Three most welcome additions to the Parry discography, all enjoying a new lease of life thanks to the indefatigable musicological efforts of Jeremy Dibble. Especially fascinating here is the original version of the Fourth Symphony, which was premiered under Hans Richter on July 1, 1889. An altogether darker, more ambitious and subtly worked canvas than the Third (a delightfully melodious, ebullient creation, first heard a mere five weeks previously), it was respectfully received by a St James’s Hall audience that included Elgar in its ranks. Dan Godfrey gave the work again in Bournemouth on December 29, 1904, but five years later Parry drastically overhauled the score, keeping some of the thematic material but excising the 22-bar Intermezzo that bridges the first and slow movements, and replacing the winsome Scherzo (which the critic of the Musical Times described as ‘an al fresco fête in the olden time – a coquettish dance of lords and ladies, interrupted by a song’) with an entirely new specimen. To my ears at least the comprehensive changes Parry effected were nearly all entirely beneficial, but no aficionado should miss the opportunity to get to know this likeable symphony in its initial guise.

Next comes Parry’s sole ballet score, Proserpine. Completed in 1912 (the same year brought us his Ode on the Nativity and Fifth Symphony) and lasting just under 11 minutes, it was written at the behest of Norman O’Neill for the Keats-Shelley Festival and staged at London’s Haymarket Theatre. A lovely discovery it is, too, brimful of fresh-faced inspiration and also incorporating stanzas from Shelley’s poem ‘Song of Proserpine, whilst gathering flowers on the plain of Enna’ sung by a female chorus. Composed for the 1886 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, the Suite moderne (also known as the Suite symphonique) was overhauled six years later, after which it was taken up by Henry Wood. We are offered three of its four movements: a charming Romanza is flanked by a fragrantly songful Idyll (with echoes of this figure’s captivating English Suite) and a vigorous Rhapsody in A minor. Perhaps Chandos will let us hear the opening Ballade in due course.

I can report that all this rewarding repertoire is decently served by Rumon Gamba and his combined BBC forces. Chandos’s sound is ripe and true to match, and Jeremy Dibble supplies a most helpful annotation.