Guildford

Some composers really deserve their reputation as artists whose fame rests on a single work, but with Holst the popularity of The Planets really has obscured the large quantity of good music he wrote in other forms. Part of the problem also stemmed from his daughter, Imogene, who was severely critical of her father's work and whose baleful influence persists to this day. These three choral ballets contain a large measure of delightful and wholly characteristic music. It's crime that we have had to wait until now for a complete recording of them, and fortunately these performances make a strong case for many more.

There are signs of a much overdue, and very welcome, Parry revival. Apart from Blest Pair of Sirens, little of Parry's choral music has been performed—or recorded—in recent years. His star was to a large degree eclipsed by that of his slightly younger contemporary Elgar at the end of his lifetime, but there's no doubt that the latter was strongly influenced by Parry's music, especially when it came to writing his oratorios, as this recording well shows. Parry's Job, written in 1892, pre-dates all of Elgar's oratorios and it is easy to detect its influence in, for instance, The Dream of Gerontius, written ten years later.