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Presto News - 28th November 2011Havergal Brian’s Gothic Symphony |
 The performance of the ‘Gothic’ Symphony by British composer Havergal Brian (1876-1972) was one of the most eagerly anticipated Proms this summer. Tickets were sold out within 12 hours as the work was receiving its first ever Proms performance and indeed its first performance anywhere in the UK for nearly thirty years. It is one of those works which is often mentioned but seldom heard and is in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest symphony ever composed. Calling for an orchestra of over 200 and a choir of 600, it has unsurprisingly only ever received a small handful of performances and I’m told this was the first performance to actually use the size of choir that the composer asked for. It is released today on Hyperion and seems likely to become the top recommendation of this huge but strange symphony for many years to come.  Havergal Brian Havergal Brian wrote an impressive 32 symphonies, and enjoyed a remarkable late flourishing with 20 of them coming when he was over 80 years old. His ‘Gothic’ Symphony though was his first and was much earlier – written in the years immediately after the First World War. It is in six movements, the first three last around forty minutes and are for orchestra only (almost a symphony in their own right). Then the choir and soloists join in for the final three movements in a setting of the Te Deum hymn of praise. I’ve listened to it a number of times now, and I would say the war element is quite strong throughout. A lot of it sounds angry to me and some passages (particularly when the offstage brass and timpani let rip) are genuinely terrifying. Mixed with this are moments of quiet repose and tenderness. The choral writing is fiendishly hard but some of the pianissimo a capella (unaccompanied) phrases do have an air of magic about them, and the children’s chorus create a wonderful sense of innocence and hope in the final movement. Much of it is so weird and thematically incoherent that I’ve found it quite hard to get my head round it to be honest. Some of it sounds almost like spooky film music, some of it quite funny. I’m not sure it is meant to – maybe it is, but is supposed to be ironic in some way or deliberately banal. I suppose Richard Strauss, Bruckner, perhaps Elgar, perhaps early Schoenberg would be the composers which might come to mind as possible influences, but Brian seems to have a unique voice of his own and I can’t think of any passages anywhere in this symphony which sounded like they could have actually been written by any one of those composers. Brian employs a huge orchestra including virtually the whole families of each wind instrument (for example oboe d’amore, bass oboe and cor anglais in addition to the normal oboe), but like Berlioz in his Grande Messe des Morts (which I wrote about a few months ago), these are used more for increased range of instrumental colour than the noise they can create when all playing together. Havergal Brian enthusiasts (and there are quite a few of them) often describe this work as an unjustly neglected British masterpiece. Personally I wouldn’t say it is a masterpiece – too much of it just meanders along without any clear direction for that – but it undoubtedly has some great moments. It maybe deserves a performance more that once every thirty years, and I’ll certainly listen to it again. The BBC Proms is one of the few organisations which is capable of putting on a performance of this epic work, and I was thrilled to learn that Hyperion would be releasing it. It is well worth hearing. Sound samples as usual are on the website, although in this case I’m afraid six minutes out of over a total of over a hundred aren’t going to give you the greatest idea of what the symphony contains!
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 Brian: Symphony No. 1 'Gothic'Susan Gritton (soprano), Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano), Peter Auty (tenor), Alastair Miles (bass) & David Goode (organ), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Concert Orchestra, The Bach Choir, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Brighton Festival Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus, Côr Caerdydd, Eltham College Boys’ Choir, Huddersfield Choral Society & London Symphony Chorus, Martyn Brabbins |
Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
Listen - sound samples available for this itemNew Releases28th November 2011 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Vivaldi: Il TeuzzonePaolo Lopez (Teuzzone), Raffaella Milanesi (Zelinda), Delphine Galou (Zidiana), Furio Zanasi (Silvenio), Roberta Mameli (Cino), Antonio Giovannini (Egaro) & Makoto Sakurada (Troncone), Le Concert des Nations, Jordi SavallFollowing on from the release of Naïve’s critically-acclaimed recording of Ottone in Villa (OP30493) in November 2010, the 16th operatic production in the label’s acclaimed ‘Vivaldi Edition’ features Teuzzone, a vibrant three-act theatre piece first produced in Venice in 1719. The music in this new 3CD set is directed by the internationally-renowned early music director Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations.
