Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

BABEs... That acronym makes those despicable creatures far too appealing. It won't get into the Brianic Dictionary, if I can help it.

[springrite]

BABEs... That acronym makes those despicable creatures far too appealing. It won't get into the Brianic Dictionary, if I can help it.

Female Anti-Brianite Idiots of Britain

FABIB

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Female Anti-Brianite Idiots of Britain

FABIB

Approved unanimously (by me).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

They are here...

[John Whitmore]

They are here...

Don't worry Johan.You might be able to shift them on Ebay.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

https://www.youtube.com/v/WTdO-w3xnpw

[cilgwyn]

  Wow! Thanks for that image,Johan. Hopefully,you will have a printed program to bring back,as well.I must admit I thought it was a special Brianite keyboard for a moment! (where are the HB coffee mugs,coasters and T shirts,by the way? We've had the bus,haven't we?!!)

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Of course I'll bring back a program and take a picture of it. Btw, from the ticket I learned there will be an "Einführung" (Introduction) to the work at 10:15. Wonder who will do it. I guess Jürgen Schaarwächter, the only German musicologist who has studied the British symphonic tradition and knows his Brian.

[cilgwyn]

You mentioned the writer Arno Schmidt in an earlier post. I hadn't heard of him,I'm afraid. According to Wikipedia he's not easy to translate. I presume you read his books in the original German? Just wondered. My father speaks Welsh as his first language and he's always complaining about poor translations of Welsh literature into English,and the problems of translating a book into another language.

I hope they do provide a program. I gather some concerts don't provide them now;presumably because people can look things up on the internet & download them!
Paper manuals with electrical goods and librettos with opera cds are another issue! Annoying! I bought a new mini hi-fi a few weeks ago & ended up printing virtually the whole book out. It's on the side there,fastened together with a big metal bulldog paperclip!! I didn't mind that much,but I would have preferred a professionally printed copy with the hi-fi! I worked out most of it on my own,mind!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Arno Schmidt is a great but demanding writer. I read him in the original German. Despite his difficulty, his whole oeuvre has been translated into English by John E. Woods, and quite masterfully, too. I discovered Schmidt's work in 1985 through Joyce, a writer he admired and with whom he was in competition... Brian and Schmidt have been my 'contemporary gods', their example has inspired and encouraged me in my own ambitious endeavours.

[cilgwyn]

Reading one of the customer reviews of Arno Schmidt on Amazon,his writing sounds a bit like a literary equivalent of late Brian in terms of the way it is constructed!

[cilgwyn]

"Conventional narrative transitions are often excised"
"The result is a comparatively short, but dense text,as if all the filler of ordinary novels were discarded, and only the good stuff' remained".

I suppose the resemblance ends there,but it did sound familiar!

[John Whitmore]

Arno Schmidt is a great but demanding writer. I read him in the original German. Despite his difficulty, his whole oeuvre has been translated into English by John E. Woods, and quite masterfully, too. I discovered Schmidt's work in 1985 through Joyce, a writer he admired and with whom he was in competition... Brian and Schmidt have been my 'contemporary gods', their example has inspired and encouraged me in my own ambitious endeavours.

Who's Joyce, a former girlfriend?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

"Conventional narrative transitions are often excised"
"The result is a comparatively short, but dense text,as if all the filler of ordinary novels were discarded, and only the good stuff' remained".

I suppose the resemblance ends there,but it did sound familiar!

Concision and allusiveness IS what they have in common. Another resemblance - both had a relatively modest background and never fitted into any musical or literary establishment.

Who's Joyce, a former girlfriend?

Nope. Would have been apt, though.

[cilgwyn]

Just bought a copy of Gramophone Magazine. The magazine has new owners now,in case anyone didn't know.While the reviews could be longer,they are longer than they were! The celebrity cr** has been taken out of it and most if not all of those silly lists. The magazine has returned to a focus on the music itself with more reviews. There's an all but whole page devoted to a review of a new book about the life & times of George Dyson and articles include one about Scriabin. A definite improvement. While it's not IRR Magazine imho it's allot better than it's been for quite a while. No reviews of Havergal Brian cds in this issue,I'm afraid! If you want real depth keep subscribing to IRR;but I might buy this again. It'll be ideal for the bathroom!!

£5.50 now,though!

[cilgwyn]

Wow! I must have been in a good mood, Oh yes,I got a new camcorder!
Slight improvement...but don't cancel your IRR Mag subscription yet! It's still strictly kids stuff!!

[vandermolen]

Greatly enjoyed symphonies 6 and 16 and the fine Arnold Cooke accompanying symphony as well (on Lyrita). Two of Brian's finest I think.
[asin]B0014FLGRQ[/asin]

[Augustus]

That disc of 6 and 16 remains perhaps the very best of of those Brian discs recorded in the last 40 years.  However, I think now that I would recommend the new Dutton of "Wine of Summer", 19 & 27 as the best place to start, along with the Heritage reissue of the extracts from The Tigers.  I'm just beginning to sense that the Lyrita is showing its age, which i never thought itwould.
I'm told by contacts at Select, the UK Naxos distributor that the disc by Alexander Walker and the New Russia Symphony Orchestra is slated for issue on the 1st April.  I wonder how his version of 6 is going to compare with the 'classic' Lyrita?  I hardly know it any other way than on the Fredman disc, so it's always difficult to get to grips with a different interpretation after only having one version for all this time.  I'm also particularly looking forward to Symphony 28 on the new disc.  It seems to me like a little gem among the late works, although those who have seen the score say that Stokowski misrepresented it in the only recording so far available.
How are people getting on with 'The Tigers'?   I've found my admiration for it greatly increased by having the Testament CDs with their excellent sound compared to the off-air recordings that have been circulating.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Yes, it will be quite a shock to hear the Sinfonia Tragica in a new performance after so many years of living with the Fredman. End of an era. I share your eagerness to hear Symphony No. 28 properly (I hope). Stokowski creates a lovely sound and the middle movements are haunting, but according to Malcolm MacDonald the tempi are wrong, and in the finale the percussion is far too loud. We'll have to see what Walker will have made of this, potentially,  wonderful work. Lyrita, Heritage and the new Dutton CD: yes, these three do Brian proud. If people only listened to those, they certainly would get a good idea of what Brian stands for. As for the Testament Tigers - I still have to order it... I certainly will. Though I have quite good recordings already (I think).

[Albion]

I'd agree whole-heartedly with your high opinion of the Lyrita 6+16 and likewise the Dutton 5+19+27: these, together with the Hyperion Gothic and the EMI set of 7+8+9+31 are surely now the cornerstones of any Brian symphony collection. I'm also greatly looking forward to the forthcoming Naxos disc, especially with regard to 28+29 but also 6 - it is wonderful to reach a point where some of the symphonies are being re-recorded and introduced to twenty-first-century orchestras.

The Testament release of The Tigers is fantastic in all respects (performance, engineering and presentation) and a model of what can and should be done with seminal radio studio recordings: in an ideal world a coupling of the BBC Agamemnon and prologue to Faust broadcasts should follow, together with Norman Del Mar's magnificent 1979 rendition of Bantock's Omar Khayyam.