Havergal Brian.

[cilgwyn]

Talking about the 'Wine of Summer',again. What is this 'Humbolt Redwood State Park Community Symphony Orchestra' (did I get that right?) performing Havergal Brian,on Youtube? I don't remember Johan mentioning that?!!!!!

And now here are the football results with Dickie Davis:

Arsenal: one
Chelsea  four
Tottenham Hotspurs: Two
Leed utd: one
The Wine of Summer: three
Sinfonia Tragica Wanderers: Four 
(shome mistake ed.)                   (etc,etc)
 

OOps! Thank you,John!
I prefer the Holmes to the Naxos,always have,I'm afraid!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Many thanks, John! When I'm home again I'll compare the Dundonnell and Whitmore versions.

@Cilgwyn The name of that orchestra is of course lifted from the pirated Aries recording. As for 'Wine of Summer', it doesn't sound 'steamy' to me. It's rather severe and bleakly poetic. The greatest warmth occurs at the end, with the passionate outburst about lost youth. I do love the work, btw.

[Dundonnell]

And now for something quite unusual. A post about Havergal Brian. I've been messing with the Holmes VC MP3 and found 5 ruinous moments at 7'14'', 16'40'', 16' 55'', 26'36'' and 35'45'' where the tape seemed to kick in a limiter and the sound immediately fell away and almost disappeared. I've sorted these out - not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but an improvement all the same. I also fixed the decay at the very end which was a bit chopped off. Other than that there's a slight brightening and a bit more at the bottom end. Hope you like it. Will listen to the others at a later time. I enjoy this piece. It has its Delian moments and a theme very similar to Elgar's Windflower. As to Rolf/Ralph. Brilliant. Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?7ovbho91wr9bgb6

Thank you, John. I have downloaded the file and will listen to it later. If you can improve the other Brian pieces that would obviously be wonderful too.

This is exactly the sort of thing I intended to try to do myself once the recordings in my collection had all been uploaded. Whether I will be successful is another matter of course.

[cilgwyn]

I notice that Dundonnell was bemoaning the lack of responses to threads on less well known composers (on the missing posters (?) thread). As the Brian thread,reaches 124 (pages) and the Wilfred Joseph thread stalls at two (and I tried HARD for Scott and Cowell! ),much as I like Brian,I can't help feeling a certain sympathy for his view. In a 'fair' world (!!!)that underrated towering genius Joseph Holbrooke would have more threads than anyone else here,and I'm pretty sure it would do wonders for his poor ghosts,vast,ego! (Poor Joseph,I mean Josef.I DID enjoy that new Dutton disc,though! )
Here's to the millionth page!

144,I lost count!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

When an artist is dead, only his work can speak for him. If enough people react strongly and positively to it, he'll have champions to fight his cause. There must be something to Brian's music that his admirers feel so strongly about it. Speaking for myself, I have heard so many extraordinary things in his music, I must speak out and 'spread the word'... Only a powerful artist can inspire so much dogged advocacy.

[cilgwyn]

I agree. Why not Bantock? He's pretty good!!!! But there's something about Brian. Whether it's self perpetuating notoriety,I don't know. But I don't think so. Bantock (taking him as an example) was a superb orchestrator,a fascinating sounding man & I'm sure he would have been wonderful person to know;but there's something about Brian that runs deeper. Goodness knows what it is really,(Bantock,as a person,sounds pretty deep),but maybe that's what keeps people like me posting.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I love and admire Brian's music for its independence, inventiveness, power, its uncosy, uncompromising nature, controlled emotion, grandeur, variety.

[John Whitmore]

I love and admire Brian's music for its independence, inventiveness, power, its uncosy, uncompromising nature, controlled emotion, grandeur, variety.

You are an anarchist at heart then?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

You are an anarchist at heart then?

Perhaps. I can respect and admire people. But I bow to no-one.

[cilgwyn]

I notice there IS a Bantock thread. Five 'pages' of it. The last two posts are by 'yours truly',in which I express a forlorn desire to see some Bantock at the Proms! 'Sappho' and the 'Pagan' get an honourable mention. Whether the tickets will sell out in Gothic style is debatable. If it ever happens,I actually hope they do!
Is there any other 'neglected' or 'underrated' composer that attracts the same interest as Brian? Langgaard? Koechlin,has done reasonably well,with the help of his indefatigable,personal campaigner,'Mirror Image'.
Maybe,Langgaard has a similarly devoted following,somewhere,in Danish? A Langgaard thread that reaches to 144 pages?
Who knows?
(Anybody?)

[Lethevich]

Brian's interest may in part be summed up by what happens when you try to write a capsule description of his style: it raises more questions than answers. I can scarcely think of even a great composer who would force this situation.

"He writes like Elgar and Strauss but with the tunes cut in half. Highly condensed in his material, but also wrote the largest recognised symphony. Simultaneously both late Romantic and modern, not as a transitional figure, but an integrated and highly personal synthesis of both."

