Gilbert/Sullivan: HMS Pinafore, Iolanthe, The Pirate of Pensance. - sound recording reviews

National Review, Oct 24, 1994 by Ralph De Toledano

* While on the subject of musical comedy, let us give praise to famous men - namely W. S. Gilbert (who affronted Queen Victoria and therefore was not

knighted) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (who preferred music to words, and therefore was). Much credit has been given to the D'Oyly Carte company for the success of Gilbert & Sullivan's musical comedies, and certainly it added more than somewhat to the words and the music. But I have always contended that the scores are sturdy enough to stand by themselves. To my ears this has never been put to the test - and it is the D'Oyly Carte G&S that Sony has turned to in issuing the major works on CD. HMS Pinafore is frequently cited as the greatest, but I have always held out for Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance. In Iolanthe, there are verses that should be sung before each session of the Senate - if, of course, the leadership is in good voice. Who has said it better than this?

When Britain really ruled the waves, In good Queen Bess's time, The House of Peers made no pretense To intellectual eminence Or scholarship sublime. Yet Britain won her proudest bays In good Queen Bess's glorious days ...

When Wellington licked Bonaparte, As every child can tell, The House of Peers throughout the war Did nothing in particular And did it very well. Yet Britain set the world ablaze In good King George's glorious days.

And while the House of Peers withholds Its legislative hand, And noble statesmen do not itch To interfere in matters which They do not understand, As bright will shine Great Britain's rays As in King George's glorious days.

* I was the only reporter in the concert hall when Pablo Casals, who was rehearsing the orchestra for his return to performance - he had not played in public in ten years, in protest of the victory of Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war - dropped the baton and was helped off the stage, stricken by a heart attack. The day before, he had granted me an interview, but insisted on talking about honor and the dignity of man, like someone out of For Whom the Bell Tolls - contemplatively smoking his pipe and looking at the small Catalan flag on his piano - when I wanted him to talk about music. He was, after all, not merely a great cellist and a great musician, but someone who, in fingering, bowing, and the use of vibrato, had revolutionized the playing of a difficult instrument. As a conductor, however, Casals does not rank at the top of the list. So it is a pity that Sony, in issuing its Casals Edition, has stressed the orchestral works, and not Casals as soloist or in trios and quartets, where he can be heard delineating a style and a method. Hear him in Beethoven's Piano Trio Opus 97 and Piano Trio Opus 11 and you will realize just how he highlights and enunciates a score. In his conducting of the Perpignan Festival Orchestra in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, with William Primrose (viola) and Isaac Stern (violin), and the Violin Concerto No. 5 (Turkish), with Erica Morini as soloist, this listener found very fine solo playing, but felt no spark in the performance as a whole.