Phase 4 Stereo: Gilbert & Sullivan: HMS Pinafore / D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

I found the product to be of good quality and have played part of it so far. I have no complaints with the product, but ONE MASSIVE compklaint with Amazon.co. They shipped another purchase to the wrong address and despite repeated requests they have not recovered the item and sent it to me.I intend to refuse the charge to my credit card when it comes due to Amazon's ineptitude.

naturally, you have to like gilbert and sullivan to like this recording. i do, so i'm totally happy with the cd.

This joyous recording of Gilbert and Sullivan’s first monster hit is GREAT. It was released to coincide with the D’Oyly Carte Opera’s centenary season, their television Pinafore,, and their 1976 North American Tour. The singing and comedy is first rate, and the music bubbles like vintage champagne! Also included is the Phase 4 recording of bits from Mikado, Ruddigore, and Pirates of Penzance. Also on Amazon: New recordings of Sullivan’s Haddon Hall, Light of the World, and Ivanhoe, and Gilbert’s wonderful Mountebanks. BUY THEM!

Ever since D'Oyly Carte made this wonderful recording of Pinafore in 1971, it has been given somewhat unfair critiques, including one that called it "infamous." That criticism came about because of the distorted sound on the original LP issue, but things seem to have improved with this CD reissue, allowing the performance to be heard more clearly. Nevertheless, the artistic distinction of the performance still manages to shine through brightly, and this alone can contribute to the winning appeal of its admirers.Even despite the fact that John Reed gives a memorable performance of the Ruler of the Queen's Navee, his portrayal seems to have deteriorated a little bit. This is due to the obvious staleness of his voice (well, it was a feature of all the D'Oyly Carte recordings that were made from the 1968 Pirates onwards, so you mustn't blame him!) and his deteriorating diction. Some of the words were not pronounced clearly, as in his character's famous comical autobiographical song, and there is evidence of sloppiness of hte notes in places. The other major drawback is John Ayldon's Deadeye. Like all D'Oyly Carte recordings to which he contributed, this one was ruined by the unpleasant gruffness of his voice. His portrayal seems not to match Donald Adams on every level. However, for the rest of the cast, there is much to please the ear. Thomas Lawlor makes as first-class a Captain as Jeffrey Stitch, Gordon Sandison or Thomas Allen, but even though he has a slightly heavy and dark-timbred voice, he nevertheless manages to remove it from this recording. He is certainly better suited to this role than to Deadeye, the role he played on the New Sadler's Wells recording. Ralph Mason makes a heady-toned Rackstraw, and he certainly is a joy to hear on record, determined to win the hand of Josephine, who is memorably characterised by the best G&S prima donna, Valerie Masterson. She sings with a full-blooded mature soprano voice with which she gives a melancholy air to her opening ballad and blood to her grand operatic scene. She is certainly better than Jean Hindmarsh, if only by a small margin, even though the twitter in the latter's voice does not hurt at all. And lastly, I would like to highlight the underrated Christene Palmer's fruity portrayal of Little Buttercup, which is on par with Gillian Knight and Felicity Palmer. The rest of the cast is splendid, the choral singing as well-disciplined as the orchestra, and James Walker paces the tempi nicely, with some small quibbles that don't matter a lot. The recording has transferred well to CD, and the sound effects kept to a minimum, to help give a sense of atmosphere. The dry recording is also characteristic of all D'Oyly Carte recordings made from their 1968 Pirates onwards. The major complaint is the Spectacular fill-ups which don't seem to fit in with Pinafore, as they are too improperly chosen and the tempi too slow. If the CD ends with The flowers that bloom in the spring, it does not give a definite sense of an ending.Overall, I would safely say that while this is not necessarily a first-choice, its artistic merits shine through compellingly to make it be one. Let me advise you to ignore the Spectacular items by programming them out. Anyone who wants a standard D'Oyly Carte performance will be well pleased with this.

