Sir Arthur Sullivan - Festival Te Deum

London Choral Society BBC Concert Orchestra Teresa Cahill, soprano Margaret Phillips, organ Ronald Corp, conductor (Broadcast in 1988; CD released in 2001 by BBC Music Magazine.) The Festival Te Deum is the popular name for an 1872 composition by Arthur Sullivan, written to celebrate the recovery of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) from typhoid fever. The prince’s father, Prince Albert, had died of typhoid fever in 1861, and so the prince’s recovery was especial cause for celebration. The Festival Te Deum was first performed on 1 May 1872 at The Crystal Palace in a special “Thanksgiving Day“ concert organised by the Prince’s brother, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was a friend of Sullivan’s and commissioned the piece. Sullivan was allowed to dedicate the work to the prince’s mother, Queen Victoria: an unusual honour. At the original performance, the London contingent of the Handel Festival Choir of 2,