Parry Symphony no 5

 Day 40

Parry Symphony no 5 in b minor

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Vassily Sinaisky

My first encounter with Parry was when we played the overture to an unwritten tragedy on a youth orchestra course. For some reason I really took against the big cadential moments in the score and as a futile act of protest mimed those bars rather than play them - as a humble second bassoon it made no difference to the sound of course. I must have been a very pretentious young man!

Parry is now of course most closely associated with Jerusalem, Blessed Pair of Sirens and I was glad. How wonderful it was to hear the last of those at the coronation, complete with the fanfares and vivats.

I’d head the 2nd symphony before but this was my first acquaintance with the 5th symphony - subtitled symphonic fantasia. Each movement has a subtitle and they all follow each other without a break. It is a comparatively late work (1912) but it very much inhabits the world of Dvořák and Brahms with the occasional hint of Richard Strauss. And in the trio of the 3rd movement I was momentarily reminded of the ländler style of Mahler - though it is a sobering through that Mahler was already dead at the time that this symphony was written.

The highlight for me was the second movement ‘love’ which was absolutely gorgeous. The third movement scherzo is surprisingly lively with some rhythmical quirks.Only the last movement was a bit of a let down. For me it never quite got going and was clearly intended to be an apotheosis at the end rather fell flat. But there was plenty of music here to enjoy and I certainly intend to catch up with the other symphonies. Whether I can quite bring myself to listen to Job, the subject of one of the most savage - and entertaining review - by George Bernard Shaw in his days as a music critic, remains to be seen.