Hubert Parry - Invocation to Music (Matthias Bamert)

Information

Composer: Hubert Parry

1. Invocation to Music: Introduction: 'Myriad voicèd Queen!' - 'Turn, O return!'
2. Invocation to Music: 'Thee, fair Poetry oft hath sought'
3. Invocation to Music: 'The Monstrous Sea'
4. Invocation to Music: 'Love to Love calleth'
5. Invocation to Music: Dirge: 'To me, to me, fair-hearted Goddess, come!'
6. Invocation to Music: 'Man, born of desire' - 'Rejoice ye dead, where'er your spirits dwell'
7. Invocation to Music: 'O enter with me the gates of delight'
8. Invocation to Music: 'Thou, O Queen of sinless grace'

Anne Dawson, soprano
Arthur Davies, tenor
Brian Rayner Cook, baritone
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Date: 1992
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209025

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Review

Chandos's brave and important Parry series, conducted with sterling musicianship and remarkable insights by Matthias Bamert, adds another choral disc to the four out of the five symphonies so far issued. Recently The Soul's Ransom and The Lotos Eaters were released (1/92) and now comes the large-scale, nearly hour-long cantata Invocation to Music, a ten-movement setting of a poem by Parry's friend Robert Bridges and composed ''in honour of Henry Purcell'' for the bicentenary, in 1895, of his death. The first performance was at the Leeds Festival that year. How many have there been since then?

In his notes with the disc, Bernard Benoliel makes high claims for this work as a major influence on Elgar (Gerontius) and Vaughan Williams (A Sea Symphony). Certainly one can detect pre-echoes of both and the work is remarkable for its fluency, sensitive treatment of the words and the melodic grandeur familiar from Blest Pair of Sirens. Its finest episodes are the central ''Dirge'' (sung by Brian Rayner Cook a little insecurely) which is a memorial to Parry's brother-in-law, who died at 45 while this work was being written, and the subsequent chorus ''Man, born of desire'' (which Holst also set in his Choral Fantasia). Elsewhere there are some uneven and four-square passages which prevent one's subscribing to a view of this work that would equate it with the successors Benoliel names. But at its finest, it reaches heights of eloquence that cannot have been lost on the leaders of the next generation and it is music that ought to be heard in our halls.

The performance, like the recording, is excellent, with clear diction from the London Philharmonic Choir. Arthur Davies sings the tenor solo ''Thee, fair poetry'' with lyrical grace, while in the two big soprano solos, the mantle of Elizabeth Harwood seems to have fallen on Anne Dawson, so sweet and rich is her tone and so sensitive her enunciation of the text.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parry-Invocation-Music-Hubert/dp/B000000AOO
https://www.amazon.com/Parry-Invocation-Music-Hubert/dp/B000000AOO

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Hubert Parry (27 February 1848 – 7 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. As a composer he is best known for compositions such as the choral song "Jerusalem" and the coronation anthem "I was glad". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations. In 1895 Parry succeeded George Grove as head of the Royal College of Music, remaining in the post for the rest of his life. Parry's influence on later composers, such as Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge and John Ireland, is widely recognised.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Parry

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Matthias Bamert (born July 5, 1942 in Ersigen, Canton of Bern) is a Swiss composer and conductor. Bamert studied music in Switzerland, in Darmstadt and in Paris, with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was principal oboist with the Salzburg Mozart Orchestra between 1965-1969, then switched to conducting. Bamert's conducting career began in North America as an apprentice to George Szell and later as Assistant Conductor to Leopold Stokowski, and Resident Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel. He made over 60 recordings, most of them for Chandos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Bamert

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