A Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular (1974)

Gilbert & Sullivan Favourites (1991)

Marion Studholme, soprano
Jean Allister, contralto
Edmund Bohan, tenor
Ian Wallace, bass

The English Chorale
Robert Howes, chorus master

London Concert Orchestra
Marcus Dods, conductor

Polydor 2383 366
Polydor 2383 366

This recording is not in my collection, but Chris Webster provided the following review:

Nothing wrong with this one. Good singing, good orchestra. Two points I would make: firstly, Edmund Bohan has a similar tone (not in a bad way) to Leonard Osborn, which you will either like or dislike—I like it. Secondly, Ian Wallace is wonderful. Ian is no stranger to G & S: Pooh Bah for BBC-TV 1970's Mikado, captain of the liner taking D'Oyly Carte's Company to America (he requests a song from their new opera—cue 'Policeman's Song') in the 1953 film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, and other G & S bits on record and in concerts. Plus, Flanders and Swann wrote "The Hippopotamus" for him. His contributions alone put this album way above the average G & S compilation.

Side 1Side 2
The Gondoliers
"From the sunny Spanish shore"
"In enterprise of martial kind"
"Take a pair of sparkling eyes"
"On the day when I was wedded"
"Once more gondolieri"
The Pirates of Penzance
"Poor wand'ring one"
"When a felon's not engaged"
"Stay, Frederic, stay!"
H.M.S. Pinafore
"Hail, Men-o-War's men"…
"I'm called Little Buttercup"
"When I was a lad"
"Never mind the why and wherefore"
The Mikado
"A wandering minstrel"
"As someday it may happen"
"The sun whose rays"
"Here's a howdy-do"
"On a tree by a river"
"There is beauty in the bellow of the blast"
"For he's gone and married Yum-Yum"

(Note: According to the Sullivan Society's Compact Discography, the items on this disc were originally recorded in 1974, but the earliest pressing for which I have bibliographic information is 1975. All pressings seem to have had the title "Gilbert and Sullivan Spectacular," except for the 1991 Hallmark CD, which is titled "Gilbert & Sullivan Favourites.")

Issue History
DateLabelFormatNumber
1974 [need information]
1975 Polydor LP 2383 366
1977 Chalfont LP C77.003
1983 Pickwick LP SPR 8536
Cassette SPC 8536
1991 Pickwick CD PWK 1157
1991 Hallmark CD 350052