Havergal Brian.

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

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Hattoff

Hi Jezetha,
Have you found a recording of Brian's Concerto for Orchestra yet? If you remember it was the one orchestral piece available that I couldn't send you, having lost it on a faulty tape.

I did manage to get those Prokofiev rarities from Russia but some new unknown works have turned up for me to worry about hearing >:(. Life is one big adventure. :)
best
Steven.

Sergeant Rock

My Gothic arrived today  :)



It's been a long wait. I heard about Boult's recording in the early 70s. Been waiting impatiently ever since. (Jezetha, of course, provided a fine stopgap in the form of mp3s.) Speaking of thunder machines and bird-scares, there's a pic of the percussionists in the booklet:



The sound of the recording is far from perfect but much better than I thought it would be. (Hurwitz's score is ridiculous). I'd give it a 9/6 (I still don't like Boult's Vivace. The instrumental balance seems odd...or maybe I'm just used to the sound of the Marco Polo recording).

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"

Lethevich

Thanks for the pic. Weird how modern day young hipsters aspire to look exactly like that guy in the left.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Thanks for that great picture, Sarge! As for the Vivace - I heard the Boult first, so perhaps it is what I am used to. But don't get me wrong - I do like Lenard's version, too. Boult is more impatient to keep the music moving, whereas Lenard sometimes takes his time, bringing out more of the instrumental detail. And of course, his is the better recording... Yes, we need both, as you say.


Quote from: Lethe on February 17, 2010, 05:09:08 AM
Thanks for the pic. Weird how modern day young hipsters aspire to look exactly like that guy in the left.


Indeed. I noticed that too. I see young people now wearing glasses with thick frames that were considered terribly old-fashioned for a very long time!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: Jezetha on February 17, 2010, 05:13:04 AM
As for the Vivace - I heard the Boult first, so perhaps it is what I am used to.

Yes. I heard Lenard's Vivace well over a hundred times before hearing Boult. Lenard was deeply imprinted  ;D

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"

Daverz

Quote from: vandermolen on February 15, 2010, 03:52:20 AM
Did you hear Symphony No 8? My favourite and quite approachable.

I have an EMI twofer with that one on the to-listen pile.  I'll move it up in the queue.

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: Lethe on February 17, 2010, 05:09:08 AM
Thanks for the pic. Weird how modern day young hipsters aspire to look exactly like that guy in the left.

Yes, the Michael Caine look:




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"

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Hattoff on February 16, 2010, 10:50:51 PM
Hi Jezetha,
Have you found a recording of Brian's Concerto for Orchestra yet? If you remember it was the one orchestral piece available that I couldn't send you, having lost it on a faulty tape.

Alas, no joy, Steven. But I am still very grateful for all the things you could send me - I have uploaded them to Mediafire and they have been downloaded scores of times.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Mirror Image

#388
My Brian collection isn't that large:

-Symphony No. 1 "Gothic," Ondrej Lenard, Slovak Philharmonic Orch. and Choir, Slovak Radio Symphony, Naxos
-Symphony No. 2, Tony Rowe, Moscow Symphony, Naxos
-Symphony No. 3, Lionel Friend, BBC Symphony, Hyperion
-Symphonies Nos. 4 & 12, Adrian Leaper, Slovak Philharmonic, Naxos
-Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 18, The Jolly Miller Overture, Lionel Friend, BBC Scottish Symphony, Naxos

My favorite work by Brian that I've heard so far is his "Gothic" symphony. This is really an outstanding work. To say this wasn't ambitious is certainly an understatement!

I think Brian's day will come sooner or later. I would like to hear a major orchestra or should I say orchestras perform the "Gothic." This work does need a dedicated conductor not that the conductor on the Naxos wasn't dedicated, but there just needs to be a new recording. I would like to hear Simon Rattle conduct this work with both the Berliners and maybe they could team up with another German orchestra like the Hamburg Philharmonic (who have performed admirably well under Simon Young) or the Frankfurt Radio Symphony or the Munich Philharmonic or the Cologne Radio Symphony (who thanks to Wand and Bertini are more well-known). The record company I would like to record this massive score would be either Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, BIS, or Ondine. Any of these labels would do nicely.

Klaatu

Hello to everyone from a newbie.

