Concert life in London allowed Hubert Parry many chances to hear the latest examples of symphonic composition and he eagerly absorbed everything from Wagner to Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. One month after hearing a London performance of Brahm's First Symphony, Parry began his own first endeavor in the genre in December of 1880. He hoped to have his work performed in the 1881 season of the Philharmonic Society. Several delays forced the initial performance to be rescheduled for a concert in June 1882. Even after several reschedulings, the punishing schedule of operas and orchestral concerts of the Philharmonic Society allowed only one rehearsal for Parry's work. The rehearsal itself consequently turned into a fiasco and accordingly the performance of the symphony was once again abandoned. Seeking more promising conditions, Parry accepted an offer from the Committee of the Birmingham Festival to premiere the work in their program later that summer. Parry conducted the first performance in Birmingham on August 31, 1882 to great acclaim. A second performance, now in London, followed soon thereafter under August Manns at the Crystal Palace in April 1883.

After 1883 the First Symphony existed in obscurity, unpublished and unperformed for the next 107 years. Yet this admirable symphony bears comparison with initial attempts by many other nineteenth-century composers. There were no English models for Parry to follow, and the success of this work and its influence on his subsequent efforts in the genre make it difficult to overestimate the seminal nature of this work in the development of British orchestral music. Although there are moments throughout the symphony that unquestionably reveal Parry's reverence for the works of Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, the cyclic design and emotionalism in much of the thematic material mark the work with undeniable, truly individualistic inventiveness.



© All Music Guide