For a work that many in Arthur Sullivan's lifetime considered his greatest achievement, it is remarkable that no complete recording of The Golden Legend was available until 2001, and now suddenly there are two of them. David Lyle led a very fine pro-am performance (issued privately), and now there is this recording from Hyperion.

Diana Burleigh wrote:

What a wonderful recording this is. So rich and well produced. It is beautifully sung and shows off the music beautifully. As I had not heard much of this work before, it was a sheer delight to listen to it. I strongly recommend anyone who doesn't have the CD to get it.

BBC Music Magazine named the recording one of the top 60 CDs of 2001. Nicholas Williams wrote in the magazine:

Worthy of a CBE for services to neglected music, Ronald Corp now turns his attention to Sullivan. Praised in its time and subsequently forgotten, The Golden Legend turns out to be a vivid and melodious score, worthy to stand among Sullivan's finest works. Influential, too, for it clearly prefigures [Elgar's] Gerontius, and stands as a milestone on the road to the English choral classics of the 20th century.