Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I'll upload for the Commonwealth of Brianites.

[Hattoff]

Jolly Good.
I've modified my last post and put the suite up there, just as you were replying .
I'll have to find the LP for the other info, I'll post it up later.
It's amateur but listenable or I've got used to it.
James Heriot School rings a bell.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Excellent!!

[Hattoff]

It was easier to look it up on the HB society site.
5 July 1977 [at the first performance] (except Jingle rec at earlier session) . George Heriot's School, Edinburgh 
George Heriot's School First Orchestra, conductor Martin Rutherford

James Heriot, didn't he write the vet books?

I kept very few LPs but held on to the Brians, thankfully.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Listening as I write - this really adds to my knowledge of Brian. There are some wonderfully delicate things here. Playing and sound are, of course, far from perfect. Still, as a hardcore Brianite, I can listen through the imperfections...

[cilgwyn]

'All composers great and small'? That was a tv series,wasn't it!
If you're into Brian you tend to develop a 'special ear' for school orchestra's.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Yes. 'All Things Brian and Beautiful'.

[cilgwyn]

The good Havergal made them all.

[cilgwyn]

This is great. Hats off to Hattoff!
Sounds pretty good to me. The faint 'clicks' add a nice bit of Lp ambience.
(The only Brian Lp I have left is the one of his songs).

[John Whitmore]

Hi Johan & cilgwyn,
I have the 4th English Suite in mp3 format. 
Here it is:  http://www.4shared.com/audio/jgx3ayM1/Brian_English_suite_No_4.html
The sound is not too bad considering the surface noise.

Who's playing this?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

5 July 1977 [first performance] . George Heriot's School, Edinburgh
George Heriot's School First Orchestra, conductor Martin Rutherford



No match for the LSSO, of course...

[cilgwyn]

Well I got to hear the Ashanti Battle song!

[Hattoff]

It would, obviously, sound better under a professional orchestra.
I have a great fondness for the English Suites, it's a pity No2  went awol

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It would sound a lot better under Martin Brabbins
I have a great fondness for the English Suites, it's a pity No2  went awol

Yes, that's a great pity...


I wonder - did you download the new, improved mp3s of the Brisbane Gothic? They're terrific.


http://www.mediafire.com/?km7z6cl54mpyv

[Hattoff]

Thanks Johan,
I downloaded the original and was much impressed by that. I'll give this one an hearing later.
Listening to the Prologue to Faust at this very moment.

[cilgwyn]

And I'm on the Hull Youth SO 'Festal Dance' (more fun than the Naxos). There seems to be an organ at full throttle at the end of the Hull Youth SO 'Burlesque' Variations? (that's the trouble with cd changers when you're doing things).Anyway,the sound was amazing. Thrilling stuff!
The Ashanti Battle Song will be something under Brabbins!
And yes,If ONLY someone could turn up No 2.

[John Whitmore]

And I'm on the Hull Youth SO 'Festal Dance' (more fun than the Naxos). There seems to be an organ at full throttle at the end of the Hull Youth SO 'Burlesque' Variations? (that's the trouble with cd changers when you're doing things).Anyway,the sound was amazing. Thrilling stuff!
The Ashanti Battle Song will be something under Brabbins!
And yes,If ONLY someone could turn up No 2.

I've never heard these Hull recordings. Any chance of a file share in high quality mp3s?

[John Whitmore]

5 July 1977 [first performance] . George Heriot's School, Edinburgh
George Heriot's School First Orchestra, conductor Martin Rutherford



No match for the LSSO, of course...

What label was this released on and what else does the LP contain? I've never come across it before. Decent music. Playing very basic but it's a small school orchestra having a go so well done to them for trying. I am biased but also think that the LSSO is a bit better, Johan.

[Hattoff]

I had to get it out of its dusty box after all.

It's a private recording made by Ronald Stephen for the George Heriot school and has no label beyond saying that it was made in Scotland.
Side one is a narration of the history of the school orchestra 1967-1977 with many clips (too many to list).
Side two has the HB English suite.
Then, Delius on hearing the first cuckoo of spring and Malcolm Arnold's A Grand , Grand Overture (which is a hoot ).

I don't have record deck so can't copy and upload any of the rest.

As you are interested in school orchestras, I also have Holst's, "A Vision of Dame Christian" performed by St Paul's girls school orchestra and choir but sadly it is very badly performed and i didn't convert it to mp3 when I should have.

[Albion]

From the HBS website, an 'official' response to the Prom concert on 17th July -

Many reviews have appeared in the press regarding the performance of the Gothic on Sunday 17th July. [...] That the audience and the critics differed so wildly in their response to Brian's great 'war symphony' (or should that be 'Great War symphony?) is indisputable, but it was doubtless the quality of the music allied to the quality of the performance that enthralled and inflamed the audience. Tightly controlled by Martyn Brabbins, the massed forces gave a brilliantly coherent performance. Settling down after a slightly-out-of-tune woodwind start, the huge orchestra played with fire and delicacy, ably supported where necessary by David Goode at the Royal Albert Hall organ. At the climax of the vivace third movement, the eight-hundred choristers stood for their first entry, to barely-held gasps from many of the audience, such was the effect. Brian's cruelly-exposed writing for the a cappella choirs occasionally resulted in flagging pitch, but there has not been a performance that has [not] suffered from this. Ultimately the power and commitment of the massed voices combined with the clarity of the orchestral textures in a tour-de-force that was guided by Maestro Brabbins to the final magical choral peroration of 'non confundar in aeternum', said by one press critic to be in his opinion the most arresting symphonic conclusion in twentieth century music. The audience agreed.