Hubert Parry - Twelve Sets of English Lyrics, Vol. 2 (Various Artists)

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Composer: Hubert Parry

1. English Lyrics, Set 6: No. 1, When Comes My Gwen
2. English Lyrics, Set 6: No. 2, And yet I Love Her Till I Die
3. English Lyrics, Set 6: No. 3, Love Is a Bable
4. English Lyrics, Set 12: No. 6, O World, O Life, O Time
5. English Lyrics, Set 4: No. 3, When We Two Parted
6. English Lyrics, Set 10: No. 2, Gone Were but the Winter Cold
7. English Lyrics, Set 4: No. 5, There Be None of Beauty's Daughters
8. English Lyrics, Set 4: No. 6, Bright Star!
9. English Lyrics, Set 5: No. 2, Proud Maisie
10. English Lyrics, Set 8: No. 3, Marian
11. English Lyrics, Set 8: No. 4, Dirge in Woods
12. English Lyrics, Set 3: No. 2, If Thou Wouldst Ease Thine Heart
13. English Lyrics, Set 11: No. 2, What Part of Dread Eternity?
14. English Lyrics, Set 5: No. 5, Love and Laughter
15. English Lyrics, Set 5: No. 7, A Welsh Lullaby
16. English Lyrics, Set 12: No. 5, Dream Pedlary
17. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 1, Three Aspects
18. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 2, A Fairy Town
19. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 3, The Witches' Wood
20. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 4, Whether I Live
21. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 5, Armida's Garden
22. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 6, The Maiden
23. English Lyrics, Set 9: No. 7, There

Sarah Fox, soprano

James Gilchrist, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

Andrew West, piano

Date: 2018

Label: SOMM Recordings

https://somm-recordings.com/recording/sir-hubert-parry-twelve-sets-of-english-lyrics-volume-ii/

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Review

The hundredth anniversary of Sir Hubert Parry’s death falls in October, and this second album surveying the 74 songs of his ‘English Lyrics’ is a timely tribute. Those who know Parry mainly from the robustly self-assured ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘I Was Glad’ may find the more sophisticated nuances of these songs surprising. ‘O world! O life! O time!’, to a poem by Shelley, finds Parry probing the mysteries of mortality in tentative harmonic side-steps, with a brief swell of existential anxiety on the climactic ‘No more – Oh, never more!’. Soprano Sarah Fox judges the song’s temperature astutely, and is equally impressive in the death-draped ‘Gone were but the winter cold’. Baritone Roderick Williams is verbally deft and engaging in the tetchily humorous ‘Love is a bable’, and he too gets a deeper moment in ‘Dirge in Woods’, especially in the drained stoicism of the coda.

Tenor James Gilchrist shows a sharp interpretive sensitivity in ‘Bright Star!’, a setting of Keats’s final sonnet, although his fast vibrato can suggest febrility. Pianist Andrew West supports the singers empathetically, adding much to a recital which nudges a regard for Parry the songwriter even higher than did volume one of this excellent series.

-- Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Apr/Parry_lyrics_v2_SOMMCD270.htm

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/May/Parry_lyrics_v2_SOMMCD270.htm

https://limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/parry-english-lyrics-volume-2-andrew-west/

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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", the coronation anthem "I was glad", and the ode Blest Pair of Sirens. 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. His 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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