Here's a Howdy Do! (1993)

The King's Singers David Hurley, counter-tenor Alastair Hume, counter-tenor Robert Chilcott, tenor Bruce Russell, baritone Simon Carrington, baritone Stephen Connolly, bass

RCA Victor 09026-61885-2

All of the selections on this album are performed by The King's Singers, a group of six male singers who perform madrigal-like arrangements of all kinds of music, usually without accompaniment. (When accompaniment is present, it can range from double bass to Ugandan drum.) In many numbers, they provide their own bi-di-bum style accompaniment. At first, one is intrigued. However, as the selections go by, the sound does not wear well, and by the last track one is truly irritated. There is simply not enough variety in The King's Singers' presentation to sustain an entire album of G&S highlights. At 54:52, the timing is also less than generous. This is not a disc that I can recommend to anybody, except perhaps for the especially curious collector who simply wants everything. For the record, the selections are as follows:

"A British Tar" (Pinafore)
"The Sun Whose Rays" (Mikado)
"Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes" (Gondoliers)
"The Ghosts' High-Noon" (Ruddigore)
"Ah, Leave Me Not" (Pirates)
"A Wand'ring Minstrel I" (Mikado)
"The Pirate King" [sic] (Pirates)
"Tit Willo" (Mikado)
"With Cat-Like Tread (Pirates)
"Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day" (Mikado)
"A More Humane Mikado" (Mikado)
"Rising Early in the Morning" (Gondoliers)
"Gilbert and Sullivan Medley" [a patter song medley]
"Patter Matter"
"Here's a Howdy Do" [sic] (Mikado)"