Havergal Brian.

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

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Lethevich

Woah, so many awesome things to buy this year. I guess I'll try buying directly from the labels in each instance, as it presumably gives them a bigger cut.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

John Copeland

Quote from: Jezetha on January 28, 2011, 03:18:14 PM
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.

I am delighted with ALL this news.  It's breakthrough stuff, and now he may rise to a rightful prominence in the list of the most outstanding English composers.  I know I gush a lot, may sound superfluous, but really good news always gives me a physical reaction of some kind of celebratory joy, and for some reason I feel that way about this.
It is the same feeling as crying out loud "AT LAST""
I for one will be on purchasing everything there, and a debt of gratitude for Johan introducing me to Havergal in the first place (though by the looks of things, my wallet may protest against him come the end of the year...)

Brian

Quote from: Lethe on January 28, 2011, 04:08:53 PM
Woah, so many awesome things to buy this year. I guess I'll try buying directly from the labels in each instance, as it presumably gives them a bigger cut.

John, Sara, you're both coming to the Prom Gothic, right? :)

Lethevich

I'm not sure I like his first that much yet, but I have been vaguely entertaining the idea.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

not edward

Great to see a modern commercial recording of the Tenth; I've heard a rip of the LSSO recording that merely made me want to hear a more professional orchestra (no discredit to the LSSO, they did a bang-up job all things consider) play this one.

I suppose I should retry the Gothic some time--thus far the works before the 6th haven't grabbed me (I have so far only thoroughly warmed to the 6th through the 10th, which seems from what I've read to be almost the canonical preference).
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

snyprrr

Just heard No.31 for the first time, on YouTube. Well,... I was expecting more... something. :(

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: snyprrr on January 28, 2011, 09:07:51 PM
Just heard No.31 for the first time, on YouTube. Well,... I was expecting more... something. :(

"..the impressions that remain after a performance are of a profound inner calm. The music gazes from the mountaintop, rather than reliving the difficulties of the ascent." --Malcolm MacDonald

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"

Brian

Quote from: Lethe on January 28, 2011, 04:17:27 PM
I'm not sure I like his first that much yet, but I have been vaguely entertaining the idea.

Heck, I've never heard it, but how many times is a concert like that going to happen in my life span/hemisphere?

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Brian on January 30, 2011, 04:24:27 AM
Heck, I've never heard it, but how many times is a concert like that going to happen in my life span/hemisphere?


With The Gothic it's bit like with the police - you can wait 30 years for one performance to come around, and then two take place within a year.  ;)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Albion

Although they are not yet listed on the Dutton home-page, the two new Epoch releases featuring Havergal Brian can be found elsewhere on the site and are available for pre-ordering:

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7267

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7263

;D
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

Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Thanks, Albion! I was alerted to these two CDs on Facebook by fellow-member Dundonnell (sadly absent here). But I was and am extremely busy and couldn't find the time to relay it to you all here on GMG...
Great news, of course! Btw, there is one mistake about Symphony No. 10, which I spotted immediately: it doesn't ask for an organ. Malcolm MacDonald, one of the two foremost Brian scholars (the other is Paul Rapoport), cleared it up for me: the organ is used in the Third English Suite...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Albion

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on March 02, 2011, 02:39:24 AM
Btw, there is one mistake about Symphony No. 10, which I spotted immediately: it doesn't ask for an organ. Malcolm MacDonald, one of the two foremost Brian scholars (the other is Paul Rapoport), cleared it up for me: the organ is used in the Third English Suite...
Not a mistake, but instead a rather a confusing use of symbols - the asterisk beside Symphony No.10 refers to World premiere recordings, except, whereas the cross next to The Stonebreaker indicates the use of the organ.
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

You're right, of course. But Dutton aren't when they write: "The large array of percussion and organ in Symphony No.10 are caught in demonstration-worthy sound, as are the mighty climaxes and Brian's quiet, atmospheric Sibelian interludes."  :o


http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7267
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Albion

Sorry - I hadn't read all the 'blurb'! Perhaps they've popped an organ pedal or two into the score to make the organist earn his fee, or perhaps he accidentally fell on the console during a particularly tumultuous passage in the 'storm' section and they didn't have the heart to edit him out!  ;)
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

#615
I am reminded of comedy character Count Arthur Strong about Michael Crawford: "He did that er... Oprah Winfrey thing, you know... the Phantom of the Opera! Oh yes, that takes some doing, that part, living in the sewers, hunched over your organ with half your face missing!"
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Albion

Or perhaps Monty Python's

  :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)

J.Z. Herrenberg

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

Albion

Well, whoever paid the fee for the use of the organ at the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow certainly got a bum deal!  ;D
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

 :D


Seeing how many children he fathered, I am always bothered by the tautological 'Bach's Organ Works'.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato