Havergal Brian.

[Augustus]

The Mad Maid's Song from the forthcoming Volume 2 of the Complete Havergal Brian Songbook on Stone Records has appeared on YouTube (link below).  I don't think I've seen this reported here yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpCYzMuBMHc

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks! Malcolm MacDonald put up a link on his Facebook Wall yesterday. I forgot that not everyone is on FB (or friends with MM, for that matter!)

[cilgwyn]

Thank you very much Augustus! I await this release with some trepidation,I fear! The booklet notes were exemplary,though. I wish every cd label took that much care. Copious information about every single song. Brian chose some pretty obscure poets including his own landlord!

[John Whitmore]

Isn't it strange how people have different tastes. I simply can't stand songs like this (lieder and all that). Schubert, Tippett, Britten, Brian etc etc. Can't stand any of them. I refer pop music quite frankly. Give me Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan any day of the week.

[cilgwyn]

Actually,I don't normally like English song,or lieder! The original 'Brian Rayner Cook sings Havergal Brian's greatest hits' album  is an exception,however!  (Hopefully,rumours that Barbra Streisand is releasing her own version are untrue!) Other than that,I think I'd rather listen to Bob Dylan too,at least before the bounder sold out and went electric! I also,enjoyed listening to Led Zeppelin iv,Houses of the Holy and Emerson Lake & Palmer's Trilogy album,Blood,Sweat & Tears,The Velvet Underground & Nico and all three Janis Joplin albums a few weeks ago,amongst other musical fare!!
It's been Gilbert and Sullivan for the last few days,though. Albeit,the Victorian geezers,not the seventies pop singer with the flat cap!
I have a feeling you're a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan fan,John! A bone fide Savoyard,who knows all the words to 'The Mikado' like the back of his proverbial!!!!

[snyprrr]

Sym. 1 "Gothic" Hyperion

2 Naxos

3 Hyperion

4 Leaper w/12

5

6 Lyrita w/Cooke

7 EMI2cd
8 EMI2cd
9 EMI2cd

10 Unicorn-K w/21; Dutton w/30; Heretige w/21-22

11 Leaper w/15

12 Leaper w/4

13 Dutton w/Violin Cto.

14

15 Leaper w/11

16 Lyrita w/Cooke

17 Leaper w/32

18 Leaper w/Violin Cto.

19

20 Naxos 1

21 Unicorn-K w/10; Heretige w/10 & 22

22 Naxos2; Heretige w/10 & 21
23 Naxos2
24 Naxos2

25 Naxos1

26

27

28

29

30 Dutton w/10

31 EMI2cd

32 Leaper w/17

[John Whitmore]

Actually,I don't normally like English song,or lieder! The original 'Brian Rayner Cook sings Havergal Brian's greatest hits' album  is an exception,however!  (Hopefully,rumours that Barbra Streisand is releasing her own version are untrue!) Other than that,I think I'd rather listen to Bob Dylan too,at least before the bounder sold out and went electric! I also,enjoyed listening to Led Zeppelin iv,Houses of the Holy and Emerson Lake & Palmer's Trilogy album,Blood,Sweat & Tears,The Velvet Underground & Nico and all three Janis Joplin albums a few weeks ago,amongst other musical fare!!
It's been Gilbert and Sullivan for the last few days,though. Albeit,the Victorian geezers,not the seventies pop singer with the flat cap!
I have a feeling you're a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan fan,John! A bone fide Savoyard,who knows all the words to 'The Mikado' like the back of his proverbial!!!!

You may have posted this sort of tongue in cheek but I actually love the G and S stuff. As a teenager I generated extra pocket money by playing in pit orchestras. My first experience was Pirates (New Parks School, Leicester. I still have the programme!!) and I thought it was brilliant. It's still my favourite along with Trial by Jury. Over the years I played in Iolanthe, Gondoliers, Pinafore (NOT keen on this one) and Mikado. OK, all the plots are the same and the music is written to a formula but I happen to think that the formula is rather good. Playing 2nd violin in G and S is just about the easiest job you can think of. "Tum te tum" sight reading. Between numbers you could just sit in the pit reading about Leicester City's latest triumph in the Sports Mercury. Heady days indeed. Electric Dylan? Blood on the Tracks/Blonde on Blonde? Love 'em.

