Gilbert and Sullivan with Band and Voice (1986)

The London Concert Artists:
Jennifer Partridge, Music Director
Margaret Eales and Beryl Korman, sopranos
Jean Temperley and Julia Meadows, mezzo sopranos
Edmund Bohan and Bruce Lochtie, tenors
Robert Bateman and Michael Wakeham, baritones

The Band of the Welsh Guards
Director of Music: Major D. N. Taylor

This recording presents G&S highlights arranged for band. The arrangements are extremely skillfully done, to the point that one forgets at times that one is listening to a band. The selections evidently were chosen to show of the Welsh Guards' virtuosity, not just the singers'. You wouldn't naturally think of Princess Ida's "Minerva" aria as a band number, for example, but it is here nonetheless. The vocalists all sing competently, but the attraction here is the band, which accompanies sensitively and with respectful fidelity to the original Sullivan. Selections are listed below:

  • Overture to Yeomen of the Guard
  • "Take a pair of sparkling eyes" (Lochtie)
  • "A regular royal queen" (Eales, Temperley, Bohan, Wakeham)
  • "When a wooer goes a-wooing" (Korman, Meadows, Bohan, Wakeham)
  • "Cheerily carols the lark" (Temperley)
  • "I am a courtier" and gavotte (Wakeham, Korman, Meadows, Lochtie, Bateman)
  • "When the night wind howls" (Bateman)
  • Hornpipe from Ruddigore
  • "A man who would woo a fair maid" (Eales, Temperley, Lochtie)
  • "Refrain, audacious tar" (Eales, Bohan)
  • "I hear the soft note" (All)
  • "Long years ago" (Korman, Meadows)
  • "If you're anxious for to shine" (Wakeham)
  • "Minerva" (Eales)
  • "When the buds are blossoming" (Korman, Meadows)
  • "Once more gondolieri" (All)
Issue History
DateLabelFormatNumber
1986 Bandleader Cassette BND 61024
1988 Bandleader CD BNA 5022