Christopher Hamilton

There was music in the Parry home from his earliest days. His father played, composed and helped organize the Three Choirs Festival but, in line with Victorian prejudices, he did not greatly encourage music in his sons. Nevertheless, by 1860, 12-year-old Hubert was eagerly studying Bach’s “48”. Later, in the 1870s, he took lessons from the influential pianist Dannreuther, who became something of a mentor, opening his mind to the latest German music. With Dannreuther, Parry assiduously worked at his piano technique, though without any strong ambition to become a professional performer. By 1878, when the Theme and 19 Variations were substantially completed, he had published two Sonatas, three sets of Sonnets and Songs without Words (totalling ten pieces) and a cycle of Seven Charakterbilder. Other piano music from this period remains in manuscript. This CD project will record all the published solo works.

"Hamilton" - which transferred to Broadway following a sold-out run at The Public Theater in NYC - is the acclaimed new musical about the scrappy young immigrant Alexander Hamilton, the $10 Founding Father who forever changed America with his revolutionary ideas and actions. During his life cut too short, he served as George Washington's chief aide, was the first Treasury Secretary of the United States, a loving husband and father, despised by his fellow Founding Fathers, and shot to death by Aaron Burr in a legendary duel.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce 17 world premiere recordings of Songs by Hamilton Harty in a ravishing recital by one of todays most exciting young partnerships mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge and pianist Christopher Glynn.

“The title alludes to the two suites from William Walton’s Façade in Constant Lambert’s virtuosic piano-duet transcription that end the sequence, but the other items afford interesting context. Music by Lambert, including his all-white-note Trois pièces nègres for piano duet and seven Li Po settings, lead to Lambert’s Façade treatment glorying in the bitonal iridescence with which familiar but quite dissimilar tunes are deftly combined.” —Paul Driver, The Sunday Times (May 10 On Record)