Brian's Gothic under Boult

[Alan Howe]

Testament are to bring out the famous 1966 performance from the Royal Albert Hall, London, of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult...

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_December09/SBT21454.htm

For lovers of unsung music, this is about as near the holy grail of legendary performances as it gets! If friends are interested, I suggest getting your order in quickly as I understand from MDT that there have already been a number of phone enquiries this morning - and the page advertising the CDs only went up today!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes - this is the one to have. I still have my reel-to-reel recording of the radio broadcast of this. Mono, of course, but a superb performance. Apparently, there's going to be a performance in Australia in either December or January, which will be recorded commercially (don't know the performers or label). I wonder what that will be like.

[Pengelli]

That's what I call news! Have to say I preferred the Schmidt; but
the Boult is THE famous one.

[Pengelli]

I've placed my order! Hopefully,(jumping the gun a bit,I know),
this means we might get the 'The Tiger's', eventually.

[Pengelli]

I've received this cd set,now. The remastering is excellent,sound quality actually better than the Naxos. As to Boult's conducting, there is simply no comparison. After putting up with the sloppy Naxos recording for years these cd's have reaffirmed my opinion that the Gothic is a masterpiece.Wonderful! The BBC recordings of Das Siegeslied & The Tigers next,please!

[Pengelli]

Sometimes I actually wish that Marco Polo hadn't done the Gothic,as I believe that it put off other cd companies who would have done a better job. I had the Schmidt & Boult performances on cassette for years and I honestly thought the Naxos performance was shoddy. Thank goodness they didn't get to do Omar Khayyam or the World Requiem.......

[Pengelli]

By the way,anyone know why my postings are coming out like that? I love music,but I'm no computer geek!!

[JimL]

Are you hitting return when you get close to the end of the box?

[Alan Howe]

Duly tidied up, Pengelli. Don't hit the return key when typing in the box and your posts will come as you want them to.

BTW, the Boult set is simply wonderful. An absolute must-buy, and very well remastered in case you're wondering...

[TerraEpon]

The remastering is excellent,sound quality actually better than the Naxos.

Really now? Hmmm....

[Alan Howe]

No, the sound quality is nothing like as good as the Naxos - no comparison at all. The Testament set is hissy and rather washy in sound, although with plenty of impact. But it's no use pretending it's a modern digital studio recording.

[Martin Anderson]

Gareth's observation that The Gothic is up for performance in Australia in a month or two would have been correct until this summer: it was indeed scheduled for late December 2009 but has now been put back until more or less the same time next year -- you can imagine the practical difficulties involved in putting a performance together.

Adrian Boult's performance on the new set is thoroughly idiomatic -- much more so than the Schmidt or Lenard accounts, in my view -- and the sound has come up fresh. One of the highlights of the new release is the brief interview with Brian afterwards, which presents him in a mood of relaxed defiance!

BTW, you have quite a few more Brian releases to look forward to over the next year or so: I have two orchestral CDs up my sleeve from Toccata Classics (I: early and late works; II. orchestral music from the operas -- Garry Walker conducting the BBC Scottish SO), and Dutton are re-releasing some Harry Newstone recordings of HB symphonies, with a new CD of orchestral stuff in preparation.

Cheers
Martin

[Amphissa]

 
I've got both the Schmidt and the Boult. An interesting symphony.

I have not heard the other 30+ symphonies. Are the rest pretty much all poor followups to the first? If they are reasonably good, why has no British conductor/orchestra/label ever put out a complete cycle box set of his symphonies? Why did none of them record the First? Is there some history there that got in the way?

If a cycle is what Naxos has in mind, thanks but I'd rather not have more like their recording of the first.

[Alan Howe]

I doubt whether the super-concentrated, terse style of the later Brian is going to please too many listeners, to be honest. I find those of them I have heard resolutely earthbound most of the time, but I'm no expert.

There is really no follow-up to the Gothic, although Nos.2-4 are all pretty big pieces. My favourite of these is the choral/orchestral No.4, although this is a dense, battleship of a piece which is itself very hard to come to grips with.

[TerraEpon]

. One of the highlights of the new release is the brief interview with Brian afterwards

Oh then screw that CD then. I will never buy a CD with an interview on it. <.<