Hubert Parry chamber works : Hyperion

From Hyperion, Hubert Parry chamber pieces with the Leonore Piano Trio,  revealing an aspect of the composer's output that is relatively neglected, given the prominence of his choral and orchestral works.  This recording also highlights the influences Parry absorbed from a fairly early stage in his career, connecting his work to contemporary trends in wider European music circles.
The Partita  in D minor for violin and piano was conceived in early 1877, when Parry was on holiday in Cannes. He was invited to play (as a pianist) in a series of  concerts organized by Edward Guerini, an Italian violinist.  They performed a suite for violin and piano, based on a piece which Parry had written in 1872-3.  In 1886, it was revived as the Partita heard in a recital organized by Edward Dannreuther, who had taught Parry in the 1870's, and was very well connected in European music circles, introducing Parry to new influences.. Dannreuther hosted concerts at this home in 12 Orme Square, Bayswater, featuring the works of Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Greig, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák. Dannreuther's son Hubert was named after Parry, who was his co-godfather, the other being no other than Richard Wagner, another close friend, who stayed with the Dannreuthers when he was in London. Edward's other children were suitably christened Sigmund, Tristan, Wolfram and Isolde. Hubert Dannreuther became a naval commander and was one of the few to survive the sinking of HMS Invincible at the Battle of Jutland in 1916,  which Parry commemorated in his The Chivalry of the Sea - a Naval Ode.  (Please read more HERE) ,

The version of the Partita heard on this recording is the version published in 1890.  It bears the influence of French baroque style,  flavoured with late 19th century pianism. The first movement, marked maestoso, is a  dialogue between violin (Benjamin Nabarro) and piano (Tim Horton), a curtain raiser for the courtly allemande, where the piano provides foundation for a lively violin line.  The courante is so vibrant that the music seems to levitate, violin and piano in equilibrium  The relative restraint of the sarabande is followed by two bourées fantastique brightened by dotted rhythms and a passepied en rondo.

Dannreuther (later to become Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music), was pianist for Parry's Piano Trio no 1 in  E minor at its first hearing at Orme Square in 1878.  Parry handles form with poise, balancing the instruments to great effect.  An  appassionato leads into an animated scherzo, contrasting with the particularly lovely  adagio, where the cello line (Gemma Rosefield) flows gracefully, and the trio comes together again in the allegro giocoso.

Exclusive to this recording is Parry's Piano Trio no 3 in G major, unpublished in his lifetime, edited and prepared for performance by Jeremy Dibble. The opening movement, displays the confidence of a composer who has found his identity, "dominated by an abundance of more extended, self-developing thematic material whose muscular diactonicism is especially characteristic of the composer", as Dibble writes.  The lyrical freedom of the capriccio shows equal assurance. Of the lento, Dibble writes, "There is much to remind us here of the inventive, commodious sonata processes which Parry had discovered in so many of his instrumental slow movements, the affecting phrases of the first subject, the composer's passionate use of suspensions, and the typically restive rhythmical momentum of the fluid secondary material". The final movement, marked allegro con fuoco, is unhurried but steady.