Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Excellent, Sara! I wonder what you think of the operatic Brian...

[thranx]

If it's still there, just wander past Yates's Wine Lodge on Yorkshire Street around 11.30 on a Friday night...



and all she did was try and start an amicable debate as to whether Ralph Holmes or Marat Bisengaliev was the superior interpreter.

I realize the stock tends to differ between U.S. and U.K. markets, but really....
Where's the UPC symbol?

[Philip Legge]

The HBS is planning (a) concert(s), because next year will be the 30th anniversary of Brian's death. We don't know the details yet...

I suppose it would be nice to have an entire decade shaved off my age, but sharing my birth year with Brian's parting compels me to point out that it will be forty years since both of those events, next year...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

How time flies when you're enjoying yourself... Yes, it's 40 years. I think I must have had my first senior moment.

[Hattoff]

A somewhat juvenile chat about symphonies on BBC radio 3 earlier:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017596y

Lots of very positive oohs and aahs about the Gothic and an inventive naming of Brian as the british Berlioz but that's okay in my book.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A somewhat juvenile chat about symphonies on BBC radio 3 earlier:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017596y

Lots of very positive oohs and aahs about the Gothic and an inventive naming of Brian as the british Berlioz but that's okay in my book.

Thanks, Steve!


Just listened. I like Sue Perkins generally (as a comedienne). She did seem to love what she heard of The Gothic. 'That's okay in my book', too.

[Philip Legge]

Aside from sharing initials, both HBs were fiery redheads in their youth. Need one point out that the French still tend to look down their nose at Hector, two centuries after the fact?

[kishnevi]

Aside from sharing initials, both HBs were fiery redheads in their youth. Need one point out that the French still tend to look down their nose at Hector, two centuries after the fact?

Well, that doesn't mean much.  Looking down their nose at someone seems to be the default position for the French.

(Takes cover in anticipation of a barrage of Francophone missiles).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, that doesn't mean much.  Looking down their nose at someone seems to be the default position for the French.

Except for Sarkozy, who is simply too small.

[Hattoff]

And, I thought his wife was Amazonian! A shame, that.

Super Kins is good too.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

A 'review' of the second Toccata CD:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/17/brian-music-from-operas-review

[Lethevich]

I can understand having to write a review on the quick, as it's low-paid work after all, but cliches such as 'striking moments' could be written without even listening to the disc in question. It whiffs of the tried and tested "if in doubt, rate three stars" method that a reviewer might hide behind in substitute for having real opinions on their work, enabling them to look critical enough to be mistaken for an authority on the issue in question.

What is the value of a striking idea without an individual manner of expressing it - something which Brian could hardly be claimed to lack. And also, Brian's composition style, generic? That is one of the last words its detractors should be throwing at it. I tried to find a single useful sentence, and failed. As one who already likes the composer, this is no problem, but surely half the point of reviews of this kind in a major periodical are to attract the attention of the neutral parties - which this rather pointless review certainly will not. Even a negative, but well-founded one would be better.

</nerd_rage>

I have yet to offer my feedback on the disc because as with all HB ones I don't feel particularly able to speak about the music until I've given it several plays. My small brain cannot compute it all at once

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks, Sara. I have added a comment on the Guardian website - Clements didn't even have the decency to read Malcolm MacDonald's ample notes. The Prologue of The Tigers, for instance, consists for the most part of the Kelly Variations, so his supposition that directors avoid staging Brian's operas because they wouldn't know what to do scenically is just so much tosh.

[Luke]

And that 'recommend' comes from me 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Good man! 

[Albion]

Thanks, Sara. I have added a comment on the Guardian website - Clements didn't even have the decency to read Malcolm MacDonald's ample notes. The Prologue of The Tigers, for instance, consists for the most part of the Kelly Variations, so his supposition that directors avoid staging Brian's operas because they wouldn't know what to do scenically is just so much tosh.

Yep, typical lazy old Clements dashing off another superficial review. If he'd bothered to find out anything about what he was listening to (perhaps by going to the superhuman effort of extracting the booklet from the case) he'd realise that the idea of 40 minutes of Turandot when not a note is sung is a fallacy, as both Brian and Macdonald simply extracted vocal parts and effectively added instrumental cues where appropriate.

[cilgwyn]

Dreadful! He didn't even know what the hell he was talking about. Unbelievably lazy. He should be ashamed of himself.
  Andrew Clements is one of my least favourite critics,anyway. He never says anything even remotedly interesting & I'm not just saying that because he doesn't share my own personal enthusiasms. He just isn't an interesting read. At least the dreaded (and pretty dreadful!) Hurwitz sometimes has something reasonably intelligent to say in between all those,frankly laughable,rants! And to be fair to Hurwitz,the otherwise splendid,IRR Magazine (I get it every month) can be a bit too,uniformly,nice,at times! Having said that,I still prefer IRR,any day, to a Hurwitz rant! In fact,I would go so far as to describe IRR Magazine as commendable. What a difference!
  Quite frankly,all things considered,the Prologue to 'The Tiger's' is pretty action packed. What with a bank holiday going on,stall holders,a town crier and a man on a bloomin' elephant I can't see an audience gawping at an empty stage for very long! But of course,old clever clogs Clements doesn't know about that,does he?

 

[Dundonnell]

The point about IRR being "too, uniformly, nice at times"..........

in order to be able to devote the column inches it does to each review IRR quite deliberately, consciously and explicitly makes no attempt to review every single cd which is issued each month. I get the impression that if a cd performance is particularly ordinary, average, run-of-the-mill then it just doesn't get reviewed in IRR.

Now this is a pretty wide generalisation but I do think that the magazine does try to weed out the tosh

[Dundonnell]

.....but ANYWAY....surely the Guardian review MUST be accurate??

It is a good, liberal, intellectual newspaper isn't it?   Not like the right-wing claptrap you get in the newspapers I buy

[cilgwyn]

The point about IRR being "too, uniformly, nice at times"..........

in order to be able to devote the column inches it does to each review IRR quite deliberately, consciously and explicitly makes no attempt to review every single cd which is issued each month. I get the impression that if a cd performance is particularly ordinary, average, run-of-the-mill then it just doesn't get reviewed in IRR.

Now this is a pretty wide generalisation but I do think that the magazine does try to weed out the tosh

A rave review of symphonies by a certain pianistically inclined composer,included!