The Tempest (Sullivan)

[1] After Sullivan's return to England, early in 1862, music critic Henry F. Chorley hosted a private performance of The Tempest in his home, where George Grove, at that time Secretary to the Crystal Palace, heard the piece.

[2] Sullivan revised and extended the music to twelve movements, which were given in full at a concert on 5 April 1862 at the Crystal Palace, with a linking narration written by Chorley and spoken by Arthur Matthison.

So great was the success of the concert that it was repeated the following week, and Sullivan's reputation as an extremely promising composer was made overnight.

Gervase Hughes detects the influence of Ludwig van Beethoven in the Introduction, Robert Schumann in the Act IV Overture.

[1] In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream was regularly used in theatrical productions.

[1] In his review of the 2008 recording by the Kansas City Symphony, Rob Barnett writes, "This music is smooth, full of lissom invention and generally in the style of Schumann and Mendelssohn ...

[6] A complete recording was issued in 2016 on the Dutton Epoch label, together with Sullivan's incidental music for Macbeth and his "Marmion Overture".