Havergal Brian.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I have always loved that bizarre moment. Brabbins really made a delicious meal of it by pausing for it as long as he did. It really underscores his cold-blooded approach, which yet had all the feeling behind it to make the work come alive.

[Hattoff]

The discontinuities in Brian's music distress many a critic, but they are as productive a resource for unvarnished humour as anything else in the surprise of having one's expectations thwarted or creatively subverted.

This is what I love about HB and all my favourite composers come to that. Discontinuity makes the music much more alive. It was Hb's discovery and use of discontinuity that made him so original.

[Brian]

Brian's Mom - I love you (Brian's Dad, just kidding, just)!

Her follow-up e-mail this morning:

I know Dad was pretty wrapped up in his work but all throughout the music Alex and I kept looking at one another in amazement, saying how incredible it was.... You know I'm not big on choral music as most of that sounds like "church music" to me, but this was such an organic part of the music, so well fitting that I did not mind it.  I was amazed that the solos stood out over the rest of the music.  They must have done something magical with microphone placement and engineering the entire sound system.  In fact, this whole concert must have been an engineering feat just as much as it was a musical feat of enormous proportions.  In the end, though, it was a remarkable composition, tight and very focused.  The man must have been a genius.

She also complimented my pictures which reminds me I need to post pictures - hang on a moment...

[Brian]

Testing... testing...
(If done properly these should be pre-performance photos of the artists...)
These are obviously much smaller than full size; if you click they become slightly bigger, but if anyone needs an original, perhaps to add to the wall of their home which is a shrine to all things Havergal Brian  , let me know.

[cilgwyn]

They did sound like they were being pushed to their limits,at times,and of course they were. I got the feeling the choirs were struggling at times,especially in the Judex. And then there were those strange,high pitched squealy sounds? Now,thanks to Philip,I know what they were! But this just added to the excitement,the feeling of going out on some incredible journey or adventure,like musical white water rafting, and hanging on (at times) by the sheer skin of you're teeth.
The great ending didn't get me on my feet however. The entire performance did!!!!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Nice pics, Brian. My sister has much more on her camera. I may take the card with me. I hope to be able to make some of the 'riches' available.

[vandermolen]

I WAS THERE!

My brother and I took a calculated risk and turned up at 1.50pm and were advised by the very helpful staff to queue for the Gallery rather than Arena (because of the resticted places in the Arena, due to the size of the orchestral forces taking up 1/3 of the space); we were even allowed to leave the queue to go to the introductory discussion about the Gothic Symphony at the Royal College of Music (also broadcast live on Radio 3).  We got in, no problem and although I spent a total of c 7 hours standing up it was worth it. I thought that the performance was terrific - much better than the Ole Schmidt one I also attended many years ago. Others have written already very perceptively about the concert here. There was a balanced review in the Daily Telegraph today by Ivan Hewett, in which he says 'The unstoppable flow of ideas was engrossing, even if it was hard to see how they hung together...At the end the massed choirs intoned the wonderfully unexpected hushed chords, and the beast vanished like a mirage.  Will it be seen again in our lifetime?' Well, I certainly hope so - after all, the seats for this concert sold out immediately and there was huge public interest. I found the whole thing to be very moving and gained a much greater appreciation of the Te Deum setting and those final beautiful chords did, retrospectively, tie the whole thing together.

For me, the icing on the cake was meeting Johan, Colin and Brian from this forum in the pub after the concert. Luke - I am really sorry that I did not meet you - that is sad.  After seven hours on my feet I made a sordid dash for the bar, but it did mean that I was in pole position (with Johan's help) to collect some drinks (there was a massive queue at the bar) for the assembled GMG Forum members! It was great to meet Brian for the first time and see Johan and Colin again. I was on a high by the time my daughter picked me up at the station after midnight.  I will never forget this concert.

[vandermolen]

And gentlemen in Germany now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That heard with us the Gothic Symphony.

That's really funny Sarge - made me laugh.

[Klaatu]

The reviews have started to come in. (Google "Gothic Symphony reviews" for 5 of 'em - so far.)

And guess what - they're almost all entirely negative.

No change in the British musical establishment there, then. Also, one notes the sporadic comments on these reviews from what appear to be ardent Brian-haters; people who for some reason wish that Brian would go away - and wish it with the same sort of intensity that Richard Dawkins wishes God would go away.

In the end, Brian's reputation will have to lie with music-lovers, not "experts". And that is how it should be.

