British Music Society Newsletter:
Grossmith's two main claims to fame were to co-author "The Diary of a Nobody" and to create most of Gilbert & Sullivan's comic roles. But he wrote and composed much on his own account 18 operettas, 600 songs and piano pieces and about 100 sketches. One of his “Humorous and Musical Recitals" was seen in around 1890 in Doncaster by the then Parish Church Organist who pasted the programme into his diary with the terse comment "All Rot!". I suppose it is, but it is entertaining for all that. This CD includes extracts from his operettas and has "recitals" and various individual songs. Many are parodies of G & S, Irish songs, American gospel songs, Sullivan's Lost Chord and so on; one or two, like My Lady Nature's Little Joke, commissioned by the "Strand Musical Magazine", are more serious.

Best known of all is See Me Dance the Polka, immortalised in Walton's Facade. This CD is drawn from two cassettes of Grossmith's music issued by the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society in 1995-6. Leon Berger is well known as a Savoyard and his clear delivery and even clearer diction do well for these songs, while Selwyn Tillett is a sympathetic accompanist. The booklet is nicely presented and the CD, which is well recorded and affords generous measure, is generally very recommendable, though best listened to a few tracks at a time - and in most cases there is practically no pause between items. Phil Scowcroft

In the Groove” (USA):
I was happy to receive in the mail the CD A Society Clown: the Songs of George Grossmith featuring Leon Berger (baritone) and Selwyn Tillett (piano), issued by the Divine Art Record company in association with the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society. At the risk of offending the person who usually writes reviews around here, I will blunder ahead and render my review – I don’t want to give this enjoyable CD away just so someone else can review it!

George Grossmith (1847-1912), I must admit, was not a name in our household. I was interested to learn in the liner notes that he was the creator of the chief comedy parts in Gilbert & Sullivan operas, to include Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. He was also the author of 18 operettas and 600 songs and piano pieces. When Sir William Gilbert temporarily split away from Sir Arthur Sullivan, Grossmith was selected to write the music for several songs by Gilbert. Grossmith was also well known for “humorous and musical recitals” and toured the US. I have to wonder listening to the songs and looking at the liner note illustrations if he was the inventor of a genre of performer that is still with us, the wit at the piano, carried on by Tom Lehrer and more recently Mark Russell.

If you like Gilbert & Sullivan, you will most likely enjoy the songs of George Grossmith. The songs are indeed witty and stand up well today. The Lost Key, his parody of Sullivan’s The Lost Chord, should make any highbrow laugh. My personal favorite is He was a Careless Man, a song about a man whose name is always found in a list of patrons, but who forgets to send the check. I had to chuckle at sir William Gilbert’s lyrics in If you value a Peaceable Life, “If you value a peaceable life, this maxim will teach you to get it. In all things give way to your wife, I didn’t and learned to regret it".
The music is well recorded and well performed. “
Phil Stewart

Fanfare (USA):
George Grossmith was most famous as the creator of nearly all of Gilbert & Sullivan’s great clown roles… but he was also a successful composer for music-hall revues. This interesting disc gathers his most famous songs. It’s unfortunate that Grossmith never made any recordings (although enough of his contemporaries have so that we have a good idea of what his style would have been like, even if we are deprived of what was certainly a unique genius). Certainly it must have been that personality that made these songs successful in the theater, since in these perfectly decent performances there’s nothing remarkable about them – they are merely respectable examples of their genre. But this is a genre that has many admirers who will undoubtedly be grateful for this unusual release.
James Camner

MUSICWEB:
In the course of his work, this reviewer is sent a few divine recordings, many good ones, too many so-so's and occasionally a bizarre one such as this album, fondly described by its makers as - 'Over 75 minutes of Victorian fun.'

Grossmith seems to have been a jack-of-all-trades (and I will refrain from the smart comment): law-court reporter; author; composer of songs - comic and sentimental, and of operettas - and actor and entertainer etc. But his main claim to fame was that he created most of the chief comedy parts in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas - parts like the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado.  He was also joint author with his brother Weedon, of the classic comic novel, The Diary of a Nobody.

He was also famous for his Humorous and Musical Recitals. It is 24 of these that comprises this programme sung with contortionist-like relish by Leon Berger assuming so many roles and so many styles that it is a wonder he survives without a desiccated, never mind split personality. The programme opens with perhaps the best known song 'See Me Dance the Polka.' In 'His Nose Was on the Mantlepiece', Mr Berger assumes a thick Irish accent and describes a typical belligerent affray in which we learn that Pat Doolin's '…nose was on the mantlepiece, his mouth was on the floor, his teeth were hanging on a peg behind the kitchen door…' In 'The French Verbs Song', he assumes a thick Gallic accent with many ahahahs and eehaw laughs and proceeds to murder the French language. 'The Lost Key' mercilessly lampoons Sullivan's Lost Chord. The key is the key to a lady's wardrobe and she discovers it is missing when she is out in her carriage and starts to worry about the trinkets that might be lost and the clothes that the maids could 'borrow', then worse - about somebody reading her love letters!

The songs all have a quaint period charm and are mildly amusing. Enjoyable according to your taste.
Ian Lace