Parry Symphonies

[Russ_H]

An excellent Parry bargain on Chandos:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294

At the risk of being accused of listening to quasi-cowpat music, I bought this record, and found it very enjoyable, so I have decided to start exploring Parry's symphonies.

Does anyone have any recommendations, bearing in mind that I like recordings, as well as performances, to be of good quality.

[umslopogaas]

I have two discs of Parry's music, both on LP:

Boult and the LPO play symphony 5, symphonic vars. and elegy for Brahms (EMI/HMV).
Boult and the LSO play overture to an unwritten tragedy, an English suite, Lady Radnor's suite and symphonic vars.

I dont know if either have made it to CD, but if they have I dont think you should hesitate. Boult must be just the man to bring Parry's music to life. He even looks a bit like him ...

[Roehre]

I have two discs of Parry's music, both on LP:

Boult and the LPO play symphony 5, symphonic vars. and elegy for Brahms (EMI/HMV).
Boult and the LSO play overture to an unwritten tragedy, an English suite, Lady Radnor's suite and symphonic vars.

I dont know if either have made it to CD, but if they have I dont think you should hesitate. Boult must be just the man to bring Parry's music to life. He even looks a bit like him ...

Symphony 5 certainly has made it to CD, IIRC even more than once. It was actually my very first Parry LP, in the late 1970s.
I consider this recording as indispensible, though the Bamert recording on Chandos (early 1990s) shows an equally fine interpretation IMO.
The other LP made it at least once to CD, on Lyrita IIRC.
I think that the overture received its first recording on this LP.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

These might be useful to you, Russ:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=parry+symphonies&sprefix=parry+symphonies%2Caps%2C271

... the Boult discs quite correctly highly-praised by umslppy are amongst the goodies! Bambert's Symphony cycle is also treasurable.

Happy Listening!

(Not "cowpat" of any description, [quasi-, proto- or pre- by the way. That epithet was reserved for the post-RVW pre-Walton "school" of English composers.)

[EdgeleyRob]

You can't go wrong with this set.



It certainly isn't cowpat music!
There is some wonderful chamber music by him on cd too.
FHG beat me to it.

[Roehre]

At the risk of being accused of listening to quasi-cowpat music, I bought this record, and found it very enjoyable, so I have decided to start exploring Parry's symphonies.

Does anyone have any recommendations, bearing in mind that I like recordings, as well as performances, to be of good quality.

Apart from the very fine Symphony no.5 and the brahmsian (what else? ) Elegy for Brahms it was especially the slow mvt of Symphony 2 which convinced me of the quality of Parry's symphonic output.

I wholeheartedly second EdgelyRob's recommendation.

[Barbirollians]

The Boult discs are in afive disc set that also includes del Mar's Stanford Irish Symphony - and very good they are too.

[Pabmusic]

...(Not "cowpat" of any description, [quasi-, proto- or pre- by the way. That epithet was reserved for the post-RVW pre-Walton "school" of English composers.)

I agree wholeheartedly. Parry was a 19th-Century composer, trained in, and revering the German tradition. He wrote very enjoyable music, in which Schumann and Mendelssohn are prominent, though Wagner and Brahms join in, too.

All the discs mentioned here are fine (I've not really heard a poor Parry recording). There's plenty of songs, piano, organ and chamber music on disc, too - and don't forget some very fine choral music. The Songs of Farewell are a must, at least.

My personal choice would be Symphony 3, Symphony 5, Symphonic Variations, Elegy for Brahms, Lady Radnor's Suite, English Suite and the Piano Concerto.

The 'cowpat' epithet was never true of RVW, either - only to those who wanted to be dismissive.

[Pabmusic]

Symphony 5 certainly has made it to CD, IIRC even more than once. It was actually my very first Parry LP, in the late 1970s.
I consider this recording as indispensible, though the Bamert recording on Chandos (early 1990s) shows an equally fine interpretation IMO.
The other LP made it at least once to CD, on Lyrita IIRC.
I think that the overture received its first recording on this LP.

