Havergal Brian: Symphonies Nos. 10 & 30
David Bednall (organ)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Brabbins's direct approach suits the couplings, producing splendid accounts of the Third English Suite (coeval with the Gothic Symphony and surprisingly pastoral in places) and the orchestral...
Havergal Brian: Symphonies Nos. 10 & 30
David Bednall (organ)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Purchase product
Brabbins's direct approach suits the couplings, producing splendid accounts of the Third English Suite (coeval with the Gothic Symphony and surprisingly pastoral in places) and the orchestral...
About
Recorded: RSNO Centre, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 15-16 September 2010
This is Dutton Epoch’s first modern Havergal Brian programme, recorded by the brilliant Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conducted with sympathy and powerful projection by Martyn Brabbins. The large array of percussion in Symphony No.10 is caught in demonstration-worthy sound, as are the mighty climaxes and Brian’s quiet, atmospheric Sibelian interludes. In contrast, the gentler textures of Brian’s delightfully tuneful English Suite No.3, heard here on CD for the first time, are sympathetically conveyed in a rewarding acoustic. This is involving music on a large scale, which addresses a far wider audience than many more specialist Brian programmes. The two complete discoveries are the dramatic Thirtieth Symphony and the brilliant Concerto for Orchestra. Both are well worth investigation, and the performances by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Brabbins place them memorably in Brian’s still emerging achievement of his time. This is a CD for all music lovers who respond to powerful orchestral scores in a tonal but individual idiom.
Contents and tracklist
- Royal Scottish National Orchestra, David Bednal (leadvocalist)
- Martyn Brabbins
Awards and reviews
August 2011
Brabbins's direct approach suits the couplings, producing splendid accounts of the Third English Suite (coeval with the Gothic Symphony and surprisingly pastoral in places) and the orchestral Concerto. But the Thirtieth Symphony is the pinnacle of Dutton's disc; an extraordinarily compelling polyphonic fantasy, one of Brian's finest inspirations, punching far above its relatively modest weight and compellingly interpreted.
May 2011
Garry Walker tackles [the Burlesque Variations] head on, the vigorous response of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra maintained through to the theme's final transformation in a brazen apotheosis....It is in [Oedipus at Colonus], too, that the modernist tendencies in Brian's music find their fullest realization. Suffice it to add that Brabbins has the measure of this powerful and disquieting work though to its wrenching final bars.
