Recordings of Pineapple Poll

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Pineapple Poll Ballet (1951) Sadler's Wells Orchestra Charles Mackerras, conductor This was Charles Mackerras's first recording of Pineapple Poll. I have not heard this recording.

Regis RRC2049

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
1951	Columbia	78rpm	DX 1765-70	Six 12-inch double-sided discs
		Mono LP	ML 4439	1 LP
2002	Regis	CD	RRC 2049	Also includes 1951 D'Oyly Carte Iolanthe
2004	AVID	CD	AMBX138	10-CD set containing the entire nine-opera series recorded 1949–51, plus Pineapple Poll, the Overture ’Di Ballo’, and orchestral highlights (S. Robinson) from Pinafore and Yeomen

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Correspondent Malcolm Walker reports that this recording was made 27-29 April 1951 in EMI No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, on matrix numbers: 2EA 15822-33. The recording was made for and issued only by RCA in the USA.

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number
1951	RCA Victor	Mono LP	LM 1224

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Correspondent Malcolm Walker reports that this recording was made 28 August 1951 in EMI No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, on matrix numbers CXE 13563-68. The recording was made by Parlophone but issued only by Decca in the USA.

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number
1951	Decca	Mono 10" LP	DL 7521

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Pineapple Poll Ballet (1958) Pro Arte Orchestra John Hollingsworth, conductor This has been the most popular of the Pineapple Poll recordings, aside from those led by Mackerras himself. It is a credible reading of the score, though most listeners will prefer a Mackerras-led version. The 1991 CD re-issue includes a recording of the Savoy Dances, arranged and conducted by Stanford Robinson, based on music from The Sorcerer, Ruddigore, The Gondoliers, Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke, which was originally issued around 1957 on a 45rpm EP. (Note: I am somewhat doubtful that the label and number of the first release are accurate, since I don't think the Pye label existed in 1958.)

Pye Collector GSGC 15023

Pye EP

Vanguard SRV-292 SD

Pye PLP 1012

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
1958	Pye	Stereo LP	CML 33000
			PLP 1012	Australian issue
		45rpm	[need number]	Highlights
Early 1960s?	Marble Arch Collectors Series	Stereo LP	MALS 909	J. Donald Smith notes that this is a Canadian publisher
1968	Vanguard	Stereo LP	SRV-292 SD
1975	Pye Collector	Stereo LP	GSGC 15023
1991	EMI	CD	CDM 7 63961 2	With Savoy Dances (arr. Robinson), plus overtures to Iolanthe and The Mikado; Pro Arte Orchestra, Stanford Robinson, conductor.
2011	Magdalen	CD	METCD8002	With 1957 Mikado and four overtures recorded by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (1952).

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This arrangement by W. J. Duthoit includes four movements from the original Pineapple Poll ballet. Also included are various other non-Sullivan ballets arranged for band. According to Nathan Chan, although this was recorded in 1959, "the Golden Import pressings are later and are not as good."

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
1959	Mercury Golden Imports	Stereo LP	SRI-75138	Also includes selections from Rossini's "Boutique Fantasque" and Gounod's Faust.
1992	Mercury Living Presence	CD	434-322-2	Includes all of the above, plus selections from Wagner's Lohengrin and Das Rheingold.
2001	Decca	CD	468 810-2	Included on a CD from Decca's British Music Collection

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This was Mackerras's second recording of the score. Mackerras's interpretation of the work has remained consistent over the years, so modern listeners will probably prefer his sonically-superior 1983 recording.

World Record Club R. 04177

EMI CDM5 66538 2

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
1962	HMV	Mono LP	CLP 1399
		Stereo LP	CSD 1399
196-?	Capitol	Stereo LP	SP 8663	Album cover indicates also available in mono
196-?	World Record Club	Stereo LP	R. 04177	Australian Issue
197-?	EMI/Angel	Stereo LP	ESD 7028
1980	Arabesque	Stereo LP	8016
		Cassette	9016
1985	Arabesque	CD	Z8016
1997	EMI	CD	CDM5 66538 2	Also contains overtures to Yeomen, Ruddigore, The Mikado, and Iolanthe, dating from 1957

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The Sadler's Wells Ballet Pineapple Poll Video (197-?)

The video in my collection was recorded off the air in the 1980s when it was shown on the Bravo cable network (and introduced by Rita Moreno). I take the performance to date from the 1970s, but this is only a guess. The Cranko/Lancaster mounting is the original production from 1951. My impression is that Sadler's Wells no longer performs it very often, if at all. I am not aware of any home video release.

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EMI 767 697 2

This recording includes a suite from Pineapple Poll (eight of the eleven numbers), allowing room for a suite from the ballet The Lady and the Fool, also arranged by Mackerras, from music of Verdi. Ironically, the Verdi material diminishes one's measure of Mackerras's achievement in Pineapple Poll, as the two pieces sound extremely similar, which suggests that Mackerras is not the master orchestrator many G&S fans have given him credit for. His arrangement of The Lady and the Fool suggests nothing of the style of Verdi.

EMI CFP 2007 CD Cover

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number
1977	EMI Classics for Pleasure	Stereo LP	CFP 40293
198-?	EMI Classics for Pleasure	Stereo LP	CFP 41-4490-1
1993	EMI Classics for Pleasure	CD	CFP 4618 (U.K.) 767 697 2 (U.S.)
		Cassette	TC CFP 4618
2007	EMI Classics for Pleasure (U.S.)	CD	B000R7HQU8

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Decca SXDL 7619

Decca Eloquence 480 1284

This is Mackerras's most recent recording of the score, and the one listeners today are most likely to encounter, due to its reissuance on CD coupled with the 1965 Ida, and more recently on a budget CD re-issue with excerpts from Henry VIII and Victoria and Merrie England.

Interestingly, the timing of this version comes within just a few seconds of Mackerras's 1962 reading, so evidently his views on the score have remained remarkably constant.

Critic John France has a longer review of the 2011 re-release at Music Web International.

 

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
1983	Decca	Digital LP	SXDL 7619	with Overture di Ballo
	London	Digital LP	LDR 71119
		Cassette	LDR5 71119
1993	London/ Decca	CD	436810-2	with 1965 Ida
		Cassette	436810-4 (not verified)
2011	Decca Eloquence	CD	480 1284	Also includes Henry VIII (two movements) and Victoria and Merrie England, Suite No. 1 (both Royston Nash/Royal Philharmonic)

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This is an abridged version of the score, presenting only the Opening Number, Poll's Dance, and the Finale. It appears on a disc called "Concert in the Park." The remainder of the disc is non-Sullivan. Bob Lang, who told me about it, speculates that it was "probably the musical part of a TV special."

Alfred Falk begged to differ: "It was, I am quite certain, a studio recording with no other purpose than future release as recorded music. I believe the Edmonton Wind Ensemble existed only for a few studio sessions and some earlier special events. 'Snake Fence Country' was released several years later by CBC, from the same sessions. Pinchin's credentials in G&S are that he was conductor of the G&S Society of Calgary, Alberta, from the mid-50's to the laste 60's (I think). Mostly, he has conducted amateur community bands for the last twenty years."

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number
1988	CBC	CD	SMCD 5079

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Naxos 8.570351

This recording by David Lloyd-Jones has not received any reviews that I am aware of, and it is not in my personal collection. It comes with a recording of Sullivan's Symphony in E ("Irish").

 

Issue History

Date	Label	Format	Number	Comments
2007	Naxos	CD	8.570351