12 - Reconstructing Sullivan's Cello Concerto

Summary

Charles Mackerras first came to prominence in 1951 with the ballet Pineapple Poll, which was based on a story by W. S. Gilbert; the music was arranged by Mackerras from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, whose music copyright had expired at the end of 1950. Long an admirer of Sullivan's music, Mackerras then turned his attention to the virtually forgotten Cello Concerto. His 1953 performance, in a BBC Third Programme concert with William Pleeth as soloist and the Goldsborough Orchestra, was the first for over forty years. If little was known of Sullivan's non-G&S music in 1975 (D'Oyly Carte's centenary year), even less was known in 1953, and it is doubtful that many people would have tuned in to the Third Programme to hear this rarity. The BBC did not make a recording of the concert and it has been assumed that no recording was made by anyone: none has come to light. Unfortunately this turned out to be the concerto's last performance. Unpublished, the score and orchestral parts had been available for hire from Chappell and Co. but, along with much else, these were destroyed in a devastating fire that also caused loss of life at Chappell's premises on 6 May 1964.

In 1975, timed to commemorate the D'Oyly Carte centenary, there appeared a remarkable book: Sir Arthur Sullivan, Composer & Personage by Reginald Allen, Curator of the Gilbert and Sullivan collection at the Pierpont Morgan Library, essentially a life (but not a biography) of the composer compiled from the library's vast archive. I acquired a copy of the book in June 1976 and became aware of the extent and scope of the collection. Apart from the G&S material there was much, much more, including the manuscripts of several of the songs that I had studied at Birmingham as part of my MA on Sullivan's songs and, incredibly, a manuscript of the solo part of the Cello Concerto in a copyist's hand; dated ‘7/2/87’, it appears to have been made for a performance that year by J. Edward Hambleton.