Parry: Symphony 1

 

Anyone thinking the music of Sir Hubert Parry as dusty and academic, including this listener, ought to listen to his Symphony no. 1 in G Major. Sure, Parry looks to German Romantic-Era models for his First Symphony, and he audibly sticks to compositional structural rules, yet I find this music unexpectedly heroic and exciting. Perhaps nothing to make the blood boil, but far from wooden, and actually quite beautiful in the end.

Some of this could be due to Matthias Bamert leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a somewhat muscular approach, but you won't hear me complaining. In fact, I rather enjoy this ensemble's playing here, as well as the Chandos sound from the early 90s. The church acoustic at St. Jude's-on-the-Hill does not shear any clarity, color, or impact one bit, a talent from these engineers at this time.

Of course, if Parry is looking to Schumann and Brahms for inspiration, he does so in a late-Romantic fashion, not completely removed from Wagner in some instances. The only overt 'British' sound I hear in this symphony comes in the final movement, bearing a noticeable musical pomp at times.

Otherwise, the first movement is the most serious of the work, while the second movement is sweet yet full sounding, with much more spotlight given over to the wind sections. Despite the G-Major key, there is a recurring musical shadow which Parry can't resist revisiting throughout these two long movements.

The third-movement Scherzo is hardly breathless, but it is certainly Teutonic sounding, in a rather swashbuckling manner too. Listening to the horn-section feature in the Trio reminds me of the many musical settings of the Lorelei legend, full of Germanic forested murmurs and sweetly singing strings. The fourth movement is bubbly and forward moving, where Parry adds some syncopations for rhythmic interest. A pastoral jaunt opens the last movement, eventually leading into a string-laden chorale of sorts, with lots of harmonic twists in both sections.

The only other recording of Symphony no. 1 in G Major I know is from William Boughton on Nimbus. Boughton takes a little more time in some of the movements compared to Bamert, although the English Symphony Orchestra is not quite a match to the LPO, at least for those looking for comparisons. Neither recording offers a whole lot of additional music tied to the symphony.

For this Works Series entry, I will only be covering Parry's First Symphony, but will cover the paired Concertstück elsewhere soon (BLOG).

 

 

Work Series
Vol. 1 from Parry Symphonies on Chandos


Works
Symphony 1 in G Major (42.39)

Performers
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Label: Chandos
Year: 1992

Find more Parry recordings HERE!