Malcolm Sargent discography

Description of Sargent's recordings

Sargent's debut recording was Vaughan Williams's Hugh the Drover, in 1924, for His Master's Voice, with singers from the British National Opera Company, with whom he was then performing the work on tour. Although he recorded for other companies, most of his records were made for HMV over the following four decades.

In the early days of electrical recording, he took part in pioneering live recordings with the Royal Choral Society at the Albert Hall. Subsequently in the recording studio, Sargent was most in demand to record English music, choral works and concertos. He recorded and worked with many orchestras, but made the most recordings (several dozen major pieces) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In the recording studio, as in the concert hall, Sargent was known for his choral conducting and was in demand as an accompanist in concertos. A high proportion of the recordings listed below are in these categories.

Sargent's choral work was chiefly with the two choirs of which he was the principal conductor, the Royal Choral Society and the Huddersfield Choral Society. For his recordings with the latter, Sargent usually conducted the Liverpool Philharmonic (from 1957, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic); the pairing of the choir and orchestra became so familiar that the portmanteau word "Hudderspool" was coined for it. Sargent's choral recordings included two versions of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, four of Handel's Messiah, two of Mendelssohn's Elijah, and complete sets of Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and The Death of Minnehaha, Delius's Songs of Farewell, Handel's Israel in Egypt, Holst's The Hymn of Jesus, Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. Some of these have been reissued on compact disc, including both Gerontius sets, three of the Messiah recordings, one of the Elijahs, and Belshazzar's Feast.

As a concerto accompanist, Sargent recorded with, among many others, Fritz Kreisler, Artur Schnabel, Jascha Heifetz, Albert Sammons, Clifford Curzon, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Tortelier, and Jacqueline du Pré. His pre-war recordings with Schnabel of the Beethoven piano concertos have been reissued on compact disc. His association with Heifetz spanned the 78 r.p.m., mono LP and stereo LP eras, and many of their recordings are also available in CD transfers.

Throughout his career, Sargent remained devoted to Gilbert and Sullivan and made 21 recordings of their operas in four different decades. His earliest and last recordings of these works were with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for HMV in the 1920s and 30s and for Decca in the 1960s. In the 1950s and early 60s he conducted a series of Gilbert and Sullivan recordings for HMV, casting singers from opera and oratorio, rather than the D'Oyly Carte. All of his Gilbert and Sullivan recordings have been re-released on compact disc, and most remain in the catalogues.

Discography