Is this new disc an unalloyed success? No. Does it enhance our knowledge of Parry as a composer of choral music? Yes. Is it worth purchasing? Emphatically, yes.
To explain the above summary, I must say that it has taken several days of listening to assess the contents of this (admittedly very welcome) new release from Chandos. For me, the two most significant discoveries are the 1911 Coronation Te Deum and the 1897 Magnificat: the former I now consider a very great work indeed, and the latter a fascinating but flawed work. I have to admit that I didn't initially hold out much hope for the the Coronation Te Deum, but it is simply marvellous - imposing choral climaxes as only Parry can build, fascinatingly varied choral textures (including a supremely beautiful unaccompanied
Holy, Holy, Holy) and a firm structural grasp which integrates the contrasting sections of the text into an ultimately satisfying whole - this is emphatically not just "occasional" music.
The Magnificat begins with some typical Parryan bustling on the strings which just seems to hang fire until the first choral entry: this is a problem which afflicts sections of several of his larger scores, a business which is simply that and nothing more. Once things get going, however, there is much to admire: two contrasting soprano solos (well taken by Amanda Roocroft despite a suspect high G# in her first outing) and a pastoral central choral movement with a very Bachian solo violin obbligato. Although the final fugue is taken too fast by Jarvi, the piece ends with the type of splendid peroration we expect from Parry in a Three Choirs commission.
I have to own up to the fact that I don't care for
The Glories of Our Blood and State at all - dull, sub-Brahmsian gloom quite without the requisite melody that would lift it out of the commonplace, and the inclusion of
Jerusalem in Parry's orchestration just proves how thrillingly Elgar re-imagined the piece. The suite from
The Birds is a delight (as so much of Parry's unrecorded incidental music will prove to be), but the unison choral song
England (despite Boult's advocacy) is inconsequential and justifies the composer's own dismissal of his efforts.
A mixed bag, then, but well worthwhile for
The Birds, the Magnificat and (most of all) for the Coronation Te Deum. What we need now are first-class recordings of
Prometheus Unbound (1880),
L'Allegro ed il Pensieroso (1890),
Ode to Music (1901),
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1905) and the large-scale Te Deum (1900/ 1913).
:)