Havergal Brian.

[cilgwyn]

Can't stand some of the Naxos recordings of Brian,myself,but the one pictured above is a 'good one'. I prefer the Hull Youth SO in the 'Festal Dance',though. It's more fun! (I just hope my s/h copy is ok! It's still in the post,as yet)
Strange cover design. Looks like an egg yolk!

[cilgwyn]

By the way,thank you to the Forum Member who sent me those recommendations. I accidentally deleted your emai after reading it, (my email put in the Spam folder & I meant to move it to 'inbox'!).
I am currently still waitng for that Hull Youth SO cd set. Will it live up to 'rose tinted' memory? The last time I heard them 'The Benny Hill Show' was still filling up our tv screens with scantily clad women & a pint in my local was around 50p! And,even more importantly,for me personally,will the cd player 'freeze' or even get past track '0'?!
To be continued........

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

My thumbs have been up for days already, cilgwyn.

One Brian remark - I love the conclusion of the Concerto for Orchestra. It's quintessential Brian, light and grand at the same time. It's IMO a stronger sequel to the coda of Symphony No. 20 (for the experts among us).

[cilgwyn]

I'll have another listen to the 'Concerto for Orchestra' later.

[Lethevich]

The prices of some Brian books make my head hurt. I recently cheaply picked up these:



The first of which contains an interesting essay on Brian, but no in-depth look at one piece (unlike some of the other composers included), with references to other books which are currently patchily available. The second is an interesting (and valuble) look at Brian's personality and interests - his advocacy of Arnold Cooke (based on some early chamber works) makes the Lyrita coupling seem even more logical.

The next logical step seems to be the Symphonies of Havergal Brian by Malcolm MacDonald, but these are out of print and attainable in variable condition and inconsistent bindings - does anybody know if there are any plans to reprint them at some point?

Does anybody have any comments on the others (excluding super expensive ones):

Havergal Brian and His Music (Nettel)
Ordeal by Music: The Strange Experience of Havergal Brian (Nettel)
Havergal Brian: Reminiscences and Observations (Matthew-Walker)
Havergal Brian: The Making of a Composer (Eastaugh)
HB: Aspects of Harvergal Brian (Schaarwachter)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The prices of some Brian books make my head hurt. I recently cheaply picked up these:



The first of which contains an interesting essay on Brian, but no in-depth look at one piece (unlike some of the other composers included), with references to other books which are currently patchily available. The second is an interesting (and valuble) look at Brian's personality and interests - his advocacy of Arnold Cooke (based on some early chamber works) makes the Lyrita coupling seem even more logical.

The next logical step seems to be the Symphonies of Havergal Brian by Malcolm MacDonald, but these are out of print and attainable in variable condition and inconsistent bindings - does anybody know if there are any plans to reprint them at some point?

Does anybody have any comments on the others (excluding super expensive ones):

Havergal Brian and His Music (Nettel)
Ordeal by Music: The Strange Experience of Havergal Brian (Nettel)
Havergal Brian: Reminiscences and Observations (Matthew-Walker)
Havergal Brian: The Making of a Composer (Eastaugh)
HB: Aspects of Harvergal Brian (Schaarwachter)

'Opus Est''s essay on Brian discovers a cruciform in the tonal scheme of the Gothic.
'Havergal Brian on music vol. 1' is an indispensable book for anyone wanting to know how Brian responded to the music of his time. Vol. 2 was published last year.


The essential books on Brian to have are the three MacDonald books and Schaarwächter's Aspects of Brian (which contains a selection of the best articles and essays from the HBS Newsletter). I don't think the MM volumes will be reprinted anytime soon (I can ask him). Perhaps when there is a new Brian Renaissance... But they are real classics.


