NEWS

Latest News July 2008

Latest News August 2008

SIR JOHN TOMLINSON

Another new recording from Sir John Tomlinson:

DUKE BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE
by Béla Bartók
Warner Classics 2564-61953-2

Artists:
Sir John Tomlinson & Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet
Conductor: Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra

Donald Maxwell

Donald Maxwell in a new recording of
TRIAL BY JURY/COX AND BOX (CHAN 10321)

(following info taken from www.chandos.net )

Sullivan: Cox and Box/Trial by Jury

James Gilchrist tenor - Box
Neal Davies baritone - Cox
Donald Maxwell baritone - Sergeant Bouncer
Rebecca Evans soprano - Plaintiff
Chamber Choir of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (Trial by Jury only)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales 
Conducted by Richard Hickox

Richard Hickox directs a star-studded cast in this fantastic new recording of two early operettas by Arthur Sullivan. Cox and Box was first performed in 1866, when the composer was just twenty-four. It shared the bill with another operetta by writer W. S. Gilbert, and it is highly likely that this was how Arthur Sullivan and William Gilbert met. Trial by Jury, written as a commission for Richard D’Oyly Carte, was their second collaboration, and it was with this project that Gilbert and Sullivan discovered their joint creative voice. New and exciting, it took British musical theatre by storm.

Premiere recording of the original orchestration of Cox and Box which Arthur Sullivan approved for use at the Savoy performance in 1894.

The libretto of Cox and Box was an adaptation of Maddison Morton’s popular farce Box and Cox by the editor of Punch, Francis Burnard. Sullivan wrote the music and the piece received its first performance – in a benefit matinée at the Adelphi Theatre – in May 1866.The proposal to present Cox and Box in a professional run came from impresario Thomas German Reed, and the work entered the repertory of his Regent Street theatre in March 1869. Interestingly, another name on the first-night programme was W. S. Gilbert, whose show was also opening. Cox and Box did well, and gained further popularity from a subsequent tour. Credit for bringing Sullivan and Gilbert into partnership for the first time goes to John Hollingshead, manager of the Gaiety Theatre. Needing a new musical piece for his 1871 Christmas season, he offered them work. The result was Thespis, a two-act burlesque on Greek mythology (the score of which is now lost).Although Thespis was well received, it did not lead Gilbert and Sullivan to plan any future collaboration. It was Richard D’Oyly Carte who brought the two men together again. Looking out for a short piece to put together with a production of Offenbach’s La Périchole, he agreed with Gilbert that the legal skit the author had developed from a little piece published in the magazine Fun in 1868 would fit the bill perfectly. D’Oyly Carte liked Trial by Jury and proposed that Sullivan should write the music. The work’s enormous success encouraged ambitious plans. Guided by D’Oyly Carte’s sure business hand, a company was formed to produce the joint works of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan, and from there the team went on to become one of the great theatrical partnerships.

Donald Maxwell & Geoffrey Moses

Donald Maxwell & Geoffrey Moses are featured on a new recording of Sir Arthur Sullivan's "The Contrabandista (or The Law of the Ladrones)" conducted by Ronald Corp with the New London Orchestra. The recording is on Hyperion (CDA67486).

CLAIRE RUTTER soprano (Rita)
FRANCES McCAFFERTY alto (Inez)
ASHLEY CATLING tenor (Vasquez)
DONALD MAXWELL baritone (José)
RICHARD SUART baritone (Mr Grigg)
GEOFFREY MOSES bass (Sancho)
JUSTIN BINDLEY tenor (Officer)

Sir John Tomlinson

Sir John Tomlinson has recently released a recording of Wagner DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER (A romantic opera in one act, sung in English  - THE FLYING DUTCHMAN) on Chandos  Cat. No: CHAN 3119

Sir John Tomlinson bass - The Dutchman
Nina Stemme soprano – Senta
Eric Halfvarson bass - Daland
Kim Begley tenor - Erik
Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano - Mary
Peter Wedd tenor - Daland's Steersman
 
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
David Parry
Recorded in: Blackheath Halls, London
(6-11 January 2004)

Producer
Brian Couzens
Sound Engineers
Ralph Couzens
Michael Common (Assistant)

Eirian James

THE OBBLIGATO CLARINET
The Divine Art CD25025
Released: March 1, 2004 

Colin Bradbury (clarinet)
Oliver Davies (piano)
Eirian James (mezzo-soprano)
Robert Murray (tenor)

“Eirian James… deploys her gleaming high mezzo gracefully and nimbly. Colin Bradbury is a liquid-toned clarinettist, phrasing alluringly and relishing his bouts of elegant virtuosity…innocent undemanding pleasures …”
Performance ****, Sound *****
Richard Wigmore (BBC Music Magazine)