Blest pair of sirens, by English composer Hubert Parry, was scheduled for Thursday night’s Dallas Symphony Orchestra concert. The text, by John Milton, celebrates the joining of verse and voice and imagines their heavenly union.

But it took on ironic significance that afternoon, as emergency sirens sounded across North Texas. With severe weather approaching, the DSO wisely canceled the Thursday concert – also to include Mendelssohn’s hybrid symphonic cantata Praise song. I attended Friday’s performance, at the Meyerson Symphony Center.

Both pieces were composed for celebrations: Parry for Queen Victoria’s 1887 Golden Jubilee, Mendelssohn for 1840 festivities marking the 400th anniversary of the Gutenberg press. The DSO performances were led by guest conductor Paul McCreesh, with the Dallas Symphony Chorus – and in Mendelssohn, sopranos Susanna Phillips and Sari Gruber and tenor Nicholas Phan. Lyrics, including the English translation sung in Mendelssohn, were projected on a supertitle screen.

Parry, nine years older than Elgar, never quite achieved the latter’s international celebrity. But as well as composing in many forms, he mentored many of the most important English composers of the next generation. His dramatic anthem “I was glad” has been a staple at English coronations since 1902.

The musical language of Blest Pair similar to Elgar’s, but with textures and harmonies richer in sauce. Twelve minutes long, it was a moving opening for the concert, which was performed without a break.

My reaction to Mendelssohn’s great works for voices and orchestra is a bit like Rossini’s to Wagner — that there are great moments but terrible quarters. Well, not scary, but boring. Mostly empty seats in Meyerson’s two upper levels suggested a shared lack of enthusiasm.

The structure is inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Praise song (Song of Praise) begins with three linked orchestral movements. A jaunty trombone motto opens the mainly joyous first movement and later recedes as a chorus. A waltz-like second movement is followed by a pleasant if not particularly memorable one Adagio religioso.

Different combinations of choirs and soloists are set in motion in 10 consecutive movements. Original texts were from Luther’s German translation of the Bible, plus Martin Rinckart’s hymn “Nun danket alle Gott” (Now we all thank our God).

The tenor soloist gets the most dramatic movement, about darkness and death, and Phan absolutely delivered. Phillips and Gruber did a beautiful job on “I Waited on the Lord,” a standard in many churches today. (Oddly enough, the soloists went on and off the stage only as needed.)

But over the course of 70 minutes, much of Mendelssohn’s choral and orchestral writing strikes me as formulaic, with duly pounded vessels. The open trombone theme is worked to death in the choral finale.

The grand chorus, this time prepared by Mariana Rosas, produced powerful walls of sound, if less than crisp diction. But overall, the performance struck me as more artisanal than inspired, more about broad gestures than fine details. Or maybe it really was the play.

Details

Repeats at 3pm Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. $20 to $118. 214-849-4376.