Nettel's Havergal Brian: The man and his music is an update of his earlier 'Ordeal by Music', which stops the story in 1946, thinking Brian's career was over... It has a flavour all its own, because Nettel was a Potteries man, too, and knew the (musical) world Brian came from.
Matthew-Walker's book is for hard-core Brianites who want to have every snippet of info. I bought it from the author at the 21st anniversary of the HBS in 1995.
Eastaugh's book is still the only biography available. It's a bit on the sensational side and doesn't teach you anything about the music. Eastaugh's view of Brian is slanted, and the man comes across as quite the egotistic artist, sometimes given to histrionics. I have read the book twice, and I forget every time what I have been reading...

[karlhenning]

Most interesting, thank you, Johan.

[Lethevich]

Thank you for the guidance, Johan!

I'll pick up the Schaarwächter, probably the Nettel too.* I'll wait on the reply about the symphonies volumes if it's not too much trouble - I am not expecting anything positive, but it's worth a try: I really dislike those dirty ex-library volumes

One fascinating thing the Opus Est book mentions is that the MacDonald volumes were seemingly written to be read along with the score or to a recording of the music, and the author notes that the books will become increasingly valuble as Brian's music gains more exposure. I feel very fortunate to be around when most of his symphonies are easily available in recordings.

*Edit: just clicked buy on both.

Edit2: Listening to the Lyrita recording of the 6th - I keep remembering Brian's style from his later works, and tend to be shocked whenever I encounter moments like 10:50 (going on for several minutes) in his output. It's amongst the most beautiful music I can recall, and the context only heightens its impact. There are moments that remind me of Truscott's "elegy" for strings, which only makes me feel more strongly the loss for Truscott's inability to complete his compositions.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thank you for the guidance, Johan!

I'll pick up the Schaarwächter, probably the Nettel too.* I'll wait on the reply about the symphonies volumes if it's not too much trouble - I am not expecting anything positive, but it's worth a try: I really dislike those dirty ex-library volumes

One fascinating thing the Opus Est book mentions is that the MacDonald volumes were seemingly written to be read along with the score or to a recording of the music, and the author notes that the books will become increasingly valuble as Brian's music gains more exposure. I feel very fortunate to be around when most of his symphonies are easily available in recordings.

*Edit: just clicked buy on both.

Edit2: Listening to the Lyrita recording of the 6th - I keep remembering Brian's style from his later works, and tend to be shocked whenever I encounter moments like 10:50 (going on for several minutes) in his output. It's amongst the most beautiful music I can recall, and the context only heightens its impact. There are moments that remind me of Truscott's "elegy" for strings, which only makes me feel more strongly the loss for Truscott's inability to complete his compositions.

Truscott's Elegy is a wonderful piece, I agree. And that tenderness is in Brian, too. Not only in that lovely and moving passage in the Tragica you are referring to, but even as late as Symphony No. 24, whose final Adagio is among the most beautiful things Brian ever wrote. I hope the Naxos recording will do it justice...


I read Opus Est more than 30 years ago, when I was 18. The Amsterdam Public Library's music department must have had a Brianite librarian, because everything was there - a copy of the Gothic, MacDonald's books, Nettel's, Eastaugh's, Foreman's (Havergal Brian and the perfomance of his orchestral music, with lots of tantalising pictures - I could only guess at what the music sounded like, as there were so few recordings!) Quite incredible, come to think of it! The beauty of being faithful to your enthusiasms is that one day you get into contact with a MacDonald and a Rapoport. I now 'know' them both on Facebook, and was able to express my gratitude for their writings on Brian. I'll send MacDonald a message. I seem to remember reading that the Society had bought up all the remaining stock of his study from the publisher and offered all three for a certain sum (not too expensive).

[Luke]

The Macdonald symphonies volumes are just masterpieces of musical writing, full stop. I can think of few better and more involving 'reads' in music literature* - passionate, highly knowledgable (we are clearly in the hands of someone who knows the subject better than anyone else), fabulously thought-through and structured, beatifully written (MM finds the perfect metaphors time and again); both analytically insightful and revelatory/moving on a personal level, and able to bind all of this into a coherent whole which gives a fine impression of the man and his music. Everything rings very true.


