Havergal Brian from Dutton

[Albion]

As part of their Historic Classics series, Dutton have just released radio broadcasts from 1959 of three Havergal Brian works conducted by Harry Newstone and Normal Del Mar, including the first performance of Symphony No.11:

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDBP9798

[Pengelli]

I ordered mine from the Dutton website last Sunday! I just drifted on to the Havergal Brian website and lo and behold,there it was,the announcement of the release ,I mean! I used to have allot of these performances on cassette,thanks to the HB archive,(via a third party,I should point out)Since  then my interest in HB has waned a little & I let my membership lapse. I am still interested enough to have ordered this and my hope is that that there will more releases of archive material of this nature. And not just of Havergal Brian.
Wish I had known about the Testament release,(of the 'Gothic'),before it was announced here. For Fifty quid I could have got my name in that booklet. As a teenager I drove my family crazy with cassette tapes of the Ole Schmidt & Boult performances! Still,I got to pre-order it,thanks to this website!
Thanks anyway,Albion!

[Gareth Vaughan]

It is very sad that we still do not have a good modern recording of Brian's 5th Symphony. The performance by Bryan Rayner Cook, which was available on a pirated LP, was excellent. It is one of Brian's finest works and its neglect is unaccountable.

[Albion]

my hope is that that there will more releases of archive material of this nature. And not just of Havergal Brian.

I'm sure that we all have such wish-lists! Further to Brian, I recall that Martin Anderson's Toccata Classics label has recorded two discs of Brian's orchestral music including the very early Burlesque Variations (1903) and excerpts from the later operas. Is there any further information as to when these eagerly-anticipated discs might be released?

[Pengelli]

You've got to have hope,haven't you! I think the 'Wine of Summer' is one of Brian's best. I really would have expected it to have been recorded by now. Aren't Cameo supposed to be interested in recording it? It would have to be a good performance. The soloists in some of those Marco Polo  recordings of HB ruined the music for me. I also rather liked the performance broadcast as part of R3 'Composer of the Week'. I captured part of the performance on less than hi-fi tape,but not the whole piece,unfortunately.
For some reason the work has always been one of the less appreciated works in Brian's output. Yet,it has always been up there with my favourites. I suppose Brians choice of 'poetry' goes against it. Yet,if you value Brian's music at all, I would view a commercial recording of it as very important.
I would also like to see a really good recording of Brian's curiously eccentric third symphony. It doesn't really work for me,yet it has an oddly compelling quality. The hyperion recording was not one of their best!

[Albion]

I recall that Martin Anderson's Toccata Classics label has recorded two discs of Brian's orchestral music including the very early Burlesque Variations (1903) and excerpts from the later operas. Is there any further information as to when these eagerly-anticipated discs might be released?

From John France's blog The Land of Lost Content (2 April 2010):

Another exciting event in the Havergal Brian world is the release of a CD of his orchestral music. This is the first volume of a proposed series –at least a second volume has been announced. Toccata Classics write that ‘this spring [they] will release the first of two new recordings of Havergal Brian’s orchestral music made by Garry Walker and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow this past summer. The works range from Brian’s first surviving orchestral score, the Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme of 1903, to the second-last work he composed, the ‘Legend’ Ave atque vale, written in 1968, when Brian was 92 – and a work bursting with defiant energy. The CD, catalogue number TOCC 0110, will be announced on the Toccata Classics website in a few weeks. The second volume (TOCC 0113), scheduled for autumn 2010, contains orchestral excerpts from Brian’s operas, chief among them the nine-movement suite from Turandot.’

So far there has been no announcement on the Toccata site.

[eschiss1]

Between radio tapes and commercial recordings I've heard and enjoyed a whole lot of Brian, but have not yet heard Ave atque vale, I think! Been looking forward to it. Thanks, Martin Anderson and Toccata.

[Pengelli]

Received the new Dutton cd of 1959 studio performances of Brian,today. A very enjoyable cd,which reminded me just how intriguing & enjoyable Havergal Brian is,at his best & how much his music benefits from really good performances like the ones included here. An added plus,the mono recordings come up really well & there really is no reason at all for anyone to be put off by the age of these recordings. A truly outstanding release.

[Albion]

I recall that Martin Anderson's Toccata Classics label has recorded two discs of Brian's orchestral music including the very early Burlesque Variations (1903) and excerpts from the later operas. Is there any further information as to when these eagerly-anticipated discs might be released?

