Chandos
2006
Parry: Invocation To Music; The Soul's Ransom; Etc.
About This Album
Charles Hubert Parry's choral-orchestral works may not be for everyone -- those who disdain joyful noises need not apply -- but for those for whom Mendelssohn's choral-orchestral music is wonderful but too old-fashioned and Elgar's choral-orchestral music is marvelous but too new-fangled, they'll be just the thing. Sounding at their best like an English Brahms with just the faintest touch of early Wagner in the harmonies, Parry's choral-orchestral works combine warm colors, appealing melodies, impressive effects, and immediately apprehensible forms with not-too-overwrought rhetoric and not-too-overheated drama in an attractive if not particularly inspired personal style. In this two-disc set containing three large-scale works -- The Soul's Ransome, The Lotus-Eaters, and Invocation to Music -- along with two shorter but no less massive works -- Blest pair of Sirens and I was glad -- Parry's choral music is given entirely sympathetic and nearly wholly persuasive performances. Swiss conductor Matthias Bamert leads the London Philharmonic in the three large-scale works, while English conductor Richard Hickox leads the London Symphony in the two shorter works, and while Hickox seems more relaxed with the music's language and confident in its value, Bamert seems more attentive to the music's felicities and more passionate about its worth. Chandos' early digital sound is clear in the quiet parts and huge in the loud parts, but a bit fuzzy in the thick parts -- and, given that the works are scored for vast chorus accompanied by a huge orchestra, most of the music is thick parts, and thus most of the sound is a bit fuzzy. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
Track List

Disc 1

The Soul's Ransom, Sinfonia Sacra For Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Choric Song From Tennyson's "The Lotus Eaters" For Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

Disc 2

Blest Pair Of Sirens For Chorus & Orchestra
1.
Invocation To Music For Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
I Was Glad (Psalm 122), Anthem For Chorus & Organ (or Orchestra)
12.