Sir Hubert Parry - Symphony No. 2 Cambridge (1883)

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 1848 – 7 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. He was also an enthusiastic cruising sailor and owned successively the yawl The Latois and the ketch The Wanderer. In 1908 he was elected as a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, the only composer so honored. Please support my channel: https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans Symphony No. 2 "Cambridge" in F major (1882-83 rev. 1906?) I. Andante sostenuto (0:00) II. Scherzo. Molto vivace (11:56) III. Andante (19:20) IV. Allegro vivace (27:29) London Philharmonic conducted by Matthias Bamert Description by Bonnie Fleming [-] Richard Wagner was a controversial figure in the 1880s and being accused emulating his style was often lastingly detrimental to fledgling careers, particularly if the accusation was boldly printed in London criticisms. Hubert Parry was one of several people in London who admired Wagner's music and he endeavored to include some aspects of Wagner's chromatic harmonic language into his own emerging style. Shortly after beginning work on his own Second Symphony in 1882, Parry visited Bayreuth to attend the first performances of Parsifal and concluded "As a work of art it is the very highest point of mastery." Upon his return, Parry found inspiration from his experiences, completing the symphony in April of 1883. The Cambridge Musical Society premiered the work in June with Charles Villas Stanford conducting, since it was premiered for the first time in Cambridge, it was later subtitled "The Cambridge." Although the performance was a success and it attracted appreciative reviews, Parry was unsatisfied with the work and he put it on the shelf. Four years later he thoroughly revised the work and even recomposed the outer movements. Hans Richter gave the premiere of the new version on June 6, 1887 in London. The Second Symphony remained one of Parry's personal favorites and it was published in 1906 with even further revisions, but after the First World War it was rarely performed. Parry wrote the work in an advanced cyclic form with thematically interrelated movements, a formal inspiration derived from Brahms, which he skillfully combines with an expanded harmonic language and the ideas of tantalizingly unresolved dissonance's he learned through his exposure to the music of Wagner.

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