Mary Bevan, Ben Johnson, Ashley Riches, David Owen Norris - Sir Arthur Sullivan: Songs (2017) Hi-Res

The name Sullivan is more often associated with the first name Gilbert than Arthur, which is a false lead: Gilbert is the family name of the librettist with whom Sir Arthur Sullivan co-signed a considerable number of operetta masterpieces, a double-signature known as Gilbert and Sullivan. On this album, however, no G&S operettas are to be heard, but Arthur Sullivan’s artsongs, mélodies and Lieder – three different words implying that they are sung in English, French and German, even if most of them are sung in Shakespeare’s language (several texts, at that, are by the Stratfordian bard). Vocal music with piano accompaniment spans all of Sullivan’s creative life, from his earliest attempts in the 1860s, when he was still a student in Leipzig under the posthumous influences of Mendelssohn and Schubert, up to the late mature works written shortly before his death in 1900. The attentive aficionado will readily notice the long and winding road of Sullivan's creative process, evolving from the pure German Lied style (sung however in English) to musical accents reminiscent of his later operettas, with its rather angular piano parts of the stride genre, as well as the essence of British popular themes and their ubiquitous Scotch snap. The album features soprano Mary Bevan, a regular at the Royal Opera and all major British companies, tenor Ben Johnson who won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2008, and baritone Ashley Riches who, among other highlights in his carreer, has sung with the Berlin Philharmonic and Gardiner. In other words, the top level of Britain’s upcoming generation of singers.