Happy memories of the days when I was a member of the HBS. Especially that evening back in - 1990 was it? - when I sat in Birmingham Town Hall to hear the "Orchestra of the Composers' Platform" play Brian's 3rd Symphony. This was memorable partly because of the music, but mainly because it's the only concert I've ever been to where the orchestra significantly outnumbered the audience!

Just been listening to HB's 11th today; first time in a long time. (I've been off on an excursion into heavy rock and blues over the last few years; classical has taken a back seat to Hound Dog Taylor and Iron Maiden!)

What a great little work No. 11 is! A deeply thoughtful adagio to kick things off, then a childlike and jovial central movement, and a bustling little march to finish. Fairly lighthearted and easy on the ear for Brian, this could be a nice introduction to his symphonies for the uninitiated.

Lethevich

Excellent to have another Brianite on board, welcome to the forum! :)
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

vandermolen

Quote from: Klaatu on August 14, 2010, 06:19:21 AM
Hello to everyone from a newbie.

Happy memories of the days when I was a member of the HBS. Especially that evening back in - 1990 was it? - when I sat in Birmingham Town Hall to hear the "Orchestra of the Composers' Platform" play Brian's 3rd Symphony. This was memorable partly because of the music, but mainly because it's the only concert I've ever been to where the orchestra significantly outnumbered the audience!

Just been listening to HB's 11th today; first time in a long time. (I've been off on an excursion into heavy rock and blues over the last few years; classical has taken a back seat to Hound Dog Taylor and Iron Maiden!)

What a great little work No. 11 is! A deeply thoughtful adagio to kick things off, then a childlike and jovial central movement, and a bustling little march to finish. Fairly lighthearted and easy on the ear for Brian, this could be a nice introduction to his symphonies for the uninitiated.

Yes, welcome to the forum Klaatu from another former HBS member. Symphony No 11 is indeed one of the best along with, IMHO, Nos 1,2, three (than number doesn't work on my keypad!)6,7,8,9, 10 and 16. If I could only choose one for my desert island it would be No 8.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Klaatu

Desert island Brian?

Hmmmm......

The Gothic, 6, 8, 10 and 16 are my shortlist.....

10 and 16 are my short short list.......

Don't ask me to choose!

About time we had a fully professional recording of No 10, one of HBs greatest scores. Doesn't his music sound much more convincing when played & interpreted well? - the CD reissue of Myer Fredman's 6 and 16 being a prime example; probably the best recorded version of any Brian works.


snyprrr

I finally listened to a mvmt from the No.10, I believe, on YouTube, with the Leicheshestshire (oops!, sorry :-[), is that it? The famous one,...well, anyway, I think I'd like HB a lot,... very autumnal, in the vigorous way,... definitely reminds me of a Pastoral Pettersson,...

ooo, haha, that's making me laugh :D,...Pastoral Pettersson, haha

anyhow, I'll have to listen to some Amazon snippets.

Klaatu

Leicheshestshire?

Is that anywhere near Worchesshestershershire where I live - or is it over by Gloucheschestershetchestershire?

Brian himself was born, of course, in Stoke-on-Trent, which is in Staffordshestershirechestershetshire.
A lot of great composers come from Stoke - Lemmy from Motörhead, for example. (Who can forget that towering masterpiece The Ace of Spades?) Slash from Guns 'N' Roses. And Robbie Williams.

Anyway, hope you enjoy listening to HB. If you want a really well-played, well-recorded and approachable piece, try HB's 6th on the Lyrita CD with Myer Fredman conducting. It's one of the few occasions where HB gets quite tuneful!

The 10th is a great piece. It seems to sum up the old curmudgeon's whole worldview in less than 20 minutes. Love the "storm", the plaintive violin solo, and that extraordinary chord at the end. The Leicestershire (that's it!) Schools' Symphony Orchestra make a very creditable stab at this work, and do themselves proud. But surely it's way, way beyond time that we had a fully professional orchestra, with a conductor sympathetic to Brian's idiom, record this symphony. Preferably with a pre-recording live performance at the Henry Wood Proms!

Lethevich

Quote from: Klaatu on August 16, 2010, 03:32:43 AM
Leicheshestshire?
Hehe, it's better than how Callas pronounced it - li-chester if I recall correctly :D

You have inspired me to relisten to the 6th and 16th on that Lyrita CD. I have somehow allowed those works to be overshadowed by my excitement at discovering Arnold Cooke's 3rd on the same disc.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Klaatu

Hope you enjoy 6 and 16, Lethe.

