Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands & The Snow – Parry: De Profundis & God is Our Hope and Strength Hertfordshire Chorus & David Temple

• Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918): De profundis:
• 1 Parry: De profundis: I. De profundis clamavi ad te Dominum 09:01
• 2 Parry: De profundis: II. Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus 05:17
• 3 Parry: De profundis: III. A custodia matutina usque ad noctem 03:58
• 4 Parry: De profundis: IV. Apud Dominum misericordia / Et ipse redimet Israel 05:52
• God is Our Hope and Strength:
• 5 Parry: God is Our Hope and Strength 12:56
• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): 2 Partsongs, Op. 26:
• 6 Elgar: 2 Partsongs, Op. 26: I. The Snow (Arr. for Choir by John Pointer) 05:41
• From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27:
• 7 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: I. The Dance 03:37
• 8 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: II. False Love 03:46
• 9 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: III. Lullaby 03:22
• 10 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: IV. Aspiration 03:09
• 11 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: V. On the Alm 03:33
• 12 Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands, Op. 27: VI. The Marksmen 05:48
• Total Runtime 01:06:00

Info zu Elgar: From the Bavarian Highlands & The Snow – Parry: De Profundis & God is Our Hope and Strength

David Temple and Hertfordshire Chorus are delighted to bring these forgotten gems back to the attention of music lovers everywhere.

Parry’s De profundis and God is our hope and strength, are powerful works from a major figure in the English Musical Renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th century, that demand wider recognition.

They are presented in this world première recording alongside two wonderful works by Elgar written at the end of the 19th century.

By the second half of the 1880s, Hubert Parry had established his reputation as a choral composer. In the first half of the decade two choral works had brought his name before the public. The first of these, a setting of scenes from Shelley’s epic prose poem Prometheus unbound, commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester in 1880, had received several performances after its inadequate premiere at Gloucester’s Shire Hall. For some critics, it seemed to herald a radical stylistic allegiance to Wagner whom Parry greatly admired, in part due to the encouragement of his mentor, Edward Dannreuther. Yet, a second choral essay, a setting of Shirley’s funeral ode, The glories of our blood and state, also for Gloucester in 1883, owed more to the heterodox legacy of Brahms’s Requiem and The Song of Destiny. It was not until 1887, with the triumph of his setting of Milton’s At a a Solemn Musick (better known as Blest pair of sirens) written for Stanford, the Bach Choir and the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, that Parry became a more a household name. Composition of this work was followed in quick succession by his first commission, the oratorio Judith, from the Birmingham Festival (1888), his Ode to St Cecilia for Leeds (1889) and another setting of Milton, L’Allegro ed il Pensieroso for Norwich (1890).

In 1891, his first Three Choirs commission from outside his ‘locality’ of Gloucester arrived from Hereford, and for this he chose the Latin words from the Vulgate of Psalm 130, De profundis. Parry conducted De profundis at Hereford on 10 September 1891. One critic averred: ‘Men of varying taste and judgment conceded to one another that, in its way, a great thing had been born into the world.’ This acclaim was affirmed by repeat performances by the Highbury Philharmonic and at the Leeds Festival in 1892, though the work was somewhat eclipsed later by the popularity of Parry’s new oratorio, Job, at Gloucester. Parry conducted the work in Cambridge in March 1899 and at the Birmingham Festival in October 1900. In the audience was Vaughan Williams who, as a student of Parry, had known the work since its inception. An ardent advocate of the piece (as was Adrian Boult, Hugh Allen and Gerald Finzi), he chaffed at its later neglect and was dismayed when it did not figure in the 100th anniversary of Parry’s birth in 1948. ‘It seems to me to be a scandal,’ he wrote to Boult, ‘that during the Parry celebrations his finest work, De profundis, should not be done. I wrote to Atkins of Worcester about it. He says it is beyond them. Obviously it is a job for the B.B.C. Please insist on its being done, and soon.’ Boult obliged, somewhat belatedly, with a BBC broadcast on 5 April 1949. After 60 years of neglect it was revived in its original version in 2022 by David Temple, Hertfordshire Chorus, London Orchestra da Camera, and soloist Sarah Fox in a performance at St Albans Cathedral.

The deeply penitential text of De profundis is imbued with darkness and despair at the admission of man’s sinfulness, yet the psalmist, with the knowledge of God’s capacity for infinite forgiveness, concludes with the anticipation of hope and redemption. It was a theme Parry, ever the contemplative, agnostic intellectual, explored repeatedly throughout his choral music. The orchestral introduction in G minor, initiated by the woodwind, evokes a shadowy sense of desolation confirmed by the entry of the strings, in the form of a sedate, ruminative march, a style-form Parry had used so effectively in the second part of Judith. The first two verses of the psalm, as the opening chorus, provide a marked contrast to the prelude’s solemn dignity, and are chorally a tour de force. Having proved his remarkable technique as a contrapuntist in the eight-part choral textures of Blest pair, Parry sought to go one step further in De profundis with three four-part choirs, couching the first verse (‘De profundis clamavi’) in a luminous F sharp major, where the choirs are treated antiphonally, and the more extrovert polyphonic second (‘exaudi vocem meam’) in D major. This virtuoso exposition is juxtaposed with a more tranquil section for solo soprano (‘Fiant aures tuae intendentes’), also in D major, and concludes the text of verse two. Numinous in its liquid lyricism, it has much in common with Judith’s first emotional aria (‘Though into the valley of the shadow of death’). Verses four and five form the basis of a second substantial choral episode in B flat major. Again Parry returns to his twelve-part choral sonority, but this time, in an energetic sonata design. Retaining its disposition of twelve parts, the chorus is now divided into two antiphonal choirs of six voices in which the first subject (‘Sustinuit anima mea in verbo’), more homophonic and muscular, is contrasted with the intricate imitative counterpoint of the second (‘Speravit anima mea in Domino’). An impressive developmental expansion achieves its apogee in the Neapolitan, C flat major, before the uplifting event of the truncated recapitulation (on a dominant pedal) and an unexpectedly hushed conclusion. This yearning choral paean is surely Parry at his most spiritually elevating and looks forward (in the same key) to the Coronation anthem I was glad (1902) and the splendour of the 1911 Coronation Te Deum. ...

