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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | John Cranko
Sullivan, A: | Pineapple Poll Studio Recording, Transmitted 1 November 1959 Merle Park, David Blair, Stanley Holden, Brenda Taylor, Gerd Larsen London Symphony Orchestra | Verdi: | The Lady and the Fool Studio Recording, Transmitted 3 May 1959 Svetlana Beriosova, Ray Powell & Ronald Hynde Royal Opera House Orchestra |
John Cranko (1927–1973), choreographer at Sadlers Wells ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, collaborated with Charles Mackerras to create Pineapple Poll, a light hearted comedy. This was closely followed by a further joint effort, which resulted in another comic ballet, The Lady and the Fool. David Blair, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in the 50s and 60s, plays Captain Belaye in Pineapple Poll – a role he also danced at the ballet’s premiere in 1951. The Lady and the Fool was reworked for Covent Garden in 1955, four years before this studio production, with Beriosova playing La Cappricciosa in the year she became Prima Ballerina at Sadlers Wells. Both these ballets are examples of rare studio performances from the BBC’s earliest television archives and are released here for the first time on DVD. 1DVD Sound format: Ambient Mastering Picture format: 4:3 Running time: 89’ Subtitles: F/G Menu languages: English Booklet languages: E/F/G Region code: 0 Territory Restrictions: None | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | British Ballet Music
Bliss: | Checkmate - Suite Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley | Elgar: | Enigma Variations, Op. 36 London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult | Holst: | The Perfect Fool, Op. 39/H 150: Ballet Music London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn | Sullivan, A: | Pineapple Poll Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras | Tyrwhitt-Wilson: | A Wedding Bouquet: Tango & Waltz Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Robert Irving/ | Walton: | Façade Orchestral Suite No. 1 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Louis Frémaux Façade Orchestral Suite No. 2 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Louis Frémaux |
This collection of music from 20th-century ballets features such master conductors of British repertoire as Boult, Previn, Handley and Mackerras – who also, drawing on the works of Sir Arthur Sullivan, wrote Pineapple Poll for John Cranko. Dame Ninette de Valois choreographed the chessboard machinations of Bliss’s Checkmate, here complemented by Elgar’s much-loved Enigma Variations, Walton’s witty Façade, elemental dances from Holst’s opera The Perfect Fool, and colourful pieces by Berners, Lambert and Gordon. “Some sparkling playing here, especially Pineapple Poll under its arranger Charles Mackerras” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Sullivan: Pineapple Poll, Henry VII & Victoria and Merrie England
Recording locations: Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK, June 1974 (Henry VIII), February 1978 (Victoria and Merrie England); Kingsway Hall, London, United Kingdom, November 1982 (Pineapple Poll) Among the legion of Decca recordings boasting the company’s fabled ‘Decca Sound’, one that has been overlooked is the late Sir Charles Mackerras’s recording of his own arrangements of ‘moments’ from the G&S canon under the title Pineapple Poll. Like Gaîte Parisienne and Le Beau Danube it is a ‘jukebox’ ballet, built on cleverly assembled medleys, and it received its first performance in 1951. The remainder of this CD allows listeners the opportunity to hear examples of original music composed by Sullivan, without Gilbert. The incidental music from Henry VIII is one of the many examples of incidental music that Sullivan wrote for Shakespeare plays, while Victoria and Merrie England represents the last of his ballet scores. “Sir Charles Mackerras’s irresistibly outrageous orchestrations contribute a great deal to the delight. … I, who had not heard these creative arrangements for many years, found that they came up as fresh as the proverbial paint. Not only are the cheerful counterthemes much more complex than anything Sullivan ever imagined—notably some of those for the trombones—but the music is much more difficult to play, with the violins, I would think, taxed to the limit by some of the exuberant tempos; the Philharmonia Orchestra surmounts every problem.” Gramophone Magazine “its glowing ambience casts a pleasing bloom over the spirited and elegantly polished playing of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Mackerras conducts with great warmth” Penguin Guide (Pineapple Poll) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado
Despite being, by common consent, the best of three post-war D’Oyly Carte Opera Company recordings of The Mikado, this sparkling early stereo performance with Donald Adams, Thomas Round and Peter Pratt has never been reissued by its parent label during the CD era. As it was not recorded with dialogue, the extra space has enabled Magdalen to include not only John Hollingsworth’s vivid version of Pineapple Poll but also, for the first time on CD, three overtures conducted con brio by the inimitable Arthur Fiedler. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | The Gilbert & Sullivan Edition
plus: Songs and Snatches Favourite songs from The Gondoliers, Iolanthe, Ruddigore and The Yeomen of the Guard
29 May 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert – the librettist of one of the most famous musical partnerships in music history. Decca’s earliest recordings of G&S with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company were made between 1949 and 1955 in MONO. In 1957, the first in a new series of stereo recordings was initiated with The Pirates of Penzance, culminating in 1966 with The Sorcerer; between 1967 and 1979 a second series of recordings was made. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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