Sullivan The Light of the World

[Alan Howe]

...from Dutton:
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=2CDLX7356

[Mark Thomas]

Terrific! Just ordered it.....

[Alan Howe]

While enjoying the saccharine sounds of the young and innocent Miss Deutscher's music, I'm reluctant to dive in here lest I find bowls full of the stuff spooned all over this particular Victorian composition. I can take Gounod's religiosity because he writes marvellous tunes, but as for Sullivan...

Now persuade me otherwise!

[Mark Thomas]

Well, I hope to be able to, but I've only just ordered the recording!

[Jimfin]

Gounod thought the Light of the World was a masterpiece, so you might enjoy it. I'm eagerly awaiting my copy. I had a sneak preview of a few passages, thanks to a kind connection in the Sullivan world, and the recording certainly does the work justice. If it isn't enjoyable in this recording I doubt it ever will be. But I'm very optimistic about it.

Sullivan in my experience is rarely maudlin or sentimental: his sense of drama and humor always keep him enjoyable. And I am really keen to hear his orchestration, which I always enjoy. Works like Ivanhoe and The Golden Legend were transformed for me when I heard them performed professionally with full orchestra.

[Alan Howe]

Works like Ivanhoe and The Golden Legend were transformed for me when I heard them performed professionally with full orchestra

Not for me; I found them feeble in the extreme.

[semloh]

I can hardly wait to read Mark's reaction to this work. Will he be impressed and bring his considerable persuasive powers to bear on Alan, or will it be a fizzer? 

[Mark Thomas]

Ohh, the pressure! I've only just received my copy (I was away for a few days), so it may be a few days yet.

[Mark Thomas]

Keen to keep jet-lag at bay, I decided to listen to all 2 hours 26 minutes of The Light of the World today. It was a rewarding decision.

Pace Gounod, it isn't a masterpiece, but it's easy to see why Gounod thought it was, because it is very reminiscent of Gounod's best religious works in its lively melodiousness, lightness of touch and occasional high drama - the Frenchman's St Cecilia Mass is not too far away. This is early Sullivan, of course, and so there's none of the hollow portentousness or mawkishness which mars his late "serious" operas, and there are hardly any "rumty-tum" G&S operetta rhythms either. For all its seriousness of purpose it's a very tuneful work, the orchestration is as masterful as you'd expect from Sullivan, the choral textures are transparent and the solos powerful. The six numbers in the Lazarus scene make for a particularly impressive sequence, and I was struck by the beauty of "In Rama was there a voice heard" - adventurous harmonies for the early 1870s. "The Spirit of the Lord" is another dramatically effective number.

It wouldn't be a 19th century English oratorio without some longueurs, and there certainly are some, but most of the 42 numbers are comparatively short. The tortured mock-archaic text (all those Ye's, Thou's and Hath's) makes for some awkward word-setting here and there but, although Sullivan's inspiration fades towards the end, he treats us to a magnificently luminous Gounod-esque finale. Overall, it's easy to see why The Light of the World so impressed Victorian audiences: Sullivan's setting is musically appropriate, but very approachable and attractive. This is as fine a work as he produced in his early years, and here it receives a truly committed and persuasive performance. Well worth investigating.

[Alan Howe]

I suppose I'll have to dive in then...

[BerlinExpat]

Have we got it all with this recording? It's seventeen minutes shorter than the slightly abridged Liverpool Cathedral recording I have from November 2000!

I have the impression that sometimes recordings are made to fit 2 cds rather than go to 3. In the Rondeau release of Nico Dostal's Prinzessin Nofretete a substantial intermezzo before the second act is left out!

[Mark Thomas]

IIRC according to the booklet notes the recording is complete barring a couple of revised numbers, but the tempi are quite sprightly and, over the span of 2½ hours, 17 minutes isn't a major difference.

[Alan Howe]

...it's now on order!!!

[BerlinExpat]

Many thanks, Mark, for that elucidation. "sprightly" is very good. It even sounds a bit Gilbertian. I hope I have more luck with this SACD than I did with Dutton's release of Havergal Brian's The Vision of Cleopatra, that CD doesn't even register on my CD player!

[Jimfin]

It's the whole of the original score: the Sullivan Society insisted on that. The omissions are the revised versions (shorter) of some numbers: it seems that neither then nor now those revisions have been considered effective. I think the length difference is the sprightlier tempi, which are very welcome. Rather than a dirgy slow work, as it has previously seemed from extracts I have heard, it moves forward convincingly. The overture to part 2 is a wonderful moment of climax, as are all the big choruses at the end of each section. "Men and brethren" is fascinating me at the moment. Anyway, I would say that this recording is really well done and gives the work the best chance it might have to shine. This is wonderful, when the recording of the Martyr, though well-performed, suffers from a lack of chorus numbers. Hopefully a recording of that work will emerge in a few years.