Parry: Judith Sarah Fox, Kathryn Rudge, Toby Spence, Henry Waddington, London Mozart Players & William Vann

• Sir Charles Hubert Parry (1848 - 1918): Judith:
• 1 Allegro spiritoso 05:10
• Act I:
• 2 Scene 1: Hail Moloch! Hail, Awful God! 03:14
• 3 Scene 1: Draw Near and Worship, O My People! 01:32
• 4 Scene 1: Have Mercy, Dread Moloch 00:41
• 5 Scene 1: Hear Ye, The Word of Your God! 00:53
• 6 Scene 1: Hail, Thou Art Highly Favoured, King! 02:13
• 7 Scene 1: Bring Now the Children! 02:27
• 8 Scene 1: Hearken, O King 01:07
• 9 Scene 1: Hail, Moloch, Hail! 01:31
• 10 Scene 2: O Mother, Tell Us Once Again 05:31
• 11 Scene 2: Long Since in Egypt's Plenteous Land 04:37
• 12 Scene 2: Great Queen! The King Calls for His Children 05:22
• 13 Scene 2: Lady! Thou Queen of Israel! 05:12
• 14 Scene 3: Moloch, Give Ear! 05:26
• 15 Scene 3: Stay Your Hideous Mockeries! 01:34
• 16 Scene 3: Now Shall the Lord Jehovah Visit You 02:13
• 17 Scene 3: Who Is This That Raileth at Moloch? 01:11
• 18 Scene 3: O King, Give Ear! 00:40
• 19 Scene 3: Fear Not, My People 00:33
• 20 Scene 3: The Host of Assur Is Like a Swarm of Locusts 01:19
• 21 Scene 3: Jerusalem Was Loved of the Lord 00:26
• 22 Scene 3: Moloch! Moloch! Hear Us Now 03:24
• 23 Scene 3: Fly! Fly! The Host of Assur Is Come on Us 03:25
• 24 Scene 3: Jerusalem, That Was Queen of the Nations 01:49
• Judith:
• 25 I Will Bear the Indignation of God 05:23
• Act II:
• 26 Scene 1: Wail, Wail, Ye Solitary People! 05:51
• 27 Scene 1: The Lord Is Long-Suffering and Merciful 03:50
• 28 Scene 1: Our King Is Come Again from Distant Lands 02:46
• 29 Scene 1: Behold, How Great Is the Mercy of Our God 06:19
• 30 Scene 2: Hear Ye the Words of the Captain of the Great King 03:46
• 31 Scene 2: Woe! Our Citys Walls Are Broken 03:06
• 32 Scene 2: Let Us Give Thanks unto the Lord Our God 02:27
• 33 Scene 2: I Pray Thee, O God of My Fathers 03:12
• 34 Scene 2: The God of Our Fathers Give Thee Favour 04:05
• 35 Scene 3: See Ye the Campfires of the Host of Assur 08:27
• 36 Scene 3: Ho! Ye upon the Walls 02:43
• 37 Scene 3: Arise, O Israel! Smite Ye Your Enemies 03:43
• 38 Scene 3: God Breaketh the Battle 04:05
• 39 Scene 3: I Will Sing unto the Lord 04:40
• 40 Scene 3: Put Off, O Jerusalem, the Garment of Thy Mourning 05:00
• Total Runtime 02:10:53

Info for Parry: Judith

Recorded after the first London performance for over 130 years, Parry’s neglected oratorio here appears on disc for the very first time. Having been commissioned by the Birmingham Festival, Parry decided to combine the Old Testament stories of Manasseh and Judith. A good deal of the libretto was provided by Parry himself, who took other texts from the biblical books of Isaiah, Psalms, and Judith. Having originally conceived the work in four acts, Parry condensed it into two. Judith was premiered by Richter in Birmingham in August 1888, and it consolidated Parry’s reputation as a choral composer, numerous performances following in Edinburgh and in London. Although popular in his lifetime, Judith fell into obscurity after Parry’s death.

Sarah Fox, soprano (Judith)
Kathryn Rudge, mezzo-soprano (Meshullemeth, his wife)
Toby Spence, tenor (Manasseh, King of Israel)
Henry Waddington, bass-baritone (High Priest of Moloch)
Crouch End Festival Chorus
London Mozart Players
William Vann, conductor

William Vann
A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and accompanist, William Vann is equally at home on the podium or at the piano. Gramophone, reviewing Purer than Pearl, Albion Records’ 2016 disc of Vaughan Williams song, reserved “a special word of praise for William Vann’s deft pianism”; his recent revival of Hubert Parry’s oratorio Judith at Royal Festival Hall “was an unalloyed triumph for William Vann…he had complete command of the score and evident belief in the music” (Seen and Head International). His studio recording of Judith will be released on Chandos Records in March 2020. William is the is the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival and the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Born in Bedford, he was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and a Music Scholar at Bedford School. He subsequently read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone.

