conductor

The Mikado (Three Little Maids from School)
Lesley Garrett (Yum-Yum), soprano
Susan Bullock (Peep-Bo), mezzo-soprano
Jean Rigby (Pitti-Sing), mezzo soprano
ENO Chorus
ENO Orchestra
Peter Robinson, conductor

Will he come?
Kitty Whately, mezzo-soprano
David Owen Norris, piano

O Love the Lord
The Choir of Keble College, Oxford
Gavin Plumley, organ
Mark Laflin, conductor

Twilight, Op 23
Murray McLachlan, piano

Symphony in E major, ‘Irish Symphony’ (Andante espressivo)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor

Cox and Box (excerpts)
James Gilchrist (Box), tenor
Neal Davies (Cox), bass-baritone
Donald Maxwell (Bouncer), baritone
´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox, conductor

Pirates of Penzance (excerpt)
Richard Suart (Major-General), baritone
Donald Adams (Pirate King), bass
Nicholas Folwell (Samuel), baritone
John Mark Ainsley (Frederic), tenor
Richard Van Allan (Sergeant), bass
Welsh National Opera Chorus
Welsh National Opera Orchestra
Charles Mackerras, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock