Havergal Brian.

[Sergeant Rock]

Tournemire...I have a few symphonies of his, but haven't come round yet to listening to them. I find I have to make mental space for new composers and must really feel an urge to listen to them.

No rush, Johan, but I think you will like him. He was a complete unknown to me until just a few months ago when Lethe posted intriguing comments on the listening thread. I have all the symphonies now (save the Sixth and Seventh) and love them all. The end of the first movement of the First came as quite a shock. It's as though Bruckner were French and his obsessive compulsive need for repetition finally sends him over the edge: makes him mentally crack 

Sarge

[cilgwyn]

I completely agree with you. It's like with Bax. I remember buying the wonderful Lyrita Lp of Boult conducting 'Tintagel' (etc) & some drunken friend of my father asking me to put it on.which I did. I then had to sit there & listening to 'Tintagel' & this man telling me how wonderful Bax was. After that the Bax stayed in the box,until a couple of years later I put it on & was hooked. I rapidly bought all the Bax Thomson Lp's,and latterly,cd's in succession. Suddenly I had the urge! Try as hard as he might he couldn't 'force me'.
  Incidentally,I've been thinking of putting up a Tournemire avatar,so the man can 'speak for himself',as it were.  No need for me to drone on about the poor chap & put people off!!! He'll just 'be there' anyway,won't he?

PS: Thank you for that message. Very tempting. I shall certainly investigate,but must admit to a near pathological loathing of public transport & any kind of travel. Sad.I know.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No rush, Johan, but I think you will like him. He was a complete unknown to me until just a few months ago when Lethe posted intriguing comments on the listening thread. I have all the symphonies now (save the Seventh) and love them all. The end of the First came as quite a shock. It's as though Bruckner were French and his obsessive compulsive need for repetition finally sends him over the edge: makes him mentally crack 

'No rush, Johan', he says. And then he waves that giant bait around. 

[karlhenning]

(* chortle *)

[Sergeant Rock]

'No rush, Johan', he says. And then he waves that giant bait around. 

A correction: it should read: "the end of the first movement."

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A correction: it should read: "the end of the first movement."

That doesn't make the bait any smaller.


I am going to listen to that First NOW. 

[cilgwyn]

The massive Sixth symphony with it's choirs & soloist is an interesting contrast to the 'Gothic' if you like huge,neglected symphonies by neglected composers. The Auvidis Valois recording is very well performed. The way the organ whacks in suddenly in the second movement is a to quote Frank Carson,'a bit of a cracker'. Symphony No 7 is downright wacky to say the least. After a couple of listens it does all seem to hang together,somehow or other. 'Gothic'? Definately! But NOT as Brian knew it! (As I type this I've got Rayner Cooke singing the last line of 'The Defiled Sanctuary' ringing in my ear ('as I lay me down amongst the swine'!!!)
Make sure you've got a genuine urge first,though and a large thermos flask of coffee,in case you nod off!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The massive Sixth symphony with it's choirs & soloist is an interesting contrast to the 'Gothic' if you like huge,neglected symphonies by neglected composers. The Auvidis Valois recording is very well performed. The way the organ whacks in suddenly in the second movement is a to quote Frank Carson,'a bit of a cracker'. Symphony No 7 is downright wacky to say the least. After a couple of listens it does all seem to hang together,somehow or other. 'Gothic'? Definately! But NOT as Brian knew it! (As I type this I've got Rayner Cooke singing the last line of 'The Defiled Sanctuary' ringing in my ear ('as I lay me down amongst the swine'!!!)
Make sure you've got a genuine urge first,though and a large thermos flask of coffee,in case you nod off!

I own symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8. And the urge is there - the First comes first!

[cilgwyn]

I WILL play the Koechlin.........when I get the URGE to switch off the cd of Brian songs!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I WILL play the Koechlin.........when I get the URGE to switch off the cd of Brian songs!

Poor Koechlin. That will NEVER happen. 


And now - Tournemire!

[cilgwyn]

He's going to have to wait! It's on repeat.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

OT (but the Old Man won't mind, being an organist and symphonist himself) - I like the Tournemire a lot! The third movement, Largo, is beautiful. There is a drooping motif there - and also in other movements - which is very similar to one in Magnard's Third and Fourth symphonies (iirc). And Tournemre DOES remind me of Magnard, which is a very good thing indeed!

[cilgwyn]

Definately,a yes then?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Definately,a yes then?

Yes. Listened several times already. I really like it. And that 'drooping motif' is central, a very Franckian device for unifying the symphony.

[cilgwyn]

I'm also very keen on his 'Fourth',which tends to get overlooked in all the lengthy debates about Charles Tournemire symphonies frequenting the internet (only joking!). There are some wonderfully evocative effects that confirm my opinion that Tournemire really was a dab hand with the old orchestra. I can only dream of the way this would sound if I owned Chandos! (The 'Gothic' and 'The Tiger's would have been in the bag ages ago).
A French Havergal Brian? Not quite,but I  think Brian and Tournemire  have a little  more in common than Brian and Koechlin.

[cilgwyn]

Or for that matter,Brian and Wise!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Ticket sales for the Proms 2011 started a few hours ago. RAH Website-current queue numbers: 1830 at the moment. I am glad I found my tickets already elsewhere a few weeks ago, though more expensive...


http://www.getmein.com/tickets/prom-4-brian-the-gothic-symphony-tickets/london-202377.html

[Luke]

Ticket sales for the Proms 2011 started a few hours ago. RAH Website-current queue numbers: 1830 at the moment. I am glad I found my tickets already elsewhere a few weeks ago, though more expensive...


http://www.getmein.com/tickets/prom-4-brian-the-gothic-symphony-tickets/london-202377.html

Thank you for your PM about that the other day, Johan, I simply couldn't justify those prices, not with my current finances! So I waited till today.

Logged on at 8.40

on the dot of 9.00 told the site was busy and that eventually I would be put in a queue

at 9.20 was put in the queue at number 4800-ish

finally got to 0, four and a half hours later

try and try to book

keep getting error messages

call their number, get told, effectively, to get lost and get off the line

because:

they are sold out

It has taken 5 hours of my day, and this is the result.

I am mightily annoyed. This was, really, the only concert I care about seeing in the foreseeable future.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Luke! I am so sorry to read that. I'm hardly rich myself, but I'm fortunate (?!) in turning 50 in a month's time and getting the ticket as a present from one friend and the hotel stay from another. I was afraid this would happen - that the real Brian lovers would not get in. This is very very bad news.

[Brian]

Where on earth did the demand come from? How did it sell out? Is it a crowd of gawkers who want to hear the "Guinness record music"? I simply don't understand why the first concert to sell out would be such obscure, obtuse music...

Luke, if you don't mind standing, I just managed to buy a "Weekend Promming Pass" to Proms 1-4, in the arena, for 17.50. Allegedly this means I've got a place for the Gothic, though I've never prommed before so the reality is I have no clue what will happen.