They are brilliantly played and recorded, but take a bit of getting into - the 6th less so, because of its lyrical heart. Here's a review I posted on the Amazon website and the final paragraph is particularly relevant:

5.0 out of 5 stars

Two of Billy Brian's finest

The original Lyrita LP of Symphonies 6 and 16 was my first introduction to Havergal Brian, and I'm grateful that the recording is now available on CD.

What we have here is one of Brian's most approachable symphonies (No 6), paired with one of his greatest (No 16).
The sixth, "Sinfonia Tragica", is redolent of Irish mists and ancient Celtic battles. The prominence of the harp in its first section adds to this Celtic flavour. In some ways it has an atmosphere similar to Vaughan Williams' sixth, with a gloriously lyrical tune at its heart, surrounded by violence, conflict and tragedy. The percussion-driven final section brings to mind shield-walls and battleaxes, and reminds me of two other (widely disparate) examples of great British music - parts of Arthur Bliss's superb ballet suite "Checkmate", and the album "Ours is the Kingdom" by the excellent heavy-metal band Forefather.(Especially the opening track, appropriately named "The Shield-Wall".)

Technically the musicianship is top-notch; however I agree with reviewer R. A. Howe that more soaring passion could have been injected into the work's lyrical peaks - after all, Brian doesn't write Big Tunes too often and conductors should wallow in them a bit!

Number 16 is, for me, Brian's greatest symphony next to the "Gothic" (No 1) - yet these two works couldn't be more different; the "Gothic" is a gigantic, labyrinthine structure demanding unprecedented choral and orchestral forces, whilst the 16th is all over in under 20 minutes. Yet No. 16 feels immense; an enormous amount happens within its six interlinked sections - the brooding, mysterious introduction; the surging impetus of the allegro; the arrival of one of Brian's famous "moments of stillness" where the orchestra is reduced to a walking bass line on plucked strings; the crackpot fugue; the very brief but surprisingly poignant adagio section, and last but certainly not least the barbarously powerful coda, possibly Brian's most convincingly triumphant ending. This Symphony was composed while Brian was reading Herodotus' account of the Battle of Thermopylae and that coda has a whiff of sheer bloody defiance about it - bringing to my mind the words of King Leonidas before the battle: "Eat a hearty breakfast, boys, for tonight we dine in Hell!"

The LSO under Fredman have the measure of the piece; one can possibly imagine a bit more fire and drama here and there but overall it's a fine account of a symphony that takes some "getting into", but which grabs you by the nether regions once it has worked its way into your system.

Calum MacDonald's highly readable and perceptive notes are a great asset in getting to grips with this curmudgeonly composer. (His three-volume study of Brian's symphonies is similarly excellent.)

The companion-piece on this disc is Arnold Cooke's Third Symphony. A far more conventional creation than either of the Brian works, this is a representative of that infamous genre the "Cheltenham Symphony". But it's a superior one; the two outer movements have a convincing drive and energy whilst the central slow movement is haunted and restless rather than insipid and sentimental. I enjoyed this piece more than I thought I would and it's given a polished performance by the LSO under Nicholas Braithwaite.

A must-have disc, then, for anyone interested in Brian's music. But newcomers are warned, the old duffer takes some getting used to. I disliked this music on first hearing (my musical God at the time was Mahler) but it slowly infiltrated my cranium until I had to agree with Robert Simpson: "As we learn our way into Brian's music it becomes more and more significant until we discover ourselves face to face with a great composer." Nuff said!


Sergeant Rock

#397
Quote from: Klaatu on August 16, 2010, 03:32:43 AM
Brian himself was born, of course, in Stoke-on-Trent, which is in Staffordshestershirechestershetshire.
A lot of great composers come from Stoke - Lemmy from Motörhead, for example. (Who can forget that towering masterpiece The Ace of Spades?) Slash from Guns 'N' Roses. And Robbie Williams.

Did you write the book?  ;D




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"

Klaatu


vandermolen

Very exciting new historical Dutton release (super-budget) includes Havergal Brian's 9th and 11th symphonies - two of the best.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).