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Havergal Brian Symphonies 22-24

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Author Topic: Havergal Brian Symphonies 22-24  (Read 4686 times)
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cilgwyn
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« on: March 31, 2013, 01:32:52 pm »

Two points about Havergal Brian's Symphony No.14:

(1) There IS a recording available "semi-commercially". The recording is the BBC studio recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Edward Downes made in 1969
It has been issued on cd as KHCD-2012-077 (coupled with Myer Fredman's recording of Symphony No.8). It can be bought from http://klassichaus.us/

If you go to this site you will find a whole host of wonderful restorations of several BBC recordings of the HB symphonies available on cd. These include the Symphony No.5 "Wine of Summer" in the 1976 performance by Brian Rayner Cook with the New Philharmonia under Stanley Pope(an almost incomparable interpreter of Brian;s music, incidentally).
Klassic Haus also have Symphony No.21 in the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra recording and Symphony No.28 in the Stokowski recording. I would not however recommend the Stokowski 28th since-so sadly-he made rather a mess of the performance.

(2) I know Malcolm MacDonald very well and I do know that since he wrote his famous trilogy on the Brian symphonies he has revised some of his views. I cannot state categorically that he has substantially revised his opinion of No.14 but I suspect that he would now moderate his criticisms. Malcolm has been so passionately committed to the HB's music-ever since I first drew his attention to Brian's very existence back in 1963-that he felt compelled to write more critically about some of the music in order to moderate his enthusiastic endorsement of everything Brian ever wrote ;D He would now-if he was re-writing Volume 2 for example-remove his disparaging, unfair and untrue comments about the "Cheltenham Symphonies" to which I took such violent exception when the book was published and which, in hindsight, he regrets inserting.
Regarding,Klassic Haus. I bought two downloads. Symphony No2  & 3. It's all very professional,with notes by 'Johan',who's usually at the HB thread at GMG,all the relevant recording & performance/production details,'sleeve' artwork,etc. You can also buy them as cds. A nice touch is a small reproduction of the original Aries Lp 'artwork'! Excellent! And don't worry about the website being in dollars & outside the uk! I was ???,but it all went very smoothly,without a hitch! No nasty hidden charges!! In fact,according to my bank statement,Symphonies 2 & 3 cost me £4.59 each!! :) I did suggest the Aries Lp of Fricker's Fifth Symphony;but unfortunately,I don't have the Lp & they are hard to get (in the UK,anyway!).
  I wonder what are the chances of Malcolm MacDonald's books about the Brian symphonies being brought back into print? I did manage to buy Volume 1 from a nice seller on ebay for around ten pounds! I also remember telling Dundonnell at the GMG,that MM was music's answer to Rider Haggard;which,understandably,brought a 'mixed' response! ;D But,reading the latter pages of 'She',at my fathers,last weekend,I can sort of see what I meant! ;D Malcolm MacDonald is one of the few writers I have ever come across who can vividly evoke the sound world of a composer via the written word. Like RH he has an almost cinematic gift for evoking images with words. Thrilling stuff...........but not quite as purple as Rider Haggard,rest assured! Even,'She who must be obeyed' would be impressed! :o ;D
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