Description
This six movement suite was commissioned by Helen, Countess of Radnor who was the wife of the Fifth Earl of Salisbury, and who was also a close personal friend of Hubert Parry. Unusually for the time, she sponsored a large chamber orchestra, which she conducted herself, and commissioned works for. This is one such work, and Lady Radnor and her chamber orchestra gave the first public performance on June 29th 1894, at St. James’ Hall in London. Parry has modelled the work on the early classical orchestral suite of dance movements with their contrapuntal lines and elegant melodies. The harmonic language however is truly that of Parry and the Victorian era.