[cilgwyn]

Oh dear,this is what I dreaded. It sounds marvellous to me. Maybe,Brian goes a little OTT in one or two places in the first two movements,but for me,there's never a dull moment,it just surges on like that 'mighty beast'. Awe inspiring.
Anyway. Who cares what they think! Klaatu,you're right.

[vandermolen]

This is the most balanced review I've read today - yes, most of them are entirely negative.  It seems that you either love or hate the Gothic - there is no 'middle way'. Ivan Hewett at least acknowledges the magic of the Gothic.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalconcertreviews/8644874/BBC-Proms-2011-Prom-4-Havergal-Brians-Gothic-Symphony-Albert-Hall-review.html

[Guido]

I found it staggering that none of the reviewers seem to have heard it before. Imagine jusging a work of this immensity on one hearing?!! Truly bizarre.

[John Whitmore]

There is a middle way. I thoroughly enjoyed last night and I've enjoyed listening to the recording this morning. However, I do find some of the music less than inspired but there are enough good moments and some magic here and there to make the journey worthwhile. The reviews are very supportive of the event and the way it was directed by Brabbins. Their problem is with the music or at least parts of it. I follow the middle way. Is the Gothic in the Mahler 2, Beethoven 9, Verdi Requiem class? Personally I don't think it's anywhere near these masterpieces. Do I dismiss it out of hand because of this opinion (and it is an opinion)? Not at all. I prefer it to Mahler 8 (yawn) and most of Bruckner's work. Listening to it all again I fail to understand the need for the orchestra of 200 and the huge choir. It doesn't sound any more massive than other choral works in the romantic repertoire (e.g. the Berlioz Requiem). I honestly think that the work would be heard more often if it used more normal forces. The logistics and costs are a huge turn off, more so than the actual music itself.

[not edward]

I like this from the Guardian review:

Even so the disjunction between the text – a hymn of praise – and the apocalyptic trajectory of much of the music is profound. Bruckner is an obvious model; there are occasional glimpses of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, and most of all of Franz Schmidt's The Book with Seven Seals.

... failing to note that the Gothic came about 15 years before Schmidt's work.

[Sergeant Rock]

Well, guys, I wasn't even there in spirit. My sister-in-law arrived from Bremen and I was obliged to spend the evening at my parents-in-law's visiting. Mrs. Rock wouldn't let me get out of it    But I am listening now online via the BBC Radio 3 link (just finished part I). The opening is perfectly paced, the way I've always heard it in my head: neither rushed like Lenárd nor lethargic like Boult. In fact the first three movements are as good or better than I've ever heard although with the compressed dynamics of the internet the climax of the Vivace was a little underwhelming.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

That's really funny Sarge - made me laugh.

Yeah, I was laughing too...through the tears   

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Sitting on a bench in a park adjoining Embankment tube station... The life of my phone battery is draining away, so I'll keep it short. I liked the Hewett review, it did Brian the courtesy of not dismissing him out of hand. Last night has been an education for me. I am asking myself new questions about Brian. He is a mystery I haven't yet solved, and his works partake of this. I am by no means uncritical, but I cannot but love the man and his music!

[Sergeant Rock]

I found it staggering that none of the reviewers seem to have heard it before. Imagine jusging a work of this immensity on one hearing?!! Truly bizarre.

Yeah, you'd think that a performance of work like this, one so seldom heard, would have compelled them to do a little research and listening first. Criticism of the Gothic, both positive and negative, is more "professionally" done on this forum.

Sarge

[Luke]

I like this from the Guardian review:

... failing to note that the Gothic came about 15 years before Schmidt's work.

Very poor and rather missing-the-point review. But all not lost at the Guardian. Over on Twitter (which I nver read!) the Guardian critic Tom Service is very excited!:

Gothically huge, gothically weird, and a thundering tombola. Gothic of Brian had it all. Maybe the coda of all codas too

re the coda - my feelings exactly. It always shatters me, and never, ever, ever have the last few sections of the piece sounded so utterly perfect as last night. Brabbins was superb throughout, but from the clarinet march onwards he lifted the music into stratospheric realms, for me - I had the cheesiest grin on my face throughhout that daffy E major la la la-ing, and then to be sunk into that awesome bass solo, in the knowledge of what is to come...the sublime double fugue, and then the onslaught.... I couldn't quit believe what I was hearing. Yes, those last stretches are unlike anything else in music.

[Luke]

Service has photos of the rehearsal: