Havergal Brian.

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

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karlhenning

Quote from: Jezetha on January 05, 2011, 07:55:10 AM
Perhaps a funny place to do so, but I want to say I'll be off the radar temporarily. My novel demands my undivided attention if I want to get the first big part published later this year. Of course, Brian's music will accompany my labours...

Write well, Johan!

Albion

Quote from: Jezetha on January 05, 2011, 07:55:10 AM
Perhaps a funny place to do so, but I want to say I'll be off the radar temporarily. My novel demands my undivided attention if I want to get the first big part published later this year. Of course, Brian's music will accompany my labours...

If it's anything like The Gothic, you know what that will mean with regard to the dimensions of the second part!  :o
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)

Lethevich

Quote from: Jezetha on January 05, 2011, 07:55:10 AM
Perhaps a funny place to do so, but I want to say I'll be off the radar temporarily. My novel demands my undivided attention if I want to get the first big part published later this year. Of course, Brian's music will accompany my labours...
Good luck with it!
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Thanks, everyone! I'll also disable notifications of any reply from GMG (and Facebook, too). Complete abstinence can lead to complete fulfilment... ;-) Bye bye!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Luke

Positively Brianic self-control, to leave things standing like this, J...


karlhenning


karlhenning

Well, I found myself fairly tongue-tied after an inaugural listen to the Gothic.  The weekend was not so peaceful as to allow me a straight-through re-listen, but I did listen again to both disc 1 (once) and disc 2 (twice).  I'm only starting to get a musical coat-rack on which to peg bits of the piece, so I do not yet really have an intelligent sense of the overall garment.  But I like it even better with each go.  I'm far more impressed with it as a whole than in my ignorance I supposed I might be.

(And it somehow feels right to get to know this piece, the same week that I am re-acquainting myself with the Hartmann symphonies. Different as they are.)

Well, just wanted to check in. Fact is, I need to listen a couple of times more. But I'm on it!

J.Z. Herrenberg

Ha! I got tempted back to GMG after days of writing and I see Karl having had his maiden listening of The Gothic and being positive about the piece. This is really good news. (And btw, Karl - I love Hartmann, too.)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

And I did listen again yesterday, JohanLuke's remarks to the effect of how the piece sustains itself over so long a span have lingered as an echo over my auditions.  Really a marvelous piece.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 13, 2011, 07:22:02 AM
And I did listen again yesterday, Johan.  Luke's remarks to the effect of how the piece sustains itself over so long a span have lingered as an echo over my auditions.  Really a marvelous piece.
It is really wonderful to hear from someone you respect that he can share your enthusiasm for a piece of music that still isn't recognised as the fascinating and masterly thing it is. Bravo! on this, the 70th anniversary of James Joyce's death! 
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Luke

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 13, 2011, 07:22:02 AM
And I did listen again yesterday, JohanLuke's remarks to the effect of how the piece sustains itself over so long a span have lingered as an echo over my auditions.  Really a marvelous piece.

Fabulous, all round - to see Johan back briefly, to read Karl's reactions to The Gothic, to think that something I wrote may have had some effect. I was, in fact, preparing another little reply anyway, based on Karls' line ' I'm only starting to get a musical coat-rack on which to peg bits of the piece, so I do not yet really have an intelligent sense of the overall garment'. Give me a few minutes... (though I have 40 children turning up in the classroom to sing their little socks off any second now)

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Luke on January 13, 2011, 07:44:57 AM
Fabulous, all round - to see Johan back briefly, to read Karl's reactions to The Gothic, to think that something I wrote may have had some effect. I was, in fact, preparing another little reply anyway, based on Karls' line ' I'm only starting to get a musical coat-rack on which to peg bits of the piece, so I do not yet really have an intelligent sense of the overall garment'. Give me a few minutes... (though I have 40 children turning up in the classroom to sing their little socks off any second now)


Nothing beats informed advocacy, Luke, something at which you excel.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Guido

I don't understand how J has posted two more posts since Luke's picture and still has only 4999 as his total... Have you deleted two posts in order that the total stays there?!
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Guido on January 14, 2011, 04:46:58 AM
I don't understand how J has posted two more posts since Luke's picture and still has only 4999 as his total... Have you deleted two posts in order that the total stays there?!

No. Yesterday I had 5003 posts...?!? Let's see if this makes 5000...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

Something's a bit wonky with the counter. MN Dave created a new account, and 'started' with a count of 516 posts ; )

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 14, 2011, 04:54:48 AM
Something's a bit wonky with the counter. MN Dave created a new account, and 'started' with a count of 516 posts ; )

Let's hope the wonky counter doesn't cast you back to 285!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

Quote from: Jezetha on January 14, 2011, 04:56:28 AM
Let's hope the wonky counter doesn't cast you back to 285!

Should that happen, I'll take it philosophically, rather : )

J.Z. Herrenberg




BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Garry Walker

The long-neglected British composer Havergal Brian (1876–1972) is gradually coming in from the cold, with recordings on Naxos, Dutton, Testament and now Toccata Classics.

Self-taught, from a working-class family in Stoke-on Trent, he shot to fame when Henry Wood discovered him for the 1907 Proms; but he remained an outsider to the British musical establishment, and is as much known for his creative persistence in the face of utter neglect as for the extremely serious and ambitious works that he produced.

His copious output famously includes 32 symphonies, begun when he was in his mid-forties and continued at a constant rate well into his 90s. Only occasionally requiring gigantic forces on stage – Sir Adrian Boult, who conducted his First Symphony (The Gothic), reportedly had to rehearse with a megaphone in order to be heard – Brian's symphonies do nonetheless demand large orchestras.

There is also a substantial body of smaller symphonic works such as those featured on this disc (overtures, suites, symphonic poems and variations) that he began as a young man and which he continued to compose as a complement to his later symphonic output.

The four works here span 65 years and encompass his entire composing career: from the early Burlesque Variations that was also championed at the Proms and presumed lost until 1974, to two mature and highly contrasted works from the 1950s and finally his epilogue – Ave atque Vale, music of astonishing vigour and energy for a 92-year-old, and the second-last work that he wrote before he died.

Toccata Classics - TOCC0110

(CD)

€15.49
   

Scheduled for release on 21 March 2011. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available.

(The above taken from: http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/search.php?searchString=havergal+Brian)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

John Copeland

  :D  Good God, this is fantastic news Johan!  I had no idea the BBCSO were up to such things.  This really is exciting, way overdue.  I was listening to "Gothic" today, remembering how switched on I got - started to switch on to him again and now this....fab news.

J.Z. Herrenberg

#599
Quote from: John on January 28, 2011, 03:02:42 PM
  :D  Good God, this is fantastic news Johan!  I had no idea the BBCSO were up to such things.  This really is exciting, way overdue.  I was listening to "Gothic" today, remembering how switched on I got - started to switch on to him again and now this....fab news.


Yes, it is, isn't it? And there will be a second Toccata Classics disc of orchestral music from HB's operas (Faust, Turandot, Cenci iirc). This isn't scheduled for release before the Autumn at the earliest.

Out late Feb or early March: two Dutton CDs - Syms 10/30 plus Concerto for Orchestra & English Suite 3, and one with the Cello Concerto plus works by Bush & Bowen.

AND - I just learned that Naxos, finally, will be recording Symphonies 22, 23 & 24 plus English Suite No. 1 in Liverpool at the end of Feb. RLPO conducted by James Judd.  :)


P.S. I just realised - it's now 29 january here in the Netherlands, the birthday of Mozart, Delius and... Havergal Brian.

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