Sullivan: The Golden Legend Soloists: Janice Watson, soprano Jean Rigby, contralto Mark Wilde, tenor Bruce Graham, baritone The London Chorus The New London Orchestra Conductor: Ronald Corp

Hyperion CDA67280

For a work that many in Arthur Sullivan's lifetime considered his greatest achievement, it is remarkable that no complete recording of The Golden Legend was available until 2001, and now suddenly there are two of them. David Lyle led a very fine pro-am performance (issued privately), and now there is this recording from Hyperion.

Diana Burleigh wrote:

What a wonderful recording this is. So rich and well produced. It is beautifully sung and shows off the music beautifully. As I had not heard much of this work before, it was a sheer delight to listen to it. I strongly recommend anyone who doesn't have the CD to get it.

The only slightly disappointing aspect is the CD notes by David Russell Hulme. They imply that Gilbert wrote the words to Cox and Box, say that Sullivan was buried in Westminster Abbey (so whose in the tomb in St. Pauls?) and that The Martyr of Antioch was the only non-operatic collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan. Sure Mr R-H knows of "Sweethearts" and "The Distant Shore"?

But the real treat was hearing Sullivan so well served by this recording.

BBC Music Magazine named the recording one of the top 60 CDs of 2001. Nicholas Williams wrote in the magazine:

Worthy of a CBE for services to neglected music, Ronald Corp now turns his attention to Sullivan. Praised in its time and subsequently forgotten, The Golden Legend turns out to be a vivid and melodious score, worthy to stand among Sullivan's finest works. Influential, too, for it clearly prefigures [Elgar's] Gerontius, and stands as a milestone on the road to the English choral classics of the 20th century.