EMR CD084 | DETAILS
  EMR CD084
   
 

THE SOUND OF HIDDEN MUSIC
   
  Jeremy Huw Williams (bar.)
Paula Fan (pf)
   
  EAN 5 060263 500780

This new release of songs by Hubert Parry is Paula Fan’s final recording in a legacy of remarkable recordings from this remarkable Chinese-American pianist, whose unique intellect remained ever curious and inquisitive. This CD contains three world premiere recordings of Parry’s songs. The first of these is “The Maid of Elsinore” (1891), the Viking tale of the 10th-century Norwegian King who married Tyra of Denmark. The second, “Ode to Newfoundland”, was written in response to request to Parry from his old friend Sir Cavendish Boyle, then Governor of Newfoundland, for a tune for words he had written for the Newfoundland National Song. The third, “The Laird of Cockpen” was written in 1906 using words by Lady Nairn, the tale of a self-possessed 17th-century Laird.

 

Perhaps the words of one of the composer’s great champions, His Majesty The King, best summarises the hidden man: “a complex man with a mind of his own, who challenged his upbringing, and, in love, let his heart rule his head.” It is gratifying to think that the 21st century might bring a new image of Parry and his hidden music into focus.

TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
     
Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848–1918)
1. “THE POET’S SONG”  
2. “A SPRING SONG”  
3. “THE MAID OF ELSINORE” (World Première recording)  
4. “OF ALL THE TORMENTS”  
5. “THINE EYES STILL SHINED FOR ME”  
6. “WHEN LOVERS MEET AGAIN”  
7. “WHEN WE TWO PARTED”  
8. “LOVE AND LAUGHTER”  
9. “A LOVER’S GARLAND”  
10. “AT THE HOUR THE LONG DAY ENDS”  
11. “ODE TO NEWFOUNDLAND” (World Première recording)  
12. “THE LAIRD OF COCKPENT” (World Première recording)  
13. “FOLLOW A SHADOW”  
14. “JULIA”  
15. “MARIAN”  
16. “LOOKING BACKWARD”  
17. “WHETHER I LIVE”  
18. “THERE”  
19. “GONE WERE BUT THE WINTER COLD”  
20. “A MOMENT OF FAREWELL”  
21. “THE CHILD AND THE TWILIGHT”  
22. “FROM A CITY WINDOW”  
23. “ONE SILENT NIGHT OF LATE”  
24. “WHEN THE DEW IS FALLING”  
25. “TO BLOSSOMS”  
26. “THE SOUND OF HIDDEN MUSIC”  

 

REVIEWS
Beautifully shaped by Benjamin Frith... Beguiling sounds, graced by the tawny richness and unexaggerated line of Richard Jenkinson’s cello playing... The sense of purpose and sureness of line of Ian Venables’ music is pure oxygen.
EMR CD31 | BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Exquisitely rewarding... Ravishing accounts.
EMR CD029 | CHOIR AND ORGAN
This is music of great beauty and integrity and the performances fully do it justice. It would be criminal to let it pass you by.

EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW

The Bridge Quartet approach these pieces with a sympathetic and insightful warmth, and confirm their ambassadorial credentials for British chamber music. A lovely, radiant disc.
EMR CD025 | Gramophone
Duncan Honeybourne’s playing is astonishingly affectionate, yet never saccharine... Honeybourne plays with suave confidence.
EMR CD024 | INTERNATIONAL PIANO
Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folk-song like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful, with a shimmering pastoral central section... Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholic strain.  Finely recorded and with comprehensive booklet notes, this is a must for fans of 20th-century English repertoire.
EMR CD023 | THE STRAD