Hubert Parry

[vandermolen]

The Symphonic Variations are a masterpiece - I prefer them to the Enigma Variations of Elgar.

[Delicious Manager]

I saw the Parry programme last night. I have to admit I was disappointed. Prince Charles definitely 'got in the way' and dwelt far too long on minor details sometimes at the expense of presenting a more rounded portrait of Parry. Nothing was said about his nearly forty years living in Knightscroft House, Rustington, Sussex (where he wrote most of his major works, including Jerusalem), nor many of his other major works (glad that the Magnificat and 5th Symphony were featured, however), nor that he was a victim of the terrible Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, which caused his death.

A useful and enjoyable programme that could have been better.

[albion]

nor that he was a victim of the terrible Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, which caused his death.

There is a persistent fallacy that Parry died from Spanish flu. In fact he died on 7th October 1918 from blood poisoning caused by a badly supperating cyst in his groin. This in turn was the result of his bossy musical assistant, Emily Daymond, insisting on a long cycle ride on 6th September: from Parry's diary -

Emily, overhasty, bustled along all the way to Littlehampton Common. I was by that time very tired. At dinner I chaffed her about it and she took violent offence and sulked all dinner and went to bed directly after.

By the following day a new and particularly nasty protuberance had developed. Prone to cysts, Parry had only recently had an operation to remove one the previous June and had still not fully recovered from the ordeal. An attempt was made to produce a vaccine from his blood cultures, but his system was chronically weakened and his last month was spent in agonising pain.

[Delicious Manager]

nor that he was a victim of the terrible Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, which caused his death.

There is a persistent fallacy that Parry died from Spanish flu. In fact he died on 7th October 1918 from blood poisoning caused by a badly supperating cyst in his groin. This in turn was the result of his bossy musical assistant, Emily Daymond, insisting on a long cycle ride on 6th September: from Parry's diary -

Emily, overhasty, bustled along all the way to Littlehampton Common. I was by that time very tired. At dinner I chaffed her about it and she took violent offence and sulked all dinner and went to bed directly after.

By the following day a new and particularly nasty protuberance had developed. Prone to cysts, Parry had only recently had an operation to remove one the previous June and had still not fully recovered from the ordeal. An attempt was made to produce a vaccine from his blood cultures, but his system was chronically weakened and his last month was spent in agonising pain.

You live and learn! 

[JimL]

YUCK!  Thank you for sharing.  Talk about coming to a bad end!

[britishcomposer]

Oh no! I missed the show... 
Anyway, I don't even know if BBC television has an online service.
Has anyone recorded the feature? Or knows about plans to release a DVD?

[albion]

With the recent additions to the download section, it may be useful to take stock of the major choral works that can now be accessed either there or on disc:

Prometheus Unbound (1880) - BMB
Blest Pair of Sirens (1887) - several recordings including Chandos CHAN 241-31, etc.
Ode on St Cecilia's Day (1889) - BMB
Eton (1891) - BMB
De Profundis (1891) - BMB
The Lotos-Eaters (1892) - Chandos CHAN 241-31 and BMB
Job (1892) - Hyperion CDA 67025 (now archive service only)
Invocation to Music (1895) - Chandos CHAN 241-31
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905) - BMB
The Soul's Ransom (1906) - Chandos CHAN 241-31
Ode on the Nativity (1912) - Lyrita SRCD.270
The Chivalry of the Sea (1916) - Dutton CDLX 7172

Of course a number of these renditions are less than ideal, but it is at least now possible to obtain a broader overview of Parry's choral output.

Exciting news is that there may be a possibility of L'Allegro ed Il Penseroso (1890) being revived next year - http://www.ism.org/news/article/resurrecting_rootham_and_parry

[Jimfin]

I must say I think Parry's best work is in his choral music (and his English Lyrics), which I prefer greatly to his orchestral ones. I'm looking forward to hearing 'Prometheus Unbound' on here, when I've worked through the many other UC downloads! It would be great if we could hear 'Judith' too. I know that his oratorios are not considered his best choral music, but Vaughan Williams claimed 'I thrill to the majesty of Job and Judith', which is enough for me to long to hear the latter (already knowing the former thanks to Hyperion)

[Dundonnell]

Worth recalling that Bernard Shaw disagreed somewhat with Vaughan Williams about the merits of Parry's 'Job'.

Shaw desribed 'Job' as

"the most utter failure ever achieved by a thoroughly respectworthy musician. There is not one bar in it that comes within fifty thousand miles of the tamest line in the poem."

Now THAT is criticism

[Jimfin]

Yes, Shaw's review was pretty damning. It has been claimed that he heard a particularly bad performance. 'Job' is not my favourite Parry by any means: he tried to change the traditional oratorio by having the voice of God be the chorus and with the very long 'lamentation of Job', but it doesn't really hang together. But I like the 'lamentation' itself, and I have often thought it may have inspired Judas' long solo before his suicide in 'The Apostles'.
     Shaw said some horrible things about a lot of British composers and said them so memorably that they are still remembered. How many other music critics is that true of?

[Dundonnell]

Agreed.

When a critic writes something quite so damning about a work it actually becomes almost more intriguing to hear it and then judge for oneself

[Jimfin]

Absolutely: I have thus got into Sullivan's Ivanhoe, Stanford's Irish Symphony and Parry's Job, and I am very fond of the former two, though I still love Shaw's bitchy little comments about them. I always wonder with Stanford whether they had some long-standing feud, both having been born in the small community of Protestant Dublin within a few years of each other. Stanford was really good at upsetting people.

[FBerwald]

I really wish there was a better version of his Piano Concerto. The Hyperion one was unfortunately very disappointing. The tempo especially in the 1st movement was draggy. A faster tempo would have made all the difference! I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way !?!

[Jimfin]

Yes, it didn't inspire me much. And a shame, as it appears to be his only venture into concertante music

[Dylan]

The broadcast version listed under British Music Broadcasts  is at livelier tempi than the subsequent recording - that's why I uploaded it, even if the sound is a little rough.