SULLIVAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 304, 15 March 1928, Page 16

SULLIVAN

RESTIVE COMPOSER WHO ! 1 WANTED STRONGER MUSIC 1 I BIOGRAPHY REVIEWED “A new view of Sullivan lias been given by Mr. Newman Flower in his biography of the composer,” states the “Musical Opinion.” “They show us a restive composer—restive under the task of doing what he could do best. What share in producing this restiveness was played by the superior attitude toward the light operas of his partnership with Gilbert assumed by the serious musicians his contemporaries, we cannot entirely know. Probably it was not without its effect. “One is tempted to speculate: first, whether had Sullivan ont harnessed his muse to Gilbert’s he would .have developed into the great composer of symphonies, oratorios and grand opera he would have liked to be; second, did that alliance with Gilbert and the writing of much music in a vein of extravaganza mar any cnance he might have had of developing into such a comnoser? Who can say? On the whole, the inclination must be toward an a. ;wer in the negative. For there must be taken into account not only Sullivan’s comparative failures in serious music, but his development as a composer of light music during the famous partnership. “Not until ‘The Mikado,’ ‘The Yeomen of the Guard’ and in particular ‘The Gondoliers’ did he attain a full individuality in the vein on which his fame rests. Much in the earlier operas declares obvious derivations. In ‘The Gondoliers,’ a voice which is Sullivan’s, and Sullivan’s alone, speaks in the music. “Gilbert, though his jingles tried Sullivan so hardly as to bring him frequently to breaking point, must be absolved from any suspicion of having really hamnered the composer in giving of the best in him. “Sullivan, all in all, thrived on Gilbert; and if Gilbert, in another sense, thrived on Sullivan, also, it was not at Sullivan’s cost.”

That great English composer, Purcel, is one of the two composers represented on Columbia 04020. “A Trumpet Voluntary (Purcell) and “Solemn Melody” (Walford Davies) are played by the Halle Orchestra, conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty. The last year or two has seen a sudden and none-too-ear.y reawakening of public interest in the work of the great English composers, of whom Purcell ranks among the very highest. His work is typically English, and he feels his tunes along a firm line of melody—a process entirely satisfactory to the average British mind. Alex. E r .arris is the trumpeter in this piece, which Sir Henry Wood has decked out in the true Restoration style. It is a revelation in brass quality, and the unusual combination with organ results in a fone colour which is rich, brilliant and extremely effective. On the other side is given Sir Walford Davies’s “Solemn Melody” in its original form (with botli organ and ’cello) written for the tercentenary celebration on December 9, 1908, of Milton’s death, it has a fine dignity. In this piece and the Purcell, Harold Dawber, the Halle Orchestra’s excellent chorus master, makes the organ combine with the orchestra to perfection, and Clyde Twelvetrees gives a stirring performance with the solo ’cello. A superlatively great performer, Pablo Casals, has given us “O Star of Eve” and ‘‘The Prize Song.” I should be inclined, says a reviewer, to nominate this 12-inch. Red Label disc as a standard for all cellists who want to know how much fruit is allowed to their instruments. “Under the bow of nearly every cellist I can think of.” he says, “the lusciousness of this version of ‘O Star of Eve’ would have been too much for us. Casals remains a nectarine where others turn into over-ripe Victoria plums.” ,