From 78 to stereo, this is Sir Malcolm Sargent’s Decca legacy reissued complete, including several recordings new to CD.
Sargent’s broad repertoire and warm rapport with audiences made him easy to underestimate. Yet Schnabel and Toscanini, among other celebrated foreign musicians, held him in the highest regard. This new Eloquence collection of the conductor’s Decca recordings should help modern listeners to understand and share Schnabel’s admiration.
In his booklet essay, David Patmore tells the story of Sargent’s early career as an organist and rapid rise as a conductor in his 20s, leading the Ballets russes, Wagner’s Mastersingers and a popular series of children’s concerts. Having made records since the 1920s, he was an experienced conductor in the studio by the time he began recording for Decca, directly after the war.
These 78-era sessions included symphonies by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert as well as overtures by Rossini and Suppé, several of them never reissued until now. They reveal what a direct and unmannered interpreter Sargent could be in canon repertoire, coaching orchestras to achieve the highest technical standards. He was always a dynamic conductor of English music: his Decca recordings of Holst’s Planets, Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Coronation Marches have lost none of their rhythmic drive and intensity.
Sargent’s concerto sessions with Sir Clifford Curzon (in Rawsthorne), Max Rostal (Bartók), Ida Haendel (Mendelssohn) and Ruggero Ricci (Tchaikovsky and Dvorak) bear out his reputation as a sympathetic accompanist. ‘Messiah and Mikado’ was how the conductor summed up his strengths in the eyes of the wider public: the box includes rare 1946 recordings of Handel arias and choruses featuring Kathleen Ferrier, as well as a live 1949 recording of Sargent accompanying her in his own orchestration of Brahms’ Four Serious Songs.
Having comprehensively covered the light operas of Gilbert and Sullivan for HMV, Sargent remade both Yeoman of the Guard and Princess Ida for Decca in 1964–65. These records movingly document the final chapter in the conductor’s career-long affinity with G&S, now leading the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and first-rate casts which include Elizabeth Harwood and Donald Adams in the principal roles of both works. Sargent was a conductor for all seasons, and this Eloquence box takes the measure of him.
CD 1
BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
CD 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4*
ELGAR Enigma Variations (1945 recording)
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5˚
*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
˚FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 3
HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks
SCARLATTI The Good-Humoured Ladies˚
GRIEG Lyric Suite*
ROSSINI ∙ BERLIOZ ∙ SUPPÉ Overtures˚
*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
˚FIRST RELEASE ON CD
CD 4
HAYDN Symphony No. 98
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
CD 5
HANDEL Arias & Choruses
Kathleen Ferrier; Ada Alsop
Richard Lewis; Trevor Anthony
CD 6
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
Ida Haendel
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto (1950 recording)
Ruggiero Ricci
CD 7
BARTÓK Violin Concerto No. 2*
RAWSTHORNE Piano Concerto No. 2
Max Rostal; Clifford Curzon
*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
CD 8
PURCELL/COATES Suite from the Dramatic Music
ELGAR Enigma Variations (1953 recording)
J.S. BACH ∙ GLUCK Arias
BRAHMS Four Serious Songs
Kathleen Ferrier
CD 9
WALTON ∙ BAX · ELGAR Marches
PROKOFIEV Peter and the Wolf
Symphony No. 1
Ralph Richardson
CD 10
HOLST The Planets*
The Perfect Fool
*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
CD 11
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto (1961 recording)
DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto
Ruggiero Ricci
CDs 12–13
SULLIVAN The Yeomen of the Guard
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
CDs 14–15
SULLIVAN Princess Ida
Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
CD 16
The Instruments of the Orchestra*
*FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA
“Sir Malcolm secures a performance that is both careful and enthusiastic; the tempi are sensible, the solos are beautifully played and the recording is well managed.” The Record Guide (Elgar: Enigma Variations)
“Ricci’s performance is very fine and musicianly, and the recorded tone is excellent.” The Record Guide, 1955 (Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto)
“Strongly recommended … Clifford Curzon delivers the solo with imperturbable authority.” The Record Guide, 1955 (Rawsthorne: Piano Concerto No.2)
“Sargent has secured a performance full of vigour and energy… excellently played.” Gramophone, July 1945 (Beethoven: Symphony No. 5)
“Sargent gives a brilliant performance, which gives due emphasis to the long-drawn melodies of Berlioz.” Gramophone, July 1947 (Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict, Overture)
“I like the style, and the recording rises to the needs of the not over-scored music with perfect aptness.” Gramophone, April 1948 (Grieg: Lyric Suite)
“Ferrier’s generosity of tone and emotion is finely matched to the music … Sargent gives conviction to his own setting.” Gramophone, September 1979 (Brahms: Four Serious Songs)
“Rostal gives a musicianly and vigorous performance … Sargent provides an intelligent and spirited accompaniment.” Gramophone, June 1951 (Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2)
“Sargent gives an interpretation that is traditional in almost all respects, in a work where tradition may still be held to be extremely authentic.” Gramophone, July 1953 (Elgar: Enigma Variations)
“Sargent conducts a very elegant performance of the Symphony: full of style, with extremely good playing by the LSO, and in a recording of great clarity of detail, yet utterly natural.” Gramophone, September 1970 (Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1)
“Vivid, powerful recording in the full panoply of ffrr … and the touches of fanciful wind-work tell with extraordinary effect in clarity and pungency.” Gramophone, January 1947 (Holst: The Perfect Fool)
“Beautiful playing by the orchestra, firm but sensitive control by Sargent and really vivid recording … a truly outstanding set.” Gramophone, September 1964 (Yeoman of the Guard)
“Sargent conducting in relaxed but winning fashion and Elizabeth Harwood still unmatched as Elsie Maynard.” Gramophone, February 1996 (Yeoman of the Guard)
“Miss Harwood is quite splendid as Princess Ida … For the rest of the principals I have nothing but praise … Sargent achieves a very happy amalgam of control and sympathy.” Gramophone, November 1965 (Princess Ida)
“Admirably fulfils its purpose … The quality on both mono and stereo … is splendid, as is the playing by a number of well-known soloists.” Gramophone, January 1961 (‘The Instruments of the Orchestra’)