Exploring Brian's Gothic Symphony - Part 1 - The Myth

I start a series looking at the enigmatic Gothic Symphony by Havergal Brian.
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[@JohanHerrenberg]

Nice to find someone just as enthralled by the Gothic as myself. Excellent!

[@john1951w]

Agent Herrenberg. Is all well?

[@JohanHerrenberg]

@@john1951w Oh yes!

[@johnpolhamus9041]

Don't forget that during Brian's first 39 years prior to WWI he was a minor composer, but had a career as a fairly prominent music critic, hence his aquaintance with so many prominent composers.

[@Xanthe_Cat]

A nice collection of instruments behind you! I had a similar journey coming to the piece as yourself: High school in the 80s, I knew of the Guinness Book entry as well as having Deryck Cooke's essay (“Liszt, Mahler, and after”) which mentions post-Beethovenian choral symphonies, which I had to find out more about; Uni in the early 90s: 1990/91, a friend copied the Marco/Polo CDs onto tapes for me; 1993, I acquired the CDs! Later in 2003, I heard about the plans for the Brisbane performance and joined the Havergal Brian Society; I offered to assist with the committee editing the new vocal score (and argued it should have a complete piano reduction of Part II, which it unfortunately doesn't) 2004, acquired my full score (same nice green cover as yours), and a bit later, the Truscott & Rapaport book and MacDonalds’s 3 volumes. 2010, sang in the Brisbane performance. It was nice to meet Malcolm MacDonald, Paul Rapoport, and one of Brian’s relatives - who I think had rather a lot to put up with in Havergal the man. The idea of a “largest” or “longest” symphony is a rather absurd concept in the first place, though I think Brian’s Gothic *really* only held the record until Sorabji finished his “Jāmī” symphony in 1948/51, and which then immediately passed to Cuclin’s 12th symphony (maybe? Is it really six hours long?). But while the Sorabji is a manuscript with a wonderful realisation using VSL (typeset currently under correction) and the Cuclin even less well known, the Gothic has a colossal reputation that is backed up by the reality of those performances. By the way, the best performance is undoubtedly the 1980 Royal Albert Hall performance, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Schmidt with some stellar singers. You can't beat the LSO. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eXaVn2CkmMiNd8U

[@Listenerandlearner870]

Terrific. The Gothic is massively beautiful. All the recordings have a huge amount to offer.

[@pianomanhere]

Sorabji's "Jami" Symphony is much longer, but I don't believe that it has ever been publicly performed. Someone on KZbin has actually been creating an electronic (midi?) realization of Sorabji's "Jami" Symphony. It's a daunting task for him, but is yielding great output.. HOWEVER, I must say, Havergal Brian's "Gothic Symphony" is a much more engaging, engrossing, bombastically beautiful and grandiose work. I hope it somehow becomes a more frequently-performed work AND that performances are actually VIDEO'ed for posterity.

[@jamesrmcgalliard137]

Thanks for introducing me to Havergal Brian and his Gothic Symphony! When can we expect part 3 in this series?

[@johnpolhamus9041]

I discovered the Aries set in the San Diego Public Library in the mid 1980's, and picked up the Marco Polo CD as soon as it came out in the late '80's. I have always thout the piece inspired, but I also think I'm still "getting to know" the Gothic.

[@nokhimchan7966]

In my own opinion, the BBC's recording is far behind the Warsaw recording. Thr descriptions are incredible! Thanks! I knew about the piece when I was 6, told by my teacher, but I didn't really get in touch until it is on KZbin.

[@canman5060]

Is this the recent 2010 BBC recording ? 1996 Adrian Boult performance is fine.He knew the composer and this work intimately.

[@canman5060]

The Warsaw recording has more detail.

[@canman5060]

I knew about this work when I was 19 in 1980 when I heard the live radio broadcast in Britain.

[@timothytikker1147]

My brother and I found the Aries label 2-LP set in Tower Records in San Francisco in the early 1970s -- which turned out to be a pirate release of a radio broadcast recording of the performance conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. Before that, I think we also had known about the piece from Guinness. Now, just a couple of months ago, I found another copy of the LP set in a used record store in Ann Arbor, MI. I also got the Marco Polo CD set when that was first released: it represents a very different approach to interpretation.

Looking forward to follow this series, I'm a huge Havergal Brian fan! You've seen the documentary: "The Unknown Warrior"?

[@john1951w]

Yes. I uploaded it. My old band, the LSSO. :)

[@alanfoster6589]

As well as the actual July, 2011 performance at the Royal Albert Hall, I attended the final rehearsal and have posted 8.35 of video of it on KZbin. Would have recorded more but was shot down by an official.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

very exciting! I haven't heard of him at all, and now I have to look it up!

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

This is the first I have heard of this fellow, or the Gothic Symphony. A really intriguing video :)

[@musokid89]

I played it live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 2010. Let me know if you'd like me to send you a scanned copy of the program 🙂

[@asterl-b4772]

I'm super excited for this series! I've only listened to the piece once before, but now I'm going to give it another listen. also, is that a 3d printed baroque oboe i see on the wall behind you? I'd be interested to hear more about that as well

[@Listenerandlearner870]

There are lots of English composers who wrote lots of symphonies. Most of them are worth playing. There are lots of symphonies by non English composers that are very worth playing.

[@onceamusician5408]

if you have megalomaniac tendencies ( I do too so i am not judging you :) ) have you heard of Sorabji, an Anglo Persian composer? He also lived to 96 (1892-1988), was extremely reclusive and actually BANNED performances of his own works he wrote a symphony (no 2, "Jami") of which the third movement alone is OVER TWO HOURS. this can be found here on youtube with my hearing loss i cannot make out the enormously thick counterpoint, and this piece is "performed" on computer because it is far too long and complex to ever be performed by people, as far as i know but younger ears than mine might be able ot make sense of it and i am getting new hearing aid in 2 days . .

[@canman5060]

Is this still in the genius book of world record as the largest symphony written ?

[@bannan61]

Very strange, I posted some useful links about Brian yesterday and all my comments have been removed. Why?

[@redicendia1355]

Have you considered getting a microphone to record? I feel like it would improve the quality.

[@john1951w]

Here is the LSO and Ole Schmidt. Super performance kzbin.info/www/bejne/eXaVn2CkmMiNd8U