*some of those that come closest are by MM too - he's really a great writer!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Complete agreement here, Luke. Discovering that first volume on a library shelf, age 16, when I was looking for something about Bruckner, changed my life.

[cilgwyn]

And this fool sold his copies on Amazon a couple of years ago! That was after some of those Naxos recordings put me off Brian for a while. Also,most of the cassettes I had got destroyed by dodgy machines so there was no alternative.
The 'Second age of Brian' for me proved to be the  emergence of the Boult Gothic on cd. Suddenly I realised it wasn't Brian at all it was those horrid Marco Polo/ Naxos cd's!
Since then I have re-stocked my 'library' with the off air performances I lost & replaced the Lp's I sold with the cd equivalents.
  Some of the Naxos performances ARE okay,but in my humble opinion,at least to my ears,the performances of the 'Gothic', 'Das Siegeslied' & Symphony No 2 are insufferable!
  I thoroughly agree with the comments here about Malcolm MacDonald's books about the Symphonies. They are simply marvellous. I had them all! You can of course get along without them I suppose,but it is a little like going out to some unknown & difficult terrain without a very good ordnance survey map.
Pleeease re-publish them somebody!!!!!!!!

[cilgwyn]

Malcolm Macdonald is a bit of a genius himself!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Okay - how I rate the Naxos recordings...


Symphony No. 1 "Gothic" - I am not as dismissive as cilgwyn. Every "Gothic" performance is a blessing, and this one is certainly more than acceptable, in my opinion. I prefer Boult for his choice of tempi and his firm structural grip, but Lenard certainly does not misrepresent the score. The Schmidt performance sits somewhere in the middle. It will be very interesting to see what Brabbins will do. And we still have to find out what the Brisbane "Gothic" was like.

Symphony No. 2 + Festival Fanfare - Largely bad. Though I find the quality of the playing in the Second Symphony improves per movement, making the final movement, Lento maestoso e mesto, quite impressive. The Festival fanfare is terribly timid and sluggish. It can be a very strong piece, as short as it is.

Symphony No. 4 'Das Siegeslied' + Symphony No. 12 - This CD gets you acquainted with the notes, but both can be so much stronger. Until now the Del Mar 12 from 1966 is the best performance. As for 4, the Poole performance from 1974 is better.

Violin Concerto + Symphony No. 18 + The Jolly Miller - The rich Violin Concerto is persuasively played by Marat Bisengaliev. I saw and heard him play it live, and that was even better... No. 18 gets a stronger performance in a BBC radio performance.

Symphonies Nos. 11 & 15 + Doctor Merryheart + For Valour - A good disc overall. Opening slow movement of 11 a bit too quick, though (the reissued historic performance on Dutton is better), and No. 15 is stronger in a BBC radio recording. But the two tone poems are well done.

Symphonies Nos. 17 & 32 + In Memoriam + Festal Dance - A good disc, too. I prefer the BBC 17 though, it's tougher, more fiery, and the ending is like the wrath of a god.

Symphonies Nos. 20 & 25 + Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme - Another good disc. I miss the organ at the climax of the Fantastic Variations. The Hull Youth Orchestra does this better...

And here endeth the lesson.

[Lethevich]

The 2nd is a work that could potentially draw in some interest from non-Brianites, providing it was well-performed and recorded. It exists in a broody post-Mahler/Elgar soundworld that is quite accessable, although still a very mature work full of the composer's stylistic fingerprints. Of all his symphonies I feel that a label like Chandos could do this piece great justice - perhaps coupled with a single-movement work by a more familiar composer to draw upon a wider fanbase. (Although I hope that it wouldn't include those multiple arbitrary index points that the Marco Polo discs do - the can be quite disconcerting - Mahler's 9th didn't need them, and perhaps neither should this work.)