Sophie Bevan, baritone
Dominic Sedgwick, baritone
Rufus Fronde, piano
Hertfordshire Chorus
London Mozart Players
David Temple, conductor

London Mozart Players
Founded by Harry Blech in 1949 as the UK’s first chamber orchestra, the London Mozart Players (LMP) has achieved international renown for its outstanding live performances and CD recordings of the core Classical repertoire. Music Directors have included Gérard Korsten, Andrew Parrott, Matthias Bamert and Jane Glover, who grew and developed the orchestras strong Classical tradition. The LMP enjoys connections with Hilary Davan Wetton as Associate Conductor, and Howard Shelley as Conductor Laureate, and continues to work closely with many of the world’s finest conductors and soloists, including Tasmin Little and Anthony Marwood. In 2015 the LMP appointed cellist Laura van der Heijden as its first Young Artist in Residence.

In addition the LMP also plays an active part in contemporary music, giving many world premières and commissioning new works, in recent years by composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Tarik O’Regan, Sally Beamish, Cecilia McDowall, Lynne Plowman, Fraser Trainer and Jonathan Dove. In March 2011 the LMP appointed Roxanna Panufnik as Associate Composer.

The LMP has been committed to providing a platform for sharing the creative arts with schools and communities for over 25 years. LMP Voyager is an education and community hub which allows music to inspire, educate & enrich communities through an extensive programme of work across the UK. The LMP have a vast programme of work in the community, from visiting day care centres and care homes to providing community concerts for elderly and disabled people. The LMP is associated with Royal Holloway University of London, Wellington College, the Portsmouth Grammar School and the Whitgift Foundation Schools in Croydon. Other ongoing ventures include visiting care homes and concert demonstrations in primary and secondary schools.

Touring is a major part of the orchestra’s schedule, with regular appearances at festivals and concert series throughout the UK and abroad. Overseas, the LMP has visited China, Spain, Belgium, France and Germany. Recording has played a major part in the orchestra’s life for many years. A long relationship with Chandos includes many recordings of works by Haydn and Mozart and an acclaimed Contemporaries of Mozart series numbers over 20 CDs. New Naxos release Flowers of the Field in collaboration with City of London Choir, Roderick Williams and Hilary Davan Wetton reached No.1 in the Classical Album Charts.

The LMP enjoys the patronage of HRH The Earl of Wessex. In June 2014 the LMP began a new and exciting phase in its history, becoming the first chamber orchestra in the UK to be managed both operationally and artistically by the players.

Hertfordshire Chorus
Known for commissioning new music, high-quality and passionate singing, tackling difficult and rarely performed music as well as much-loved and well-known pieces, Hertfordshire Chorus is one of the UK’s finest symphonic choirs. The choir performs regularly in the UK’s major concert halls, appears frequently with the BBC Concert Orchestra and with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, has worked with Daniele Gatti and José Carreras and has made numerous recordings. Its members sing regularly in other concerts, including the BBC Proms. David Temple, one of the leading choral conductors in the country, has been its Musical Director since 2000.

The Chorus has a special fund to commission new music and under David Temple’s direction its drive to encourage young British composers has produced some of the most outstanding and successful new choral music of recent times, including Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, with pieces being performed by choirs around the world. The Chorus is particularly proud of the work it does with children and young people to help encourage the next generation of choral singers and music enthusiasts.

Ode to a Nightingale (by Will Todd) and Codebreaker (James McCarthy) were both commissioned by the Chorus, with generous help from individual sponsors. The works were premiered in London’s Barbican Hall and were acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, drawn into them by the emotional power and beauty of the music and words. Their universal themes of love, science, loneliness and social injustice resonate with audiences as they are strikingly relevant to the times in which we live today. Codebreaker received its US premiere in April 2017.

David Temple
one of the country’s foremost choral directors, founded and continues to conduct Crouch End Festival Chorus. Musical Director of Hertfordshire Chorus since 2000, he has been instrumental in building the choir to a very high standard of performance.

Concert highlights with Hertfordshire Chorus include critically acclaimed performances of Elgar’s The Kingdom and The Apostles in St Albans Cathedral, frequent visits to Sage Gateshead, and the many commissions of the choir, including Codebreaker and Ode to a Nightingale. David is passionate about supporting the development of new music.

David has worked with many eminent conductors including Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Semyon Bychkov and Edward Gardner, preparing choirs for major performances. With Crouch End Festival Chorus he has completed a recording of Bach’s St John Passion for Chandos Records.

Not only involved with traditional classical music, David has collaborated closely for many years with Ray Davies, Oasis—and more recently, Noel Gallagher—as well as Goldfrapp, Travis, Bombay Bicycle Club and Basement Jaxx.

Recording work includes Bach’s St John Passion, music for the BBC’s Doctor Who at Air Studios and soundtracks such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Prince Caspian and The Awakening. David is the regular UK chorusmaster for Ennio Morricone and Andrea Bocelli.

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