This was the title of a concert at St. John's Smith Square, London, on October 22nd 1978, conducted by Joseph Pilbury in an attempt to sponsor the serious side of Sullivan. For one, who, like Mr. Pilbury, has championed so vociferously the virtues of Sullivan's serious music, it was, I felt, a mistake to include excerpts from G&S operas, as if admitting that serious Sullivan in concert needed G&S to make it palatable. And besides, I find odd bits of G&S in concert intensely boring. The concert was preceded by a Symposium, chaired by Peter Gammond, which failed to reach any really stunning conclusions regarding Sullivan. Frederic Lloyd woffled woollily about this and that; in mentioning Frederic GoreOuseley he managed to get wrong both his Christian name and the key in which he blew his nose! The first half of the concert consisted of The Grand Duke overture, and excerpts from Martyr of Antioch, Patience, and The Light of the World. Grand Duke was all wrong, it was made to sound monumentally grand and heavy. The two excerpts from Martyr were a poor advertisement for the oratorio. Barry Hardy sang flat and made "Come Margarita, Come" sound very undistinguished (even Edward Lloyd's ancient record makes the aria sound better than that). The unaccompanied chorus "Brother, thou art gone before us" was well sung, but seemed very long. Patience was dreadful. The soloists were totally miscast. Mr. Pilbury, however, deserves full marks for letting us hear five excerpts from The Light of the World which convinced me (as the RRE recording had not done) that this work really is worth hearing. If we had only had a complete performance of this oratorio instead of all the bits and pieces, the evening would really have been a major landmark in the rehabilitation of Sullivan. Having heard The Light of the World, I felt I had heard what I came hoping to hear and that the rest of the evening could only be an anticlimax, so I did not stay for excerpts from Ivanhoe and The Pirates of Penzance which formed the second half. I was sorry, though, that this meant missing hearing my old acquaintance Paul Ekins. MICHAEL WALTERS

ELGAR AND SULLIVAN

On Monday 4th December, the indefatigable Mr. Pilbury gave a talk to the Elgar Society at the British Institute of Recorded Sound, in which he discussed eloquently the roles of these two composers in British music, and Elgar's debt to Sullivan. It was a very worthwhile evening.

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