HUBERT PARRY (1848-1918): Te Deum, Magnificat, Incidental Music for the Play The Birds of Aristophanes, England, Jerusalem, The Glories of Our Blood and State.

Description: World Premiere Recordings of everything but the short England and Jerusalem pieces (and even here, the latter is performed not in Elgar's 1922 richly upholstered orchestration but in Parry's own slighly more spare original version with solo soprano in the first verse and chorus only joining in thereafter). The Glories, an early work from 1883, channels the Brahms of the German Requiem while the Latin setting of the Magnificat (1897) is a contrapuntally rich acknowledgement of Parry's debt to (and lifelong interest in) Bach. The Te Deum was written for George V's coronation in 1911 and is the most steeped in the English musical tradition and is possessed of a dark, burnished splendor with great tenderness as well as solemnity. The six piece suite (19 minutes) of music from the 1883 Cambridge Greek Play shows Parry's lighter side. Texts included. Amanda Roocroft (soprano), BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales; Neeme Järvi.