From John France's blog The Land of Lost Content (2 April 2010):

Another exciting event in the Havergal Brian world is the release of a CD of his orchestral music. This is the first volume of a proposed series –at least a second volume has been announced. Toccata Classics write that ‘this spring [they] will release the first of two new recordings of Havergal Brian’s orchestral music made by Garry Walker and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow this past summer. The works range from Brian’s first surviving orchestral score, the Burlesque Variations on an Original Theme of 1903, to the second-last work he composed, the ‘Legend’ Ave atque vale, written in 1968, when Brian was 92 – and a work bursting with defiant energy. The CD, catalogue number TOCC 0110, will be announced on the Toccata Classics website in a few weeks. The second volume (TOCC 0113), scheduled for autumn 2010, contains orchestral excerpts from Brian’s operas, chief among them the nine-movement suite from Turandot.’

So far there has been no announcement on the Toccata site.

Does anybody have any further information on these tantalising releases? There is still no announcement on Toccata's website even under the 'In preparation' section.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

It seems the Toccata website only gets updated once in a while - and I'm very much hoping there is all sorts of activity going on at Toccata (besides the publication of that massive and impressive book on Busch!) that might soon be announced on their website.

In addition to the Havergal Brian project noted above I'm very much hoping there will be further releases in the Tovey chamber music series, and (although the name seems to find less favour on this site) the Matthews string quartets. Both Tovey and Matthews are proclaimed 'Volume 1' - and fingers very tightly crossed there will soon be a Volume 2 in each case. Past productions show that any Toccata release is a cause for celebration!

Can't resist riding on the back of this thread to put in a plug for David Matthews. I found the symphonies on Dutton very rewarding and satisfying, and if Toccata completed the string quartets, well, that would be real whoop-de-doo.

Peter

[ahinton]

It seems the Toccata website only gets updated once in a while - and I'm very much hoping there is all sorts of activity going on at Toccata (besides the publication of that massive and impressive book on Busch!) that might soon be announced on their website.

In addition to the Havergal Brian project noted above I'm very much hoping there will be further releases in the Tovey chamber music series, and (although the name seems to find less favour on this site) the Matthews string quartets. Both Tovey and Matthews are proclaimed 'Volume 1' - and fingers very tightly crossed there will soon be a Volume 2 in each case. Past productions show that any Toccata release is a cause for celebration!

Can't resist riding on the back of this thread to put in a plug for David Matthews. I found the symphonies on Dutton very rewarding and satisfying, and if Toccata completed the string quartets, well, that would be real whoop-de-doo.

I'll certainly second that! I was very struck by Matthews's First Symphony when it was premièred (although the composer has revised it substantially since) and the others all have a lot going for them, most epecially the Sixth whose première I attended. Though Matthews is a prolific composer (opus numbers now around 113 or so), I've never had the sense that he goes over the same or similar ground overmuch. The tango in the Fourth Symphony seems to have become something of an obsession for him, as he has arranged it for various numbers of instruments under the generic title It Takes (x) to Tango; that for violin and piano, however, is simply called It Takes....

A recorded series of all 12 Matthews quartets will indeed be most welcome!

[eschiss1]

It is very sad that we still do not have a good modern recording of Brian's 5th Symphony. The performance by Bryan Rayner Cook, which was available on a pirated LP, was excellent. It is one of Brian's finest works and its neglect is unaccountable.

As noted in another thread there is the 2001 BBC broadcast (re-broadcast a year later with another rebroadcast, one of Simpson's symphonies I think?... not sure.), which isn't a commercial recording, but then neither was the LP Strictly speaking it hasn't been recorded at all, alas. Marco Polo had plans at one point, I thought (or even a recording in the can?)

[Albion]

The exciting new release from Toccata (volume one) of Havergal Brian is now definitely scheduled for a 21st March release (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Toccata%2BClassics/TOCC0110) - personally I can't wait to hear professional performances of the Burlesque Variations and Ave atque vale! 

[Gareth Vaughan]

Marco Polo had plans at one point, I thought (or even a recording in the can?)

Yes, they did - with Brian Rayner Cooke - but the soloist was not in the best of health at the time of the recording and was so dissatisfied with the vocal quality of his own performance that he asked that it not be released. So it wasn't. At least, that is what I was told...

[Pengelli]

Just downloaded his songs from Amazon. I used to play the LP version over & over again as a teenager & I don't usually like English song! Wonderful record.