GILBERT & SULLIVAN: HMS PINAFORE - D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY, JAMES WALKER (2 CDS)

An atmospheric Decca Phase 4 stereo recording of a much-loved Savoy opera.The work of the Australian musician, James Walker, can be found on many Eloquence releases but he appears here in an unfamiliar guise. He trained as a pianist both in his native Australia and at the Royal Academy of Music in London and soon afterwards became assistant to the renowned director of ballet and film scores, Ernest Irving. From 1947, he was director of the International Ballet Company until its disbanding in 1953 when he joined the fledgling Decca Records Company as a recording engineer. In that capacity, he worked as a pioneering stereo engineer in London, Geneva, Belgrade and elsewhere on many recordings which would become staples of the Decca catalogue.But in 1968, he returned to the podium as the musical director of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company upon the retirement of its long-standing conductor, Isidore Godfrey who had recorded the complete Savoy operas for Decca. It was in this capacity that Wa