[John Whitmore]

Sym. 1 "Gothic" Hyperion

2 Naxos

3 Hyperion

4 Leaper

5

6 Lyrita w/Cooke

7 EMI2cd
8 EMI2cd
9 EMI2cd

10 Unicorn-K w/21; Dutton w/30

11 Leaper w/15

12

13 Dutton w/Violin Cto.

14

15 Leaper w/11

16 Lyrita w/Cooke

17 Leaper w/32

18 Leaper w/Violin Cto.

19

20 Naxos 1

21 Unicorn-K w/10

22 Naxos2
23 Naxos2
24 Naxos2

25 Naxos1

26

27

28

29

30 Dutton w/10

31 EMI2cd

32 Leaper w/17

I assume this is a list of HB commercial recordings? If so - here's one that's missing. Heritage double CD set, Symphs 10/21/22 LSSO 70s recordings. Also, there are some decent refurbs to be hunted out on Klassic Haus. Or is this just a list of CDs that you own?

[cilgwyn]

You may have posted this sort of tongue in cheek but I actually love the G and S stuff. As a teenager I generated extra pocket money by playing in pit orchestras. My first experience was Pirates (New Parks School, Leicester. I still have the programme!!) and I thought it was brilliant. It's still my favourite along with Trial by Jury. Over the years I played in Iolanthe, Gondoliers, Pinafore (NOT keen on this one) and Mikado. OK, all the plots are the same and the music is written to a formula but I happen to think that the formula is rather good. Playing 2nd violin in G and S is just about the easiest job you can think of. "Tum te tum" sight reading. Between numbers you could just sit in the pit reading about Leicester City's latest triumph in the Sports Mercury. Heady days indeed. Electric Dylan? Blood on the Tracks/Blonde on Blonde? Love 'em.

Actually,I was thinking you might like them,partly because some people are a bit snooty about them!!
Formulaic,but what a formula!! And no wonder you like G & S!! I've been ploughing through a pile of them over the last few days. D'oyly Carte,Sargent (yes he's slow,but some great vintage singing). Oh,and the Ohio Light opera for the ones without dialogue. I thought their Ruddigore was very good! I think we just don't like the Yanks doing G & S. They're our property,gerroff!!!! (Although,some of their earlier recordings were a bit dodgy!! As to favourite G & S! Funnily enough,my favourite when I was a youngster was 'The Pirates of Penzance',especially in the old Decca recording with Owen Brannigan as a brilliantly OTT Seargent of Police! Also,John Reed doing the patter songs in 'Iolanthe','HMS Pinafore' (etc). Well,I listened to what was in the local library!! The Decca 'Ruddigore' with a great supernatural plot really should have had dialogue though. And by the way,thank you to the Ohio Light Opera for including this in your recording and sacking your worst singers before taping it!!! Incidentally,anyone who does like G & S with the dialogue. The Art Music Forum has got all the 1980's BBC recordings there for download. And very good they are too! G & S only went wrong with 'Utopia Limited' and 'The Grand Duke'. But even they're worth a listen. They just haven't got such great tunes.....but I need another go at them!!

Your lot up north seem allot more musical than my contemporaries were in west wales. At school all the singers in the G & S were tone deaf! Ohio Light Opera take note! The deputy head had to keep everybody in Assembly until someone volunteered to join the G & S production. They had the cane then,of course!!

As to whether this post has any place in a HB thread? Well,erm,maybe.....maybe,Havergal Brian liked Gilbert and Sullivan.....or used the local production to take a sneaky look at the Sports pages of his favourite periodical?!!!

[Sergeant Rock]

Well,erm,maybe.....maybe,Havergal Brian liked Gilbert and Sullivan.....

He wrote:

"The history of that association permanently maintains in the series of comic operas masterpieces which we cherish under the name of Savoy Opera. Here is something indubitably English and having all the national characteristics of savoir faire and subtlety; something which no other nation possesses: superior to Johann Strauss or Offenbach.[...]His music is a facile blend showing Irish ancestry and his absorption in English life. No English composer was ever more cosmopolitan in his outlook, nor had any other such a gift of sparking melody. In this respect he rivals the composer on whom he set his heart, Franz Schubert."

So yes, he appears to like G & S.

Sarge

[snyprrr]

I assume this is a list of HB commercial recordings? If so - here's one that's missing. Heritage double CD set, Symphs 10/21/22 LSSO 70s recordings. Also, there are some decent refurbs to be hunted out on Klassic Haus. Or is this just a list of CDs that you own?

I just wanted to get to the bottom of all this Brian hysteria! So, really, there are still works not available? That's pretty sad,... but anyhow, WHERE DO I START? I'd prefer the short and craggy bits to the 'Gothic'- I'm sure I can handle the worst that Brian has to offer. I'm in a malipiero mood lately, and assume Brian is a close relative in the wayward department. C'mon, give me something out of the way...

[springrite]

I just wanted to get to the bottom of all this Brian hysteria! So, really, there are still works not available? That's pretty sad,... but anyhow, WHERE DO I START? I'd prefer the short and craggy bits to the 'Gothic'- I'm sure I can handle the worst that Brian has to offer. I'm in a malipiero mood lately, and assume Brian is a close relative in the wayward department. C'mon, give me something out of the way...

