Elgar: The Black Knight and Parry: De Profundis | Hertfordshire Chorus

Hertfordshire Chorus presents two rarely performed works by two of our greatest romantic English composers. Elgar’s The Black Knight, and Parry’s De Profundis are accompanied by more familiar works by the two composers.
Elgar described The Black Knight, Op 25 as a ‘symphony for chorus and orchestra’. Written in 1889–93 and first performed in Worcester in April 1893, it tells the story of the intrusion of a mysterious stranger into a medieval king’s court with disastrous and gruesome results. Elgar is a magnificent story-teller and The Black Knight is no exception. The action is described by the chorus in four dramatic scenes.
Described by Vaughan Williams in a letter to Sir Adrian Boult in 1948 as Parry’s finest work, De Profundis was composed in 1891 and first performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in September of the same year. Parry set Psalm 130 ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto three, O Lord’ for soprano and twelve part chorus.
Its five performances were received enthusastically by audiences and reviewers, the last in 1921 by The Bach Choir in London. We are delighted to be able to bring this neglected masterpiece to a wider audience, using a newly reconstructed full score prepared for us by the English Heritage Music Series.

This concert is supported by The Elgar Society

Hertfordshire Chorus is one of the country’s foremost symphonic choirs. Conducted by David Temple MBE, it appears frequently with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and is often broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 2. A critically acclaimed CD Ode to a Nightingale (Will Todd) and Codebreaker (James McCarthy) was recorded with the BBC Concert Orchestra for Signum Records.