Hubert Parry

[giles.enders]

On Friday 27th May at 7.30 pm BBC4 there is a programme about Parry which is presented by Prince Charles.  It should prove quite substantial as it is 1.1/2 hours long. 

[Alan Howe]

I trust it will cover the entire range of his music...

[Mark Thomas]

I think that it's concentrating on his choral works: the sort of stuff which the Price of Wales will have heard in all those royal occasions in the Abbey or St Pauls: Jerusalem, I was glad, Bless'd pair of sirens etc.

[Lionel Harrsion]

I heard a clip on Radio 4 the other day in which HRH said he was first alerted to how great a composer Parry really was when someone gave him a set of the five Symphonies.

[eschiss1]

hrm. born 1948... wonder if it was the Master of the Queen's Music (presumably Bliss? what did Bliss think of Parry?) who did that service

[albion]

Highly unlikely, as Arthur Bliss died in 1975 - well before the first commercial release of a Parry Symphony (Adrian Boult conducting the LPO, recording completed on 20th December 1978): HRH is clearly referring to the Matthias Bamert set recorded by Chandos in the 1990s.

Morning Heroes (1930), much of the ceremonial music written whilst Bliss held the office of MQM (works such as A Song of Welcome, 1954) and many of the later orchestral scores reveal the greatest respect for and strong influence of Parry, either in terms of choral texture, word-setting or the characteristic use of diatonic double or triple suspensions.

[Lionel Harrsion]

Highly unlikely, as Arthur Bliss died in 1975 - well before the first commercial release of a Parry Symphony (Adrian Boult conducting the LPO, recording completed on 20th December 1978).

Albion -- you are all-knowing: am I right in thinking that this recording of the 5th Symphony was Boult's last recording?  In any case, I treasure my vinyl copy.

[alberto]

As far as I know, it was Boult's last recording (1978). I treasure it in Lp and in CD format (Blest Pair of Sirens was added to the CD).

[Lionel Harrsion]

As far as I know, it was Boult's last recording (1978). I treasure it in Lp and in CD format (Blest Pair of Sirens was added to the CD).

Thanks, alberto.  I guess the 'Sirens' is the recording that was coupled on LP with Janet Baker's Sea Pictures.

[alberto]

Boult recordings in LP format: Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens was coupled to Elgar' The Music Makers.
Baker's (and Barbirolli's) Sea Pictures were, in Lp format, coupled to Du Prè (and Barbirolli's) Cello Concerto.

[Lionel Harrsion]

Boult recordings in LP format: Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens was coupled to Elgar' The Music Makers.
Baker's (and Barbirolli's) Sea Pictures were, in Lp format, coupled to Du Prè (and Barbirolli's) Cello Concerto.

Sorry, alberto, you are quite right - I meant to say 'The Music Makers'.  If I had a brain I could be dangerous!!

[albion]

Yes, it was Boult's swansong and a supremely fitting farewell to his career in the recording studio - released by EMI as ASD3725 the disc coupled the 5th Symphony with the Symphonic Variations and the Elegy for Brahms. This performance of the 5th is preferable to Bamert's on Chandos, which unnaccountably omits an important flute part (which forms the top line in a sequence of descending triads) during the first movement. 

[Alan Howe]

The BBC4 programme was a delight. Too much of Prince Charles emoting, perhaps, but Parry is hard to resist, after all. I'll not be deleting this from my pvr!

[Mark Thomas]

Oh good. It's waiting on my recorder for me to enjoy tomorrow.

[albion]

Well ... in the end, this turned out to be an absolutely superb documentary programme from the BBC! The obvious enthusiasm and intelligent appreciation shown by the Prince of Wales was a very positive link between the diverse strands of the Parry story. A meticulous care to get the facts right was enhanced by lengthy contributions from Jeremy Dibble, Anthony Payne, David Owen Norris and many other key figures, including Laura Ponsonby.

We were shown around Shulbrede and invited to view some of the fascinating photographs and letters contained in the extensive and invaluable archive there; we were treated to rehearsals for last year's milestone Proms performance of the sublime 5th Symphony and snippets of the actual performance itself, superb illustrations of Parry's piano music (extracts from Shulbrede Tunes and Hands Across the Centuries), moving performances of parts of the Songs of Farewell, and a rare chance to hear a section from the otherwise-unrecorded and woefully neglected Magnificat (1897).

Most of the significant aspects of Parry's life were at least touched upon: his generally Liberal (if not Radical) outlook; his nervous temperament; the trauma of his relationship to his estranged elder brother Clinton; the gradually-suffocating relationship with Lady Maude; his passions for sport, sailing (especially in stormy weather) and driving too fast; and his great generosity of spirit and willingness to acknowledge 'character' in any music that he heard, even if he was otherwise unsympathetic to it.

Anybody who came to this programme just knowing Parry through Jerusalem would surely have come away with much food for thought!