Havergal Brian.

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

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vandermolen

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 03, 2011, 10:46:35 AM
More a sort of stoic acceptance of everything life can throw at you.

Any music which conveys stoic acceptance, looming catastrophe and mad, hopeless defiance always appeals to me.  :D
"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).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on April 05, 2011, 01:38:03 PM
Any music which conveys stoic acceptance, looming catastrophe and mad, hopeless defiance always appeals to me.  :D


It's the Churchillian mode par excellence, Jeffrey!


[On a more personal note - I have contacted two publishers through my literary connections today. I hope to have finished Part 1 of the novel (around 100,000 words) near 13 June, my 50th birthday. Exciting times...]
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

vandermolen

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 05, 2011, 01:41:44 PM

It's the Churchillian mode par excellence, Jeffrey!


[On a more personal note - I have contacted two publishers through my literary connections today. I hope to have finished Part 1 of the novel (around 100,000 words) near 13 June, my 50th birthday. Exciting times...]

Excellent news Johan - I hope that you will celebrate such significant milestones in style.
"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).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on April 05, 2011, 01:47:19 PM
Excellent news Johan - I hope that you will celebrate such significant milestones in style.


Blessed relief will be a celebration in itself!  ;D
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning


J.Z. Herrenberg

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

vandermolen

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 05, 2011, 01:49:07 PM

Blessed relief will be a celebration in itself!  ;D

With your first magnum opus nearly complete Johan, you only have 31 more to write.  :D
"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).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Very droll, Jeffrey... ;) Perhaps  I will be struck by a Sibelian silence for the rest of my life!

Returning to Havergal Brian, I have fallen under the spell of the Cello Concerto. It did take a few listenings to get attuned to the beautifully rhapsodic nature of the work. In this respect alone it reminds me of Delius's Violin Concerto. The Cello Concerto seems to take up the story where we left it in Symphony No. 21, as its opening theme is a clear successor to that of the symphony's final movement. As Luke already observed, this ultimately very approachable and lovely concerto is an excellent way to get to know Brian's late style. The first movement is my favourite, it has some great flights of lyricism.

Malcolm MacDonald, in his three-part study, assigns Symphony No. 21, the Cello Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra, to a 'becalmed' phase of stock-taking, just ahead of the strenuous trilogy of symphonies 22-24. Thanks to Dutton I have now discovered that the Cello Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra are among Brian's most appealing works (others are, IMO, symphonies 6, 11, 15, 19 and 28).
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Scarpia

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 06, 2011, 02:51:13 PM
Very droll, Jeffrey... ;) Perhaps  I will be struck by a Sibelian silence for the rest of my life!

Returning to Havergal Brian, I have fallen under the spell of the Cello Concerto. It did take a few listenings to get attuned to the beautifully rhapsodic nature of the work. In this respect alone it reminds me of Delius's Violin Concerto. The Cello Concerto seems to take up the story where we left it in Symphony No. 21, as its opening theme is a clear successor to that of the symphony's final movement. As Luke already observed, this ultimately very approachable and lovely concerto is an excellent way to get to know Brian's late style. The first movement is my favourite, it has some great flights of lyricism.

Malcolm MacDonald, in his three-part study, assigns Symphony No. 21, the Cello Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra, to a 'becalmed' phase of stock-taking, just ahead of the strenuous trilogy of symphonies 22-24. Thanks to Dutton I have now discovered that the Cello Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra are among Brian's most appealing works (others are, IMO, symphonies 6, 11, 15, 19 and 28).

My lord, how can someone keep so many works in the head? 

J.Z. Herrenberg

Well, Scarpia, I have loved Brian's music for almost 33 years now, and since I got tapes of most of the symphonies during the late 1980s I have listened to them countless times. Keeping them apart is just as easy as with Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. You simply live with the music. That's all...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Scarpia

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 06, 2011, 03:00:32 PM
Well, Scarpia, I have loved Brian's music for almost 33 years now, and since I got tapes of most of the symphonies during the late 1980s I have listened to them countless times. Keeping them apart is just as easy as with Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. You simply live with the music. That's all...

Well, I can't call to mind each of Beethoven's 32 Sonatas either.   :(

Christo

With even Scarpia among the converts, I (an old semi-partly, once-a-HBS-subscribing-but-then-forgetting-to-pay-my-membership-fee, former Brianite myself) became so excited once more, that I find myself playing one or two Havergal Brian symphonies almost every day.

Today I listened to nos. 6-10, in a row. And I love them all.  ;D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

J.Z. Herrenberg

Great to hear it, Christo! I have the two new Dutton CDs on my mp3 player (with a few extra symphonies thrown in for good measure), and listen to them every day... Obsessive? Perhaps. That's love for you...
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Christo

... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on April 06, 2011, 03:27:39 PM
With even Scarpia among the converts, I (an old semi-partly, once-a-HBS-subscribing-but-then-forgetting-to-pay-my-membership-fee, former Brianite myself) became so excited once more, that I find myself playing one or two Havergal Brian symphonies almost every day.

Today I listened to nos. 6-10, in a row. And I love them all.  ;D

My relationship with the HB Society is/was the same as yours. I have just received the Orchestral Music of HB Volume 1 and look forward  in particular to hearing 'Rustic Scenes' (English Suite No 5) again - an old friend from an old CBS LSSO LP. Talking of which Symphony No 22 (Sinfonia Brevis) was on the same old LP and we definitely need a CD version of that too as I remember it as a fine work.
"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).

vandermolen

Quote from: J. Z. Herrenberg on April 06, 2011, 02:51:13 PM
Very droll, Jeffrey... ;) Perhaps  I will be struck by a Sibelian silence for the rest of my life!

No Johan I don't think so - I expect that you'll take the HB/Leif Segerstam route.  ;D
"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).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on April 06, 2011, 10:41:51 PM
No Johan I don't think so - I expect that you'll take the HB/Leif Segerstam route.  ;D


Segerstam!? Heaven forbid! Compared to him, HB was a miser. If I am ever to reach those levels of productivity, I really must start drinking in earnest. My sobriety is a big handicap.  ;D
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Guido

#917
Desperate to hear the cello concerto after these descriptions! It's now the most important English cello concerto I haven't heard (recently acquired the Foulds thanks to a forum member).

Ooh it's coupled with Bush (sometimes his music is very interesting. I love the 3 studies for piano trio. Coincidentally I just heard his Sinfonietta Concertante for cello and orchestra), and Bowen (his music is virtually never interesting). I'm going to have to get this.
Geologist.

The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

Lethevich

A few high res images (I haven't seen many):



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

J.Z. Herrenberg

Always nice to see the man himself! I have a picture of his bust leaning against my monitor... In Brian's case, though, the face doesn't reveal  a lot. For what went on inside, we have to listen to the music, and even there, he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve. An enigmatic man!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato