Havergal Brian.

[Superhorn]

   In fact, I have spent time on the Brian thread . I just posted this on the general classical music section. 

[kishnevi]

You must not spend any time in the Brian thread    Check it out. It's become the largest composer thread with over 3000 posts.

It's been released in Europe already. My copy arrived yesterday (ordered from Amazon UK, dispatched from Amazon's German depot).

Sarge

And MDT sent out my copy on Monday.  With a little luck,  there won't be be any undue delays and I may have it before 12/13.  And unless there's a real delay, I will probably have it before I would have received it from a US vendor.

It's so nice to have the Intertubes.

[Karl Henning]

   In fact, I have spent time on the Brian thread . I just posted this on the general classical music section. 

Yes, but why not in the Recordings section?

[Lethevich]

Yes, but why not in the Recordings section?

Why not both - based on all the lukewarm newspaper reviews of the performance (which I don't agree with) Brian needs the PR

[mjwal]

A very interesting post, Sara.

You mention Delius' Sea Drift in comparison. Well, I love that work and formally I think it's superior to Brian's Te Deum. It sets a Whitman poem, beautifully, and with an emotional inexorability that makes it into the masterpiece it is. But formal perfection isn't the thing by which I personally measure The Gothic. Ezra Pound, in his kaleidoscopic Cantos, proudly boasts It all coheres, where it plainly doesn't.

A very interesting mail, Johan - it's quite a fruitful way of looking at the Brian oeuvre - and you really make me want to hear Symphony #5! But the point about Pound is mistaken - here he is in the Cantos:
   
I have brought the great ball of crystal;

            Who can lift it?

    Can you enter the great acorn of light?
    But the beauty is not the madness
    Tho' my errors and wrecks lie about me.
    And I am not a demigod,
    I cannot make it cohere.
-
and here is the climax of his translation of Sophokles' Women of Trachis:
What
SPLENDOUR
It all coheres

But a bit later in the Cantos he wrote:
i.e. it coheres all right
even if my notes do not cohere
-
which I think you will agree makes his position clear: "things" (to put it crudely) cohere, but my version of them doesn't.
Personally speaking, I could not feel that the Gothic coheres after listening to that Proms transmission (having only heard it once before on a cruddy tape of the first performance) - I even got a bit bored at times. It was like the curate's egg, in fact...I'll try again when i have the opportunity and the night is right.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks for correcting me, Martin! That Pound quote was from memory, but it seems you have Pound firmly imprinted - thanks for that short but illuminating excursion. As for your Brian experience - I sympathise. Brian had great admiration for Delius and he wrote extensively about him. But as always, he took from him what he could use and what resulted bears all his unmistakable traits. If you want to try Wine of Summer, here it is:


http://www.mediafire.com/?zmgnn31swnu


It's a very clear and rather severe piece, from 1937. It sets a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas, the bane of Oscar Wilde...

[Karl Henning]

Okay, I'm starting a Brian thread in The Diner! ; )

[John Whitmore]

Thanks for correcting me, Martin! That Pound quote was from memory, but it seems you have Pound firmly imprinted - thanks for that short but illuminating excursion. As for your Brian experience - I sympathise. Brian had great admiration for Delius and he wrote extensively about him.

At last, I have something in common with Brian. I rate Delius very highly. His fiddle concerto, double concerto and Brigg Fair are all magnificent pieces just to choose three of his many beautiful works. I still get goose bumps at the climax of Brigg Fair just as I did all those years ago playing it under Del Mar and Tippett. One of the great moments in all music. Honest. It's that good. After that wonderful climax the stillness returns and the ending is magical. Must go - I need to hear it. Nothing awkward about Delius's writing for the orchestra

[Lethevich]

Perhaps something of interest to the converted:

When I was buying Brian books some months ago, I noticed that vol.1 of his journalism on Toccata was going for almost nothing on Amazon marketplace, as it had been in print for two decades or so. But when I checked just now, suddenly the lowest used price on Amazon UK is £13.68.

Maybe a small but substantative indication that the composer has gained new friends since the Proms Gothic?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I love Delius as much as I love Brian... As for Delius' handling of the orchestra, I did once hear a complaint - that playing Delius was boring, because his music is driven by harmony more than melody. So, though his scoring may be awkward sometimes, polyphonic Brian does offer nice challenges to every player... 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Perhaps something of interest to the converted:

When I was buying Brian books some months ago, I noticed that vol.1 of his journalism on Toccata was going for almost nothing on Amazon marketplace, as it had been in print for two decades or so. But when I checked just now, suddenly the lowest used price on Amazon UK is £13.68.

Maybe a small but substantative indication that the composer has gained new friends since the Proms Gothic?

Could be... Or sellers cashing in on what they expect to be heightened interest...

[John Whitmore]

I love Delius as much as I love Brian... As for Delius' handling of the orchestra, I did once hear a complaint - that playing Delius was boring, because his music is driven by harmony more than melody. So, though his scoring may be awkward sometimes, polyphonic Brian does offer nice challenges to every player... 

Some of his stuff can be boring to play, agreed, but not Brigg Fair. There's too much going on. I love the sound world of Delius and Ravel (Mother Goose - wow). Sheer beauty of orchestral colour perfectly balanced. A Quote from Del Mar to 1st flute of the LSSO, Ruth Webb, in a Brigg Fair rehearsal around 30 seconds into the piece: "You need more resonance in the lower register. I suggest that you need to practice in an acoustic with an echo such as a toilet". Not word perfect, obviously, but it caused great hilarity at the time. Ruth's with the LPO now and we talked about this when she visited Oldham a few months back. Music creates indelible memories doesn't it?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Nice story. Brigg Fair is a wonderful piece, and that climax with the bells is stirring stuff. And then the beautiful dying fall at the close. Yes, magical!

[Brian]

Okay, I'm starting a Brian thread in The Diner! ; )

Well, I'd use it!

[Dundonnell]

   Here;s some great news : this Summer's London Proms saw   a performance of Brian's  almost never performed Gothic symphony  ,
with conductor Martyn Brabbins , the BBC symphony and  just about every chorus in London .  And  lo and behold , it was recorded live
by Hyperion records  and is about to be released . 
I got this message  yesterday in  an e mail from  arkivmusic.com  showing new releases from Hyperion  .  Hooray  for Hyperion !









                                                                                                                                                                           

It was played by the combined forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra not the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

[Dundonnell]

Now that you are comparing HB with Delius I really am better out of here

[John Whitmore]

Now that you are comparing HB with Delius I really am better out of here

Don't you like Delius? His scoring is just miraculous. The concertos are sublime. He was a craftsman who knew how to write for the orchestra. I certainly don't compare Delius with HB. There simply is no comparison. I just read a thread about HB liking Delius on here, hence the banter.

[cilgwyn]

   Here;s some great news : this Summer's London Proms saw   a performance of Brian's  almost never performed Gothic symphony  ,
with conductor Martyn Brabbins , the BBC symphony and  just about every chorus in London .  And  lo and behold , it was recorded live
by Hyperion records  and is about to be released . 
I got this message  yesterday in  an e mail from  arkivmusic.com  showing new releases from Hyperion  .  Hooray  for Hyperion !

Aw,get away!!!!

[cilgwyn]

By dinasman at 2011-12-02

Merry Xmas,John!

[cilgwyn]

 And just so you don't miss out,here's the back cover:

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2603/scan10013.jpg
By dinasman at 2011-12-02