Havergal Brian.

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

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Wanderer

Quote from: Jezetha on December 24, 2010, 02:18:49 PM
Toccata has recorded a CD of orchestral music from Brian's operas 'Turandot' and 'Faust', release date yet to be announced.

I'll be awaiting that with much interest. Thanks for the heads-up!

Albion

Here are some details regarding the eagerly-awaited first volume of Toccata's marvellous Havergal Brian initiative:

http://www.toccataclassics.com/cddetail.php?CN=TOCC0110

With a release date of 17th February, this should coincide with another exciting new disc from Dutton (Symphonies 10 & 30, Concerto for Orchestra and English Suite No.3).

The second Toccata volume is due to contain orchestral extracts from the operas - Symphonic Variations (The Tigers), Preludio Tragico (The Cenci), Nine movements (Turandot); Night Ride of Faust and Mephistopheles (Faust)

What a great year in prospect!
A piece is worth your attention, and is itself for you praiseworthy, if it makes you feel you have not wasted your time over it. (SG, 1922)

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Albion on December 26, 2010, 03:32:45 AMWhat a great year in prospect!

I hadn't thought of looking there lately. Thanks! The Brian year 2011, indeed! I hope all the new releases and the 'Gothic' performance will help Brian reach 'critical mass' again, to initiate a new Brian 'Renaissance'...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Lethevich

Thank you for the link - another immediate buy upon release. I was wondering, has anybody used Toccata's Discovery Club? It might be worth it just for the two Brian volumes if the second is released within a year of the first, and there are more than a few interesting books too.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Guido

Just listened to the Gothic all the way through for the first time. I am floored. Just floored.

Thanks guys for bringing it to my attention again!
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Guido on December 26, 2010, 01:37:17 PM
Just listened to the Gothic all the way through for the first time. I am floored. Just floored.

Thanks guys for bringing it to my attention again!

The Old Man will be grateful. And now pick yourself up!  ;)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

J.Z. Herrenberg

Re the three Brisbane vids that are now under embargo - Philip Legge, the uploader (and bass soloist at the performance), says 'the documentary' told him to make them private, i.e. a lady called Veronica Fury who has been making a docu about the whole undertaking the last few years ('The Curse of the Gothic'). But the clips will come back in due course.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Luke

Doesn't sound like a woman to be crossed, Ms Fury....

J.Z. Herrenberg

Hell hath no fury like a Fury scorned...

For the Brian diehards - an interview with Toccata Press & Classics boss Martin Anderson about the 'Gothic':

http://www.mediafire.com/file/47u9gbs5gxsy1t4/Interview%20with%20Martin%20Anderson%20about%20Brian%27s%20Gothic.mp3

Martin gets three facts slightly wrong: Brian wrote the 'Gothic' between 1919 and 1927 (not '26); it was Sir Henry Wood, not Sir Thomas Beecham, who suggested to Brian he write a symphony for an orchestra complete in every department; and it was Lichfield Cathedral that was a main inspiration behind the 'Gothic' of the title, not Winchester Cathedral.

And for those who might have missed it, here again a link to an interview with Brian himself, conducted in 1968 by Robert Simpson and Jeffrey Anderson from CBC:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2nmmhklof2f/Havergal%20Brian%20interview.mp3
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

J.Z. Herrenberg

Another radio clip from the land of Oz, featuring Alison Rogers, the choir master, and Gary Thorpe, the moving spirit behind the whole venture of mounting the 'Gothic' in Brisbane:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/26bdklvr2t73ded/Alison%20Rogers%20and%20Gary%20Thorpe%20about%20the%20Gothic.mp3
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

karlhenning

My dear Johan, I don't believe I could ever become a Brianiac to rival you. Fear not! : )

Just got e-mail alerting me that my copy of the Gothic has been shipped.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 27, 2010, 09:45:59 AM
My dear Johan, I don't believe I could ever become a Brianiac to rival you. Fear not! : )

I don't think so, either. My addiction started more than 30 years ago...  ;)

QuoteJust got e-mail alerting me that my copy of the Gothic has been shipped.

OK. Look for that spire on the horizon, slowly approaching...

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

Monty Cello

G'day. I am new to this particular forum, which I found by searching for Brian's The Tigers on the Internet. My search was caused by my mislaying my own recordings of both the initial broadcast of the BBC Radio 3 production of 1984, and its later rebroadcast. So, many thanks to Albion for his efforts in posting those wma files. By a stroke of good fortune I have here files derived from a DAT, made at the right end of the broadcast chain, of the Schmidt performance of The Gothic. I would rather not post links to them openly. However, anyone interested might like to contact me via the personal messaging system here. What a pity, by the way, that the Testament issue of the Boult performance derives from the 'wrong' end of the broadcast chain. The peak at around 19kHz is a dead give-away, as is the restricted frequency range of the musical content.  :(

J.Z. Herrenberg

Welcome, Monty Cello! Great to have another Brianite on board. Interesting what you say about the Testament 'Gothic'. You mean, they didn't use a 'master tape'?
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Monty Cello

#535
Hi Jezetha,

No, they certainly didn't. I have it on fairly reliable authority that there is a 7.5ips reel to reel of the broadcast in the BBC archive, but either that was donated by a listener, or it was too degraded to be used for the Testament issue. I was a bit taken aback on first listening to the Testament CDs, they just did not sound significantly better than my own reel-to-reel from FM, so I ripped them, used Sound Forge to carry out a spectral analysis, and all was revealed. I can think of no other reason for the isolated peak around 19kHz, or the cut off of the rest of the audio at around 15kHz.

[By the way, re. the Brabbins Gothic at next year's Proms. Confirmation has been received from several of the performers due to participate.]

J.Z. Herrenberg

Hm, that's not good. My introduction to the 'Gothic' was through the Aries pirated recording, which wasn't that bad - very open sound, quite spectacular. You confirrn by spectral analysis what was bugging me subliminally about the Testament CDs - that, as you say, the gain didn't seem all that striking. Well, now we know why... Pity.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

Welcome, Monty!

You from Charlottesville?
; )

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Monty Cello on December 28, 2010, 01:31:49 PM[By the way, re. the Brabbins Gothic at next year's Proms. Confirmation has been received from several of the performers due to participate.]

The game's afoot, then! [I know it from another source... You are well-informed, too!]
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Brian

Now, the two of you need to use your Brianite influence to persuade someone (Hyperion?) to release a recording of the upcoming Proms concert...  ;)

P.S. At any rate it should be posted by the BBC in glorious high-def on YouTube and thus immortalized?