Here is the second volume (of what will be a series of three) of the twelve books of English Lyrics by Hubert Parry, of songs based on the English poetry of such greats as Shelley, Byron, Keats, Scott and Coleridge. The composer wrote them between 1874 and his death in 1918, a considerable collection of melodies running from his early style which still showed borrowings from Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms (who was Parry's senior by just 15 years), towards an ever-more personal language, also a little more dissonant and sombre, and which bore the marks of the Great War. All the same, tonality and melody are still the central pivots of music for Parry, who was no revolutionary. That said, these Songs laid a royal road for the great masters of English melody like Butterworth, Gurney, Warlock, Bridge, Ireland, Finzi and finally Britten. For this second volume, the works are shared out between soprano Sarah Fox, tenor James Gilchrist and baritone Roderick Williams, with a magisterial piano accompaniment from Andrew West. We await the third instalment with impatience! © SM/Qobuz