Songs of Farewell – The Organ

It is not often that music by Parry, Bridge and Vaughan Williams is heard on one CD but that is what this Jeremy Backhouse’s recording has done, with Bridge’s rarely heard A Prayer framed by Parry’s Songs of Farewell and Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor
It is a rare treat to hear all six of the Parry songs in one siting, disclosing the composer’s scheme of using a four part choir for numbers one and two and then adding an additional voice for each of the subsequent motets. His sumptuous vocal writing is sensitively handled by the Vasari Singers who obviously have a great understanding of English a cappella music.

JR
The Organ