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Nice encapsulation, Sara!

@cilgwyn I know and love Langgaard's music. But I think Brian is more characteristic and consistent.

[Dundonnell]

I notice that Dundonnell was bemoaning the lack of responses to threads on less well known composers (on the missing posters (?) thread). As the Brian thread,reaches 124 (pages) and the Wilfred Joseph thread stalls at two (and I tried HARD for Scott and Cowell! ),much as I like Brian,I can't help feeling a certain sympathy for his view. In a 'fair' world (!!!)that underrated towering genius Joseph Holbrooke would have more threads than anyone else here,and I'm pretty sure it would do wonders for his poor ghosts,vast,ego! (Poor Joseph,I mean Josef.I DID enjoy that new Dutton disc,though! )
Here's to the millionth page!

144,I lost count!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obviously, I agree with you.....well up to the point when you say that Holbrooke should have more threads than anyone else here

I don't deny anyone the right to make claims about favourite composers nor do I deny Brian's genius.

I do however think that some other composers deserve a much fairer share of attention than they have had up to now.

And I point blank refuse to get into a game of comparisons between the respective merits of individual composers. If there is a Brian v. Bantock game on then I shan't be watching

[cilgwyn]

I was joking about Holbrooke. I can just imagine him looking at at this GMG board and thinking,"I've got no b**** thread here? Bl**** cheek!  Says it all about the state of British music (rant! rant!)". He does seem to have been a little vain. But,I can empathise with him,in a way. As my father used to say,'Life is unfair,Mr Godfrey!'
Did I include Beethoven,Mahler & Mozart,incidentally? (Where is Wolfgang's thread,anyway?!!! He's quite interesting too! Love Don Giovanni!!!!)
As to comparisons. I totally agree with you. I was just thinking about what you said & wondering why such an undoubtedly interesting composer (and personality) as Bantock (sorry Holbrooke! )engenders less posts than Havergal Brian.

[Dax]

Again, many thanks to Dundonnell for those recordings. The 3rd Symphony is spinning as I post. None of it rings a bell as yet, but it was 1974 or 1975 (?).

Tell us more!!

No big deal really. I ran into Ronald Stevenson during the aftermath of a concert given by a couple of friends of mine. He and David Wilde were rehearsing the Brian the next day and he invited me along to "turn pages". Actually he didn't really need anybody to turn pages, but just wanted the excuse to continue chatting about matters musical and otherwise in which we were both or all passionately interested. I was monumentally grateful for his pointing me towards a copy of the manuscript of the original (aleatoric) version of Percy Grainger's Random Round which I subsequently put into performable order - and performed with students on several occasions since.

[cilgwyn]

I only wish to god I could 'run into' people like that! Although,at my age,it would more like a 'shuffle' than a 'run'!
My father met Ian Parrott on a train (hope I spelt his name right) and Gerald Durrell. I met Sir Geraint Evans briefly & Mel Smith,but I would rather not repeat what was said!!
My father DID miss Sharon Tate,apparently! Poor man!

[John Whitmore]

I've had a go at cleaning up the Brian 20 MP3. Unlike the Holmes VC where some decent improvements were made there's not really a lot I could do with it other than top and tail, de-hiss and remove a few thumps. Only a marginal improvement I'm afraid. Here's the link anyway:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9kc7y0q87ylr03c
PS I see that there have been 7 downloads of the updated VC. Any comments chaps and chapesses? I think the playing is rather good.

[cilgwyn]

From poor 'old' Sharon Tate to Havergal Brian's Violin Concerto. What we do without John?!!!
As I've stated before. I don't like the Naxos recording,full stop,with all due respect. He's obviously a marvellous violinist,but it's Holmes who gets under the 'skin' of the thing.

[Dundonnell]

I've had a go at cleaning up the Brian 20 MP3. Unlike the Holmes VC where some decent improvements were made there's not really a lot I could do with it other than top and tail, de-hiss and remove a few thumps. Only a marginal improvement I'm afraid. Here's the link anyway:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9kc7y0q87ylr03c
PS I see that there have been 7 downloads of the updated VC. Any comments chaps and chapesses? I think the playing is rather good.

Immensely grateful to John for his efforts

I would-once again-point out that these recordings were not made in ideal circumstances. They have lain, gathering dust, for 30 long years in boxes in my attic.
If, at any point, in the last 30 years anybody had asked me about them I would have said that they were now worthless and unplayable.
If, at any point, in the last 30 years I had moved house then they would probably have been binned.

I am amazed that they have survived Whatever manifest and manifold deficiencies they have pales compared to the fact that I can now listen to them again and I am extraordinarily happy that I can share
them with others

[John Whitmore]

Just came across this on Amazon .. the Brian-junkies are probably already aware of it?

[asin]B005Z4D2EW[/asin]

I actually like the sleeve very much. Honest. Let's see what they've managed to get out of the BBC tapes. I reckon it will be spectactularly good.