Havergal Brian.

[Luke]

I forgot that I also took this one, which shows the circular plaque which reads:

COMPOSER
WILLIAM HAVERGAL BRIAN
1876-1972
LIVED AND COMPOSED
THE GOTHIC SYMPHONY
HERE
1922-1927

[Roasted Swan]

I forgot that I also took this one, which shows the circular plaque which reads:

COMPOSER
WILLIAM HAVERGAL BRIAN
1876-1972
LIVED AND COMPOSED
THE GOTHIC SYMPHONY
HERE
1922-1927

a modest house for a mighty work.......

[hbswebmaster]

The Havergal Brian Society has a new group set up on Facebook, kicking off with details of our latest sponsored operatic and symphonic recording featuring Martyn Brabbins and ENO, recording sessions for which are currently under way. See you there!

[Ashen Pathfinder]

The Havergal Brian Society has a new group set up on Facebook, kicking off with details of our latest sponsored operatic and symphonic recording featuring Martyn Brabbins and ENO, recording sessions for which are currently under way. See you there!

That's amazing! So excited for new Brian recordings. I wonder if Heritage will be releasing anything new...

[Albion]

The Havergal Brian Society has a new group set up on Facebook, kicking off with details of our latest sponsored operatic and symphonic recording featuring Martyn Brabbins and ENO, recording sessions for which are currently under way. See you there!

How fantastic it will be to have a new recording of "Agamemnon" on Hyperion, I have the 1973 broadcast conducted by Richard Armstrong which I assembled from several different sources and it's a very strong work. Once Toccata eventually get round to releasing "The Cenci" that will only leave "Turandot" to tackle.

Brian's "Faust" is an unexpectedly lyrical opera (just sample the first scene of act two). Anybody who can cope with Hindemith will have no problems with this score's more astringent passages. Wonderful stuff, and amazing to think that Brian (born in 1876) was an operatic contemporary of Britten (born in 1913). The forthcoming new releases of "The Cenci" and "Agamemnon" should be a treat...

[Roasted Swan]

How fantastic it will be to have a new recording of "Agamemnon" on Hyperion, I have the 1973 broadcast conducted by Richard Armstrong which I assembled from several different sources and it's a very strong work. Once Toccata eventually get round to releasing "The Cenci" that will only leave "Turandot" to tackle.

Brian's "Faust" is an unexpectedly lyrical opera (just sample the first scene of act two). Anybody who can cope with Hindemith will have no problems with this score's more astringent passages. Wonderful stuff, and amazing to think that Brian (born in 1876) was an operatic contemporary of Britten (born in 1913). The forthcoming new releases of "The Cenci" and "Agamemnon" should be a treat...

The Hyperion release to be tinged with some sadness since it has been recorded by Martyn Brabbins and the Orchestra of English National Opera since the Brabbins' resignation over the funding cuts (including loss of 17 posts in the orchestra and loss of full time contracts for everyone else) to the Opera House and its enforced relocation to Manchester.  Not so much "levelling up" as "flattening down".

[calyptorhynchus]

I think I posted above about whether HB has had any influence on subsequent composers. Today I was listening to the 7th Symphony of Arthur Butterworth which I'd discovered on Youtube (the premiere in 2012), and it occurred to me that the form of that work, a 20 minute continuous movement, and the mood, grim but dogged, were very Brianic. Of course Butterworth's main influence throughout his compositions was Sibelius, but I wonder if, for his last symphony, he hadn't been influenced by some of the Brian recordings coming out in the 2000s, or had hopped on to the HB Society website to have a listen to the BBC radio broadcasts (did it exist then?).
And Butterworth was around 88-89 when he finished his S7, almost as old as Brian when he wrote his last symphonies.

[Maestro267]

Bringing the fabled Brian thread into 2024 with news that the Brabbins recording of the Gothic on Hyperion is part of the latest bunch of recordings released to streaming services.

https://open.spotify.com/album/56PJSZdGl2Z46NSP2GpHUz

[Albion]

According to an email I received from Martin Anderson the long-awaited issue of "The Cenci" from Toccata is now provisionally scheduled for May/ June.