Symphony #10

[Sergeant Rock]

I just wanted to get to the bottom of all this Brian hysteria! So, really, there are still works not available?

All the symphonies are available in one form or another. If you are interested in a symphony not commercially available, just ask for it here and you will be blessed 

Sarge

[Augustus]

8 EMI2cd
9 EMI2cd

10 Unicorn-K w/21; Dutton w/30; Heretige w/21-22

11 Leaper w/15

12

13 Dutton w/Violin Cto.

14

15 Leaper w/11

You've missed 12, which is the coupling to the Naxos/Leaper 4

[cilgwyn]

Or join the AMF (Art Music Forum). They've got practically everything extant that Brian ever wrote (and allot more) in their music 'library'.
Not sure about the hysteria bit,though. Brian is a bit cult-y,I suppose. I mean,why not Bantock,Holbrooke or Cyril Scott? The latter wrote books on the occult and new age type stuff,so there's plenty of material for a devoted following to get on with! I actually think Scott is underrated on these music forums. I was listening to his First Piano concerto last night. I remember Johan liked this one. What a fantastic score. There is literally nothing else like it in British music. And I love the Fourth symphony. It has a steely quality which makes me think of late Debussy. Fantastic! And I love the way he brings the theme back in the final movement. The third symphony and the Neptune suite are show stoppers. And his chamber and instrumental music is fascinating. I actually prefer his piano music to that of Bax or Ireland,to be honest and I think that is one area in which Scott is actually an important figure. Albeit,on a domestic level. Maybe he needed a Robert Simpson at the BBC? A documentary like the Unknown Warrior,or the stupendous LSSO to bolster his fortunes? Or maybe he just should have composed just one colossal symphony for hundreds of performers?!!

And then there is Bax! Another candidate! All those Celtic legends,a torrid affair,a wacky pseudonym and Irish nationalism,infatuations,a wealthy man living in rented rooms in romantic,wind blown landscapes. What more could a potential devoted cult following want?!! Maybe he just didn't write big enough?!! The only one lasting over an hour is an early one and it's not much cop!!
He got allot better after that!

[cilgwyn]

I just wanted to get to the bottom of all this Brian hysteria! So, really, there are still works not available? That's pretty sad,... but anyhow, WHERE DO I START? I'd prefer the short and craggy bits to the 'Gothic'- I'm sure I can handle the worst that Brian has to offer. I'm in a malipiero mood lately, and assume Brian is a close relative in the wayward department. C'mon, give me something out of the way...

The recent Naxos cd of symphonies 22-24. Cheap on Amazon,too! These symphonies might well be described as short and craggy as opposed to short and sweet!

Going on about Cyril Scott led to my spotting a British Music Society cd of his Piano Quintet (coupled with the Frank Bridge) on Amazon which I haven't got. I bought a cheap copy from a seller! I also finally bought the original Plasson emi release of the third symphony Of Ropartz yesterday,which I have been trying to get for ages!! The price is always sky high when I look. This one was under £10!! So much for saving ,but I've got it at last!! (Hopefully,the cd will work!!!)

[calyptorhynchus]

Hey synprrr

I'm sure you will love Havergal Brian, and I don't think his music is a cult, as with so many other cases it is simply that the mainstream is so ridiculously narrow that fine composers are neglected.

I would echo starting with 10, because it's a very powerful symphony, and, although complex, not difficult to grasp. It also stands near the divide between early and late Brian (though being Brian this break is around his 70s!). From the 10th you can explore backwards into his early works or forward into his late works. Just a word of warning, the pace of Brian music is relatively normal in his earlier works (though there are abrupt transitions). In his later works the pace picks up considerably, so in some later works he is operating at Haydnesque speeds; if you are following sleeve-notes which speak of broad lyrical passage, for example, you should know it probably won't last for longer than 30 seconds!

[Albion]

Great news about both the Naxos and Dutton projects,



but 2013 passed without the Testament issue of The Tigers. Is this 1983 broadcast still planned for release or has it been shelved?

[snyprrr]

Symphony #10

Well, of course, that's the 'famous' one I've enjoyed on YT. I'd like to try something really oddball, or problematic- more hairballs please!!

[calyptorhynchus]

Well, try number 4!

Some people round here can't stand it, others think it is very clever, but vulnerable to being misunderstood.

It's a setting one of the more militaristic psalms, in German, lasts about 45 minutes and in places is unbearably loud and overbearing. One school of though holds it is simply a mistake with Brian unwisely revelling in the worship of 'Macht und Kraft', others that it is a clever parody of German militarism intended to warn German audiences of the dangers of rising Nazism. Others simply dislike the entire concept whatever its purpose.