His many prizes for piano accompaniment include the Wigmore Song Competition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award, the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’ Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award, the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship in piano accompaniment at the RAM.

William has collaborated across the world with a vast array of singers and instrumentalists, among them Sir Thomas Allen CBE, Mary Bevan, Katie Bray, Allan Clayton, Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist, Thomas Gould, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Johnston, Jack Liebeck, Aoife Miskelly, Ann Murray DBE, Matthew Rose, Kathryn Rudge, Brindley Sherratt, Nicky Spence, Toby Spence, Andrew Staples, Henry Waddington, Kitty Whately, Roderick Williams, the Benyounes and Navarra Quartets, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and the London Mozart Players. Recent performances have included appearances at Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Opera House, Sage, Gateshead and St John’s, Smith Square, at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder and Machynlleth Festivals, the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice (broadcast on Radio 3) and abroad in France, Germany (on live ZDF television), Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa (National Arts Festival) and Sweden. His discography includes recordings with Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Etcetera, Navona and SOMM.

In addition to his performances of standard song repertoire, he has also either commissioned or given the first performances of new English songs and song cycles by several English composers, including Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Ian Venables, David Nield and Graham Ross (the latter two at Wigmore Hall). He recently conducted Roderick Williams and the London Mozart Players performing his own arrangement for chamber orchestra of George Butterworth’s Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad.

He is an Associate of the RAM, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, a Trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a Samling Artist, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Co-Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, the Artistic Director of Bedford Music Club, the Guest Conductor of the English Chamber Choir and a regular conductor and vocal coach at the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools.

London Mozart Players
Founded in 1949 by Harry Blech, London Mozart Players is the UK's longest established chamber orchestra.

Known for its unmistakable British roots, the orchestra has developed an outstanding reputation for adventurous, ambitious programming. From Baroque through to genre-crossing contemporary music, London Mozart Players is constantly exploring new venues and audiences through collaborations with artists and personalities from all over the creative scene. The ensemble has enjoyed a long history of association with many of the world's finest musical personalities including Igor Stravinsky, Sir James Galway, Dame Felicity Lott, Jane Glover, Julian Lloyd Webber, Stephen Hough, Nicola Benedetti, John Suchet and Simon Callow.

Since its inception, the orchestra has championed new works, regularly giving world premiere performances by composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Tarik O’Regan, Sally Beamish, Cecilia McDowall, Lynne Plowman, Fraser Trainer and Roxanna Panufnik, who was appointed as Associate Composer of the ensemble in 2011. The ensemble has a strong tradition of supporting new music for choirs; in 2014 they joined forces with Portsmouth Grammar School to commission a major new choral work by Jonathan Dove, For an Unknown Soldier, and in the same year performed the world premiere of Toby Young’s Love and Harmony with the London Oriana Choir.

Away from their commitment to live performances across the UK, London Mozart Players also undertake an international touring schedule which has seen them give performances in the Far East, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain. A long relationship with classical label Chandos has led to a series of over 20 recordings, including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Hadyn, Clementi, Salieri and Stamitz. The orchestra featured on Naxos’ release Flowers of the Field alongside the City of London Choir, Roderick Williams and Associate Conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, which reached No.1 in the Classical Album Charts.

The orchestra regularly performs with their Conductor Laureate Howard Shelley, as well as working closely with some of the world’s eminent conductors and soloists, including Tasmin Little, Anthony Marwood, BBC Young Musician 2016 Sheku Kanneh-Mason and cellist Laura van der Heijden, the orchestra’s first Young Artist in Residence.

In 2016, London Mozart Players relocated their home to St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, undertaking a rich programme of initiatives within the local community. Their commitment to reaching new audiences is underlined with their highly-regarded education and community programme LMP Voyager, which sees the ensemble take world-class classical music into schools, colleges, local amateur groups and areas of the community, helping to build excellence and passion for classical music through performance and shared experience.

London Mozart Players has enjoyed the patronage of HRH The Earl of Wessex since 1988. In the summer of 2014, the orchestra began a new and exciting phase in its history, becoming the first professional orchestra in the UK to be managed both operationally and artistically by the players.

Booklet for Parry: Judith