Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Sullivan: Ballet Music - L'île Enchantee; Thespis / Penny, RTE Concert Orchestra
Naxos

Sullivan: Ballet Music - L'île Enchantee; Thespis / Penny, RTE Concert Orchestra

$13.99
$19.99 Save 30%

Details

Composer
SULLIVAN, ARTHUR
Artist
Penny
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Feb 12, 2021
Catalog #
8555180
UPC
747313518029

About

Soon after his return from studies in Leipzig, Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote his second work, L’Île Enchantée. This was a ballet score on the subject of a shipwrecked mariner which debuted at Covent Garden in the form of a divertissement at the end of Bellini’s La sonnambula, where it was received with acclaim. This premiere recording restores passages Sullivan cut when presenting the work for concert performances. Thespis, a collaboration with W.S. Gilbert, is a flamboyant opera cum pantomime of which only fragments now remain – the work’s lost ballet has been rediscovered and restored by Roderick Spencer and Selwyn Tillett.

REVIEW:

L’Île Enchantée is an early (1864) ballet originally designed to be performed as a divertissement following a performance of Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Nights at the opera evidently ran long in those days, because this particular trifle lasts nearly fifty minutes. The music reveals the young Sullivan fully in command of his gifts for catchy melodies and colorful orchestration. It may not be great stuff, but it is extremely entertaining, and if you enjoy nineteenth-century ballet music then you’ll certainly take to this appealing example of the genre. Never mind the plot, which involves a shipwrecked sailor washed up on an island populated by nymphs and fairies and suchlike. The autograph score is lost, but the work was reconstructed from surviving orchestral parts and here receives its world premiere recording (originally issued on Marco Polo in the early 1990s)—and a fine one it is.

Thespis, Sullivan’s first collaboration with W.S. Gilbert, was a Christmas spectacular most of which no longer exists — Sullivan incorporated bits of it into later works, but a few ballet numbers appear to have survived. The five dances presented here total nine minutes of music, and make an apt filler to The Enchanted Isle. Again, they reveal Sullivan’s obvious facility at this sort of light entertainment. Andrew Penny and the RTE Concert Orchestra offer lively, refreshing performances of all of this music. There’s not a dull or routine moment anywhere, and Naxos’ clean and clear sonics leave little to be desired. This release represents an attractive and intriguing addition to the discography of England’s greatest nineteenth-century composer.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Tracklist 20 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Prelude 05:15
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Prelude
    Duration
    05:15
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  2. 2 No. 2. Dance of Nymphs and Satyrs - Pas de Châles 05:16
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. Dance of Nymphs and Satyrs - Pas de Châles
    Duration
    05:16
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  3. 3 No. 3. Galop 02:33
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. Galop
    Duration
    02:33
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  4. 4 No. 4. Storm - Entrance of the Gnomes - Entrance of Fairy Queen 04:09
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. Storm - Entrance of the Gnomes - Entrance of Fairy Queen
    Duration
    04:09
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  5. 5 No. 5. Pas de deux 02:28
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 5. Pas de deux
    Duration
    02:28
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  6. 6 No. 6. Mazurka 02:12
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 6. Mazurka
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  7. 7 No. 6a. Variation 01:31
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 6a. Variation
    Duration
    01:31
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  8. 8 No. 7. Scène des disparitions 03:55
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 7. Scène des disparitions
    Duration
    03:55
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  9. 9 No. 8. Tempo di valse 03:47
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 8. Tempo di valse
    Duration
    03:47
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  10. 10 No. 8a. Variation For Mlle. Carmine 01:11
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 8a. Variation For Mlle. Carmine
    Duration
    01:11
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  11. 11 No. 9. Pas de trois (After Mlle. Carmine's Variation) 02:31
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 9. Pas de trois (After Mlle. Carmine's Variation)
    Duration
    02:31
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  12. 12 No. 10. Scène de jalousie 01:45
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 10. Scène de jalousie
    Duration
    01:45
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  13. 13 No. 11. — 02:55
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 11. —
    Duration
    02:55
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  14. 14 No. 12. Galop 05:53
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 12. Galop
    Duration
    05:53
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  15. 15 No. 13. Finale 03:02
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 13. Finale
    Duration
    03:02
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  16. 16 No. 1. Introduction - Allegro moderato 01:47
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 1. Introduction - Allegro moderato
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  17. 17 No. 2. Pas de Châles - Andante 02:42
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 2. Pas de Châles - Andante
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  18. 18 No. 3. Valse 01:17
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 3. Valse
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  19. 19 No. 4. St. George and the Dragon 00:49
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 4. St. George and the Dragon
    Duration
    00:49
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny
  20. 20 No. 5. Galop 02:40
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 5. Galop
    Duration
    02:40
    Composer
    Arthur Sullivan
    Ensemble
    RTÉ Concert Orchestra
    Conductor
    Andrew Penny