The EMI recordings are from Boult's very last recording session, in Abbey Road No.1, over four days and ending on 20 December 1978. (His first session had been on 5 November 1920.) It was known in advance that it was to be his last, and EMI had asked him to name the programme. Boult wanted to do an all-Parry programme of pieces that had not been recorded before, and chose Symphony 5, Elegy for Brahms, and From Death to Life. Problem was, no-one could find the performing materials for the latter (this is where I come in, because I was one of those who tried); the piece had been performed, but not since WW1, and the parts had vanished. They had to be copied out for Mattias Bamert's later recording, but there wasn't time for this to be done for Boult, so he (a little sadly) plumped for a second recording of the Symphonic Variations.

I understand that EMI recorded the sessions, or part of them, in experimental digital, although they've never released this version. If this is so, then Boult must be almost the only (possibly the only?) person to record acoustically and digitally.

Boult's attitude to his last session was typical. His very first professional concert, on 27 February 1914, had included two first performances - The Banks of Green Willow, by his friend George Butterworth, and the first British performance of Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade. A very great and selfless man.

[BBMmk2]

At the risk of being accused of listening to quasi-cowpat music, I bought this record, and found it very enjoyable, so I have decided to start exploring Parry's symphonies.

Does anyone have any recommendations, bearing in mind that I like recordings, as well as performances, to be of good quality.

I have that recording and bought it when it first came out! Strongly recomended.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Great Post #9, Pabs!

The 'cowpat' epithet was never true of RVW, either - only to those who wanted to be dismissive.

No; I'd hoped to make that clear by saying "post-RVW". The expression was originally used (IIRC) by the great Elisabeth Lutyens, who admired RVW as a man and Artist, but resented the next generation of "English" composers whom she heard as imitating what he'd already done better, and the exposure of these figures at the expense of other kinds of "English" (and New) Music - her own included, of course.

AQ little unfair, perhaps; but she had a point. It's a bit like the 18 performances (so far) of works by Judith Weir compared to the 4 (so far) by Ferneyhough. Plus ça change from a pound note as they say.

[visualnickmos]

This set of Parry syms on Chandos is one of the best bargains I have found. I'm amazed that his popularity has dwindled to virtually zero over the decades, but I guess these things go in cycles - sometimes with extremely protracted timescales.
Did he write any concertos, chamber music, etc? Maybe if he did, it may never have made it to the studio...

[Ferretfancy]

Oh God! Parry's so stupendously dull, even when imitating Brahms!

[JFLL]

No; I'd hoped to make that clear by saying "post-RVW". The expression [cowpat music] was originally used (IIRC) by the great Elisabeth Lutyens, who admired RVW as a man and Artist, but resented the next generation of "English" composers whom she heard as imitating what he'd already done better, and the exposure of these figures at the expense of other kinds of "English" (and New) Music - her own included, of course.

I know Elisabeth Lutyens coined the phrase 'cowpat music', but I wonder whether she was consciously or unconsciously recalling Peter Warlock's comment on RVW's music: 'You know, I've only one thing to say against this composer's music: it is all just a little too much like a cow looking over a gate. None the less he is a very great composer and the more I hear the more I admire him'. So in the context, Warlock was not being at all dismissive of RVW's work as a whole, and the remark seems affectionate rather than cutting (unlike Lutyens's bon mot, or mauvais mot), although it is often interpreted that way, as I think by the R3 presenter introducing an RVW symphony a few weeks ago. (See here)

[Pabmusic]

Did he write any concertos, chamber music, etc? Maybe if he did, it may never have made it to the studio...

I mentioned this in no.8, but here's the piano concerto: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parry-Stanfo...007622&sr=8-28

Here's the violin sonatas: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parry-Violin...007779&sr=8-55

The 2nd & 3rd piano trios: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parry-Piano-...007865&sr=8-66

The cello sonata: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romantic-Cel...08000&sr=8-102

The nonet: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parry-Stanfo...08351&sr=8-198

There have been more, but still these seem to be available. I recommend the piano concerto.