Havergal Brian.

Started by Harry, June 09, 2007, 04:36:53 AM

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DaveF

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on March 25, 2021, 01:13:09 PM
The thing everyone knows about Brian is that he wrote one of the longest symphonies ever. I like to remind people that he also wrote some short symphonies, including one of the shortest ever written, #22.
I had thought that this symphony was the shortest symphony written in Britain, however today I came across the late C18 symphonies of John Marsh. One of these, #3 on the Olympia disc, lasts 9:14, easily beating the very lengthy HB #22 (9:22 in the Walker version).  :)

I'm not sure you even have to go quite so obscure; the shortest of Boyce's symphonies, in the old and splendid Pinnock recording, comes in at just over 5 minutes.  Perhaps Brian wins the prize for coefficient of musical density (a term I've just coined, meaning size of orchestral forces divided by duration).

I was wondering about Mozart's 1st symphony, written in London, but that's a veritable Gothic at over 12 minutes.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

relm1

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 25, 2021, 04:49:12 PM
I care! And it's the audio that mainly matters, as far as I'm concerned. Just realized: you play the trombone, so you must have participated in those awesome pedal notes in the Vivace... !

I auditioned for it, but they had tons of low brass people already, even for the extra brass bands.  Though they didn't need me to play, they invited me to attend all the rehearsals and I stayed with/was shown around by one of the tubists.  I got to watch several rehearsals with Malcolm Macdonald.

Here is one: https://vimeo.com/529364827/48c608f6d9

I'll post more later.


J.Z. Herrenberg

Wow! Will be watching those later today! Many thanks!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato


J.Z. Herrenberg

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

J.Z. Herrenberg

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

relm1

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 26, 2021, 09:43:50 AM
Tu Rex gloriae and the ending of the Te Deum laudamus are thrilling!

Thanks!  yes, I am taking credit for that though I had absolutely nothing to do with it.  It was overall a very shattering experience.  I don't know if he is on here but the author, Alan Dean Foster, filmed rehearsals of the BBC Proms gothic a year or two later.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: relm1 on March 26, 2021, 03:30:18 PM
Thanks!  yes, I am taking credit for that though I had absolutely nothing to do with it.  It was overall a very shattering experience.  I don't know if he is on here but the author, Alan Dean Foster, filmed rehearsals of the BBC Proms gothic a year or two later.
Alan Dean Foster is a member here, don't know under what name anymore, though. He joined the discussion about the Proms Gothic and left a link to his rehearsal video. He also took part in a discussion about Das Siegeslied.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Maestro267

Managed to pick up a copy of the Proms/Hyperion recording of the Gothic today.

DavidW

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on March 26, 2021, 06:15:25 PM
Alan Dean Foster is a member here,

Oh I didn't know that!  I was a big fan of his novels when I was younger.  He had been in the news recently because Disney was refusing to pay him royalties on his Star Wars book.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Composer and HBS member John Pickard wrote the following on his Facebook page. This answers the questions regarding the 'Faust' recording in a very positive way:

"A very fulfilling day. First trip to London since December 2019, to work on the overdubs for the world premiere CD of Havergal Brian's opera 'Faust'. We added the organ (played by the great Iain Farrington) and I got to play the wind machine! The recording production legend that is Michael Ponder  was at the helm, with Mike Dutton and Dillon Gallagher working their usual magic with the engineering. Sleeve notes are done, parallel translation is done, so the biggest project ever undertaken by the Havergal Brian Society will be ready for release very soon. English National Opera - performing in German!"
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 27, 2021, 03:58:28 AM
Composer and HBS member John Pickard wrote the following on his Facebook page. This answers the questions regarding the 'Faust' recording in a very positive way:

Good news indeed!

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

relm1

Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on April 27, 2021, 03:58:28 AM
Composer and HBS member John Pickard wrote the following on his Facebook page. This answers the questions regarding the 'Faust' recording in a very positive way:

"A very fulfilling day. First trip to London since December 2019, to work on the overdubs for the world premiere CD of Havergal Brian's opera 'Faust'. We added the organ (played by the great Iain Farrington) and I got to play the wind machine! The recording production legend that is Michael Ponder  was at the helm, with Mike Dutton and Dillon Gallagher working their usual magic with the engineering. Sleeve notes are done, parallel translation is done, so the biggest project ever undertaken by the Havergal Brian Society will be ready for release very soon. English National Opera - performing in German!"

Thanks for the update!

Augustus

Has this recent addition to the Toccata Classics pipeline page been noted before?
https://toccataclassics.com/pipeline/

HAVERGAL BRIAN: THE CENCI
Soloists
Millennium Sinfonia
James Kelleher

First recording
TOCC0094

With Faust coming up soon, might 2021 be the year of not one but two commercial releases of Brian operas?

calyptorhynchus

This would be the studio recording from the early 80s. It's a decent recording, but unfortunately the Cenci an opera that has rather unpleasant subject matter (spoiler alert: the villain wants to rape his daughter, said daughter, not surprisingly, has her father murdered &c).
I would have thought that the obvious Brian opera to record would have been Agamemnon (because it's short, intense and the story is well-known), then Turandot (because the libretto (in German) is by a noted dramatist, the music (as evidenced by the extracts already recorded) is interesting, and because of the comparisons with Puccini and Busoni. I wouldn't have started a modern recording campaign with Faust.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

relm1

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on June 16, 2021, 01:16:09 PM
This would be the studio recording from the early 80s. It's a decent recording, but unfortunately the Cenci an opera that has rather unpleasant subject matter (spoiler alert: the villain wants to rape his daughter, said daughter, not surprisingly, has her father murdered &c).
I would have thought that the obvious Brian opera to record would have been Agamemnon (because it's short, intense and the story is well-known), then Turandot (because the libretto (in German) is by a noted dramatist, the music (as evidenced by the extracts already recorded) is interesting, and because of the comparisons with Puccini and Busoni. I wouldn't have started a modern recording campaign with Faust.

Subject matter is irrelevant.  Brian was Germanophile, Wagner's operas included incest and other taboos based on mythology.  Greek tragedies are full of blood lust, sons in affairs with mothers which was the template for Shakespearean tragedies.  It's classical and mythical drama.  It's throughout the bible, all over literature.  Is the music good?

calyptorhynchus

Yes the music good, but with vocal music the libretto is important too. The Cenci is by Shelley, Brian does his best with this  turgid Shakespearean pastiche, but it still isn't very good.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

J.Z. Herrenberg

The recording is of the concert performance of December 1997. I was there, in London.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Maestro267

Listening to Brabbins' "Gothic" recording and something I just noticed is the occasional use of organ underpinning the voices during the opening choral section of the fifth movement ("Judex")