 

[calyptorhynchus]

The HB Society newsletter points out a new release...

The violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck has orchestrated the Legend for Violin and Piano and the EMF disk with it on is due for release on 19 April.

[Albion]

According to an email I received from Martin Anderson the long-awaited issue of "The Cenci" from Toccata is now provisionally scheduled for May/ June.

 

May it is! 

[Luke]

Typical grudging stuff from the Guardian's Andrew Clements. That they let him review a composer he's shown a reliably tin ear for bothers me.

(The commenter SulG3-8 is me, by the way)

[Albion]

Clements is, and always has been a total knob-end. The Guardian really should employ a musician with culture, knowledge and awareness to review recordings rather than a clapped-out lazy hack who is clearly more interested in self-promotion than astute criticism...

[Roasted Swan]

May it is! 

my copy arrived a few days ago - not yet listened.....

[Maestro267]

After a long break I've ordered some more Brian discs. The Lyrita 6/16/Cooke 3 and the Dutton Violin Concerto/Sym 13/English Suite No. 4.

My desire to finish collecting the symphonies has been revitalized by my being able to once again listen to SACDs, opening up the brilliant 2/14 recording I bought some years back, and the 5/19/27 recording.

[krummholz]

After a long break I've ordered some more Brian discs. The Lyrita 6/16/Cooke 3 and the Dutton Violin Concerto/Sym 13/English Suite No. 4.

My desire to finish collecting the symphonies has been revitalized by my being able to once again listen to SACDs, opening up the brilliant 2/14 recording I bought some years back, and the 5/19/27 recording.

I have all of the discs you mention (though I don't have the equipment for SACD). The Brabbins 2/14 really opened my ears to #2, which sounded like amorphous mush to my ears in the old Rowe recording. The Lyrita 6/16 is awesome IMHO - #16 is simply one of Brian's finest - as are #19 and #27. I'm less impressed with #13 (and #14 for that matter), but it's still a solid Brian symphony and deserves to be heard. The VC on the same disc is much more approachable.

I look forward to reading your impressions.

[Maestro267]

I don't have SACD equipment either but I now have an external disc drive that can read through to the CD layer of hybrid discs like the Dutton examples I mentioned.

On the Lyrita 6/16, while I do have the Naxos 6, I'm happy to get Fredman's recording as it was the first I heard and certain aspects of it shine better on the older recording imo. And I get to hear a new composer to my collection in Arnold Cooke.

Currently listening to No. 8 (Liverpool/Groves). Brian really does have a distinct musical voice, doesn't he? With such a large number of symphonies it's fascinating to chart the evolution of them; perhaps one is a reaction to the previous one, for example.

[krummholz]

Yes, a very distinctive voice! It's hard to chart his evolution though, at least via the symphonies, since his first - the Gothic - dates from after he turned 50, and he also had two widely separated compositional periods when he worked in the symphonic form: the first four symphonies, plus the 5th, and then all the rest, that came while he was in his 70s and 80s. You can already hear many elements of his later style in the earlier works: the penchant for deep brass, the sudden shifts in the direction (at least apparently) of the musical narrative, the expanded tonal palette. I listened to the 4th (Das Siegeslied) last night and was bowled over by how wild a ride it was - at least as much so as the Gothic, and the harmonic language is even more advanced, a trend that continued in the very different 5th. But after the 8th symphony, there are no major sea changes in his style and it's hard - for me, anyway - to trace a developmental line. He seems to just be exploring to its limits the musical space he charted out in #8 (though it's a very fruitful exploration!). Then again, I haven't read Malcolm MacDonald's book(s) on the symphonies.

BTW I was MUCH less impressed with Cooke's 3rd and I think I've only listened to it once. Compared with Brian's much more complex and adventurous style, the Cooke struck me as very formal and elementary.

[krummholz]

BTW I just checked my Dutton 2/14 disc and it has a little note: "This hybrid CD can be played on any standard CD player."

[Maestro267]

I didn't need that opinion on Cooke. I want to form my own, thanks.