The 1971 "Phase 4" HMS Pinafore is, from what I've seen, a much maligned recording. It was the first Pinafore I've ever heard, so I have positive feelings for it for that reason if no other. The original LP release sounded worse than the CD version and contained more prevalent nautical sound effects during the dialogue. Today, it is available in barely decent sound on CD with the other D'Oyly Carte recording subjected to "Phase 4" technology. The "Gilbert and Sullivan Spectacular," recorded in 1965, is added onto the second CD as a bonus. (NB: this issue includes all of the Spectacular except the Pinafore excerpts it included.)In conductors, we see both ends of the spectrum:James Walker is *the* quick-tempo conductor. I created a chart comparing the timings of five different HMS Pinafore recordings, and Walker's tempi were the quickest 12 times, and never the slowest. As a minor point of interest, James Walker was the chorus master for the fabulous 1968 Pirates of Penzance under Isadore GodfreyAnd then there's Malcolm Sargent: he is *the* slow-tempi conductor (at least, he was in his later years). The items in the G&S spectacular are, as other reviewers pointed out, very slow. "Three little maids from school" and "The flowers that bloom in the spring" suffer the most under Sargent's hand. Still, the best item in the spectacular isn't hurt by Sargent: Philip Potter's "A wand'ring minstrel I" is a joy to behold. Aside from the inherent interest in hearing Donald Adams as the Sergeant of Police, there is little else to notice about this set.Comparing the 1959 and 1971 D'Oyly Carte performances is unfair. But however you slice it, every performer in the older 1960 set is preferable to every of this 1971 set with two exceptions: Valerie Masterson and Pauline Wales. The former as Josephine is fabulous, the latter as Hebe catches the humor of her part perfectly. The only carry over, John Reed, sounded more alive in the earlier recording. Really, the entire 1971 cast sounds tired (except Pauline Wales) compared to their 1959 counterparts. I actually laughed out loud when I heard the 1960 recording because some of the dialogue was performed so much better with such great enthusiasm!Nevertheless, the sound is the biggest snag. All higher or louder moments in the music are subject to distortion in the recording. High notes sound like they come out of the 1930s, not the 1970s! Decca has no excuse for the dreadful sound that plagues this recording.This is not the first choice among Pinafores, but rather one of the last. I would highly recommend investing in the scintillating  1959 D'Oyly Carte recording  before buying this one.2018 Update: Revisiting this recording is always frustrating. The sound is so distorted and dry, barely acceptable by 1955 standards, let alone 1971. The 1959 recording's sound is so excellent for the time, it's hard to pick listening to the 1971 recording over the other. If I'm going to listen to a Pinafore with sub-standard sound, I'll go to the 1930 D'Oyly Carte recording with its historical value.

The sound is excellent, and there are excellent additions to the CD release which were recorded for a Phase-4 G&S disc. The problem is the performance itself. The music and the dialogue are recorded in two distinctly different acoustics, and very unnecessary sound effects of sea gulls and lapping waves have been added to the dialogue (they disappear the moment the music begins, which makes for an unintentionally comical effect of birds racing away at the sound of the orchestra). The Company, alas, was not at its very best when this was recorded, and the cast represents something of a downward step from the beautifully recorded 1960 D'Oyly Carte recording. John Reed is again his wonderful self, of course, and Valerie Masterson is superb as Josephine (although Jean Hindmarsh in 1960 is exquisite as well). Ralph Mason as Ralph and Christene Palmer as Little Buttercup are not, for me up to the level of their predecessors, Thomas Round and Gillian Knight (although Ms. Knight is no great shakes at the dialogue either, being far too proper for a bumboat woman). This recording has always been thought of by many G&S lovers as a bit of a mistake, an attempt at "sound staging" which doesn't work. It's not a BAD performance, but I greatly prefer either the 1960 D'Oyly Carte (with dialogue) or the somewhat stately but beautifully sung and played Sargent performance on EMI (with no dialogue)

Good album