Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

196-7

text excerpt

This beautiful work was written for and brought out at the Leeds Festival of 1886. There can be no doubt that it immensely enhanced the reputation of the composer, whose genius as a writer of comic operas had been brilliantly exemplified eighteen months before by the production of “The Mikado”. The laurels yielded by the Savoy operas were of necessity shared by Sir Arthur with his talented collaborator, Mr. W. S. Gilbert. In regard to the Leeds cantata, the composer certainly owed much to Longfellow's lovely poem and to Mr. Joseph Bennett's adroit adaptation thereof; but, this apart, there was no one to divide with him the glory of a supreme triumph, of an artistic achievement that stood “head and shoulders” above all his previous efforts. The overwhelming success at Leeds was the more remarkable in that it came at the close of the greatest festival ever held there— following new works of such calibre as Dvorak's oratorio “St. Ludmila," A. C. Mackenzie's cantata “The Story of Sayid”, and Villiers Stanford's fine choral ballad “The Revenge," not to speak of a phenomenal performance by the Yorkshire chorus of Bach's great Mass in B minor, never before attempted at a provincial festival. The most tremendous ovation of all, though, was that which greeted the composer of "The Golden Legend" when he laid down his baton at the close of the noble choral epilogue. Such ringing British cheers had not been heard in that magnificent hall since Queen Victoria opened it in the "fifties."

excerpt from 'Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900' pp. 196-7 (260 words)

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1438266059280