Parry: Songs of Farewell— Westminster Abbey Choir/James O’Donnell (Hyperion 68301)
The classic Anglican cathedral sound is front and center with Sir Charles Hubert H. Parry’s substantial Songs of Farewell filling the last half of the disc. The first half includes Sir Charles Stanford's eight-part Magnificat in B-Flat, posthumously dedicated to Parry, along with Stanford’s Three (Latin) Motets Op 38. The program also has pieces by less well-known UK composers. The Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F minor by Alan Gray and Charles Woods’s Nunc Dimittis in B-Flat round out a program of pieces from the early 20 th century, a period overshadowed by World War I. Personal as well as musical associations run deep in this beautifully expressive program from the Choir of Westminster Abbey, recorded in June 2019 not in the Abbey, but at All Hallows Gospel Oak, London. (Note: Link takes you to the Hyperion website.)