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 Gubaidulina: In tempus praesens & Glorious PercussionVadim Gluzman (violin), Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan NottBIS here present a substantial addition to Sofia Gubaidulina’s discography to coincide with her 80th birthday. Her music is intimately connected to her religious and philosophical beliefs. In the violin concerto In tempus praesens the numbers 1 and 3 – derived from the Holy Trinity – play an important role, as well as the concept of ‘Sophia’, implying divine wisdom and the creative power of God. |
 Donizetti: Maria di RohanKrassimira Stoyanova (Maria di Rohan), José Bros (Riccardo), Christopher Purves (Enrico), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sir Mark ElderAccording to the late Donizetti expert William Ashbrook, Maria di Rohan (1843) is the composer’s “tautest, most melodramatic opera” and shows him “in complete control of his musico-dramatic goals”. The work was first performed in Vienna, but Donizetti revised it for its Paris premiere, changing the tenor role of Armando di Gondì to mezzo-soprano. Working from the new critical edition of the score, with the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Mark Elder, Opera Rara has recorded the original Vienna (June 1843) two tenor version as well as some of the appendices from the Paris (November 1843) revision, including those written for the mezzo-soprano, sung here by Enkelejda Shkosa. |
 Rimsky-Korsakov: Orchestral SuitesSeattle Symphony, Gerard SchwarzRimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral genius shines through in his colourful operatic suites, and that from his final opera Le Coq d’or is richly dramatic and expressive. The complicated folk-based story of the Snow Maiden is simplified into four enchanting movements, and that of Sadko into a single, radiantly descriptive tone-poem. The thrilling legend of Mlada is represented by vivid dances and a final Cortège. |
 Bach, J S: St John Passion, BWV245Sabine Goetz, Amaryllis Dieltiens, Elisabeth Popien, Alexander Schneider, Hans Jorg Mammel (Evangelist), Georg Poplutz, Wolf Matthias Friedrich, Markus Flaig, Cantus Cölln, Konrad JunghänelThis recording is of the rarely performed late fourth version of the St. John Passion. Cantus Cölln performs the entire work as a double vocal quartet, producing vocal brilliance and immaculate solo sections. The ensemble is one of the most renowned vocal groups for Renaissance and Baroque music. |
 Paul Daniel conducts Barber, Berlioz & BrittenAnne-Catherine Gillet (soprano), Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Paul DanielOn the concert platform and on disc, Anne-Catherine Gillet radiates spontaneity, luminosity and enthusiasm in a way that is more than communicative. This outstanding recording of three masterpieces from the vocal repertoire provides an ideal opportunity to verify that. Listening, you will be charmed by the apparent facility, evidence and lightness of her phrasing. |
 Music for a Time of WarOregon Symphony, Carlos KalmarThis album features the programme performed by the Oregon Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of its Carnegie Hall debut. It was a triumphant occasion and was the highlight of the Spring of Music Festival at Carnegie Hall. The New Yorker reported the concert as “one of the most gripping events of the season”. |
 Bach - Concertos for Several Instruments, Vol. 6Café ZimmermannThis final volume in a complete set, begun ten years ago by Alpha, presents the last of the major works composed for large instrumental forces by J. S. Bach. It includes the pastoral colours of the horns and oboes in the First Brandenburg Concerto BWV 1046, his Harpsichord Concerto in A major BWV 1053, the fine Orchestral Suite no. 4 in D major BWV 1069, and finally, bringing the set to a close, the marvellous Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor BWV 1065. This series has become a reference for these works by Bach, and each volume has received the highest distinctions both in France and abroad. |
Watch - Video trailers available for this item BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 26th November 2011 |
Building a Library - Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major 'Symphony of the Thousand' |
 First ChoiceCheryl Studer, Sylvia McNair, Andrea Rost (sopranos), Anne von Otter, Rosemarie Lang (mezzos), Peter Seiffert (tenor), Bryn Terfel & Jan-Hendrik Rootering (bass-baritones), Rundfunkchor Berlin, Prager Philharmonischer Chor, Tölzer Knabenchor & Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado |
Disc of the Week |
 F. Couperin: Exultent superiSoloists of New College Oxford, Collegium Novum, Edward Higginbottom |
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