Speaking of his underrated symphonies, what do you folks think of his 5th? It is rather charming although the rare inclusion of a soloist took me a while to get used to (I am not familiar with Brian's songs or opera). It seems to exist as a missing link between his earlier vocal symphonies and his later compact ones.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

You're right about No. 2, though I don't think the first movement is among Brian's best - the central idea is too weak to carry the structural weight. The opening itself is great and looming, but the mountain gives birth to a mouse. I think No. 3 is the work Chandos should do. The Hyperion recording suffers from a too dry acoustic. It was recorded at the Maida Vale studio in London in (iirc) 1988. I attended a radio performance of the work and noticed even then that the music fell flat, having no space to breathe in.

As for No. 5 - wonderful work! Very spare and atmospheric. Brian Rayner Cook (no final e, as I wrongly thought) is in top form in the performance he gave at the Brian Centenary Festival in 1976. Judge for yourselves...


http://www.mediafire.com/file/zmgnn31swnu/Brian%205%20%28Rayner%20Cooke%29.mp3


I know Brian's songs from an LP (now CD at Toccata) Cook made with Roger Vignoles - there are some gems there. Of the operas I know 'The Tigers' very well, and the 'Faust' Prologue. I have also heard 'Agamemnon' and 'The Cenci' (live, on the South Bank). 'Turandot' I only know from the wonderful and colourful orchestral suites, which Toccata already has recorded (iirc), and will be issuing later this year.

[Lethevich]

'Turandot' I only know from the wonderful and colourful orchestral suites, which Toccata already has recorded (iirc), and will be issuing later this year.

Can't wait for that second volume. I have yet to play the new three (two on Dutton) because I feel that I need to familiarise myself with the older recordings a little more before I move onto them - I don't want to spoil myself only to find that the older recordings are then unlistenable...

It's funny thinking about that Hyperion 3rd. I'm sure that if Chandos recorded it at the same time we would have the opposite complaint - too boomy and blurred The label seem to have long-since gotten that problem under control, though.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Can't wait for that second volume. I have yet to play the new three (two on Dutton) because I feel that I need to familiarise myself with the older recordings a little more before I move onto them - I don't want to spoil myself only to find that the older recordings are then unlistenable...

It's funny thinking about that Hyperion 3rd. I'm sure that if Chandos recorded it at the same time we would have the opposite complaint - too boomy and blurred The label seem to have long-since gotten that problem under control, though.

Only the 10th and the Fifth English Suite have been recorded before. The rest is all new (forgetting the radio performances of some of them). I personally don't think the new recordings have rendered the old ones completely obsolete. The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra did a splendid job (I still prefer their Suite to the one on Toccata, though the playing there is technically better).


I don't mind a boomy Brian...

[vandermolen]

The 2nd is a work that could potentially draw in some interest from non-Brianites, providing it was well-performed and recorded. It exists in a broody post-Mahler/Elgar soundworld that is quite accessable, although still a very mature work full of the composer's stylistic fingerprints. Of all his symphonies I feel that a label like Chandos could do this piece great justice - perhaps coupled with a single-movement work by a more familiar composer to draw upon a wider fanbase. (Although I hope that it wouldn't include those multiple arbitrary index points that the Marco Polo discs do - the can be quite disconcerting - Mahler's 9th didn't need them, and perhaps neither should this work.)

Speaking of his underrated symphonies, what do you folks think of his 5th? It is rather charming although the rare inclusion of a soloist took me a while to get used to (I am not familiar with Brian's songs or opera). It seems to exist as a missing link between his earlier vocal symphonies and his later compact ones.

I agree, I've come to appreciate Symphony No 2 more and more.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I agree, I've come to appreciate Symphony No 2 more and more.

Glad to hear it... For the record - my criticism only applies to the first movement. The slow second movement, for instance, has one of the most thrilling exchanges among the brass in the whole of the Brian canon.