Search - Havergal Brian, Charles Mackerras, Charles Groves :: Havergal Brian: Symphonies Nos. 7-9 & 31; The Tinker's Wedding

Fine works and from a great composer - in excellent perfoma

M. V. Sanderford | Danville, VA USA | 05/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...but to those used to reading comic books and romance novels, Shakespeare will sound like incomprehensible strings of words...

I have no doubt that Havergal Brian will be eventually recognized as one of the very greatest of 20th century composers. This CD set provides a fine introduction to his work, and includes one of his finest, and most profound, symphonies: the 8th. For those who aren't looking for easy listening, or cookie-cutter symphonies full of time-worn and banal gestures (which describes most of what's out there) this work will be astonishing, as it was for Robert Simpson when he first encountered it. Brian is not for everybody. He is deep, dark, rich, endlessly inventive, utterly original, and fiercely tough-minded and craggy. As with most truly great creative works, the precise "message" often remains elusive - enigmatic - a quality that results in each work producing a different effect every time it is heard. But an emotional, and intellectual effect will be there! In his symphonies, Brian is never trivial, or predictable - and the emotional power of many of his works is incredible. Brian's works have the potential to linger in the memory, and resonate in the heart for a lifetime...if one understands them. But like Shakespeare, Goethe, and the other great authors Brian was steeped in, and influenced by, Brian's work requires concentration and "ears that can hear."

This set is highly recommended as an introduction to the multifaceted works (32 symphonies, operas, concertos, etc.) of the absolutely unique Havergal Brian."

A good starting point for Brian

captain cuttle | Vancouver, Canada | 01/05/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nearly forty years after I first heard a Brian work and having got to know every one of his commercially-issued symphonies, I'm still not quite sure what to make of him. That his music is `worthwhile' I have no doubt. There are, perhaps, great works, certainly great movements and many breathtaking moments. Whether what he wrote between these pinnacles makes him a great composer is a question I don't yet feel ready to answer.



I can empathize with his detractors. My first reaction on hearing his first commercially-recorded symphony - the 10th played by the Leicestershire Schools Orchestra on vinyl back in 1972, was, "Is that it? Is that what all the fuss is about?" Forty years of playing this particular work has convinced me it's a first-class symphony and I've come to appreciate many more of the 32. But therein lies the problem. You have to work on Brian, and work hard. His supporters would argue that's the whole point but art is about communication and if, as it often seems with Brian, you're only writing for yourself and one or two erudite musician friends, then you can hardly complain if nobody listens to you. Not that he did. But his supporters certainly do.



They do have a point. There are many better-known and frequently-played composers who can't hold a candle to him. But in the age of the sound bite, music for dummies, the screensaver pablum of people like Part, Brian's time is at least on hold and maybe gone for ever.



It's difficult to know where to recommend a starting point for those willing to give him a shot because there is so much variety with highlights dotted everywhere and little you could define as `typical' from beginning to end. The "Gothic" contains plenty of fine music, stirs the emotions and shows many Brian fingerprints. At the other end of the scale the terser works like symphonies14, 17, 18, 22, and 31 give you the essence of the man but are perhaps too condensed, too cryptic for the neophyte. 6 and 10 go easier on the listener and contain much striking and beautiful music. 2 and 3 are long, ramshackle works, at least in the current recordings and for me promise more than they deliver. 4 may be a great work on paper but in the only recording available right now strikes me as one big shouting match, something like the first movement of Mahler's 8th in a poor performance. 8, 15, 20 and 25 are fine works that touch greatness at many points, the slow movement of 20 a particular highlight. 21 and 9 are Brian at his weakest, bluff to the point of being off-putting. 32 is a personal favourite, autumnal, not afraid to communicate without being ingratiating. I believe it will become recognized as one of his very best.



But for those wishing to sample Brian for the first time I would recommend the disc that includes 7, 31 and the Merryheart Overture as a good starting point. 7 is one of his more approachable works. You do not have to spend half a lifetime getting to know Brian's dialect to enjoy it. 31 is a tougher, concise work but worth the effort and Merryheart is one of the many occasional pieces that demonstrate he knew how to have fun as well as write tunes. The old Lyrita recording of 6 and 16 is also a good entry point. Both discs are well-recorded and played.



And there lies the Brian `problem' if you can call it that. Again and again he produces music - melody, orchestration, form, - of incredible magic. That he does so intermittently is a matter of choice, not capability. In the third of Malcolm Macdonald's magnificent volumes on the symphonies (grab them if you're at all interested in this composer) he talks about methods of composition and there is a telling section on the composer's excisions between first and final drafts. Macdonald shows that on several occasions passages that would have linked themes, recalled earlier statements and provided clues as to the work's thought processes, were written out. Fine. Reference can easily turn into needless repetition. But there is also a point at which the baby goes out with the bathwater and at this stage of my experience of Havergal Brian, I have to say it looks like he flirted too often with that point.



But don't take my word for it. An exploration of Brian's music will reveal more staggering vistas than dead-end streets and every music-lover should make up his or her own mind about the composer.

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