Havergal Brian - Symphony No.2; Festival Fanfarre

Havergal BRIAN (1876-1972)

 Symphony No. 2 

 Festival Fanfare

Moscow Symphony Orchestra

 
Tony Rowe


Orthodox in its four-movement structure but, according to the composer, ‘very unorthodox inside’, Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 2 was originally inspired by Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen. In 1972, however, following the death of his beloved daughter, Brian dedicated his forty-year old Symphony to her memory. Scored for a big orchestra which calls, among other requirements, for sixteen horns, three sets of timpani, two pianos and organ, the Symphony includes a furious ostinato-scherzo, and a tragic funeral march entirely conceived in Brian’s own terms, yet unafraid to evoke echoes of Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung.

Penguin Guide, January 2009

Havergal Brian’s Second Symphony, scored for no fewer than sixteen horns (though only eight are used here), three sets of timpani, two pianos and organ, was written in 1930–31. Originally inspired by Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen, each of the movements supposedly represented various aspects of the character of Götz: the first his resolution, the second his domestic piety and the love of his children, the third the smell of the battle, and the fourth his death. The composer later distanced himself from all programmatic associations with the score, merely allowing, in a letter in 1972, that the work represents ‘Man in his cosmic loneliness: ambition, loves, battles and death’. The composer that year dedicated the score to his beloved daughter, who had just died. Cast in conventional four movements—though, as the composer said, ‘very unorthodox inside’—one is helped through this complex score by Naxos’s generous cueing points, allied to very helpful notes by Callum MacDonald. Throughout the work, one sense the composer exploring with textures, harmonies—and melody. Though the influence of Mahler and Bruckner is felt, so too are his cotemporaries, Berg, Schoenberg and Szymanowski. The ostinato-Scherzo, with its hunting horns, one group after another, is particularly memorable. The finale evokes Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung. An excellent performance…The CD opens with the composer’s single brass-only work, the short, pithy Festival Fanfare of 1967. Good sound throughout.

Derek Warby
MusicWeb International, January 2008

With the gradual reissue of the original Marco Polo releases of Havergal Brian’s symphonies on the bargain-priced Naxos label, it is to be hoped that more people will explore the music of this fascinating but still largely under-appreciated maverick English composer. The original Marco Polo CDs were tantalisingly labelled the Brian Cycle but only 11 of the canon of 32 have appeared to date, leaving many still unrecorded. One can only hope that more recordings are lurking in the Naxos archives awaiting release....With no alternative recordings available, this disc serves to show what a unique force Havergal Brian was in British music and connoisseurs of off-the-beaten-track music from England will find much to enthral them here.