Dennis Brain A Life in Music

[Guest]

I received the following email from Stephen Gamble, one of the co-authors of this interesting book.
This is what he had to say:

I thought you might like to know that Radio 3 "Music Matters" on
Saturday 12 November from 12.15 to 1.00 p.m. include discussion and
review of the new Dennis Brain biography. David Pyatt and Jasper Rees
are invited to talk about the book and about Dennis Brain.

The authors were interviewed on 2 November and this was pre-recorded
live. No retakes and no rehearsal. The first broadcast recording I
have made and probably my last. I much prefer everything like that to
be scripted.

I was asked by Tom Service which recording I considered encapsulated
everything about Dennis Brain's artistry. I chose the complete live
rehearsal recording (a private recording sent to me by Ernest
Tomlinson's daughter this year) of "Romance and Rondo" by Ernest
Tomlinson. This was also broadcast the same day as the rehearsal, 22
June 1957. Mr Tomlinson has granted permission for short extracts to
be played from this recording for "Music Matters". My co-author,
William Lynch, chose the first broadcast performance of the Gordon
Jacob Concerto, 3 July 1951. Another private recording (the Composer's
own recording). I also sent in the first movement of York Bowen's
Concerto from the premiere broadcast, 1 July 1956.

Only a couple of minutes will be played from these recordings but I
hope it might generate some interest. The sound quality varies -
especially the Gordon Jacob Concerto - but the other two are in
acceptable sound and I think ought to be made commercially available.

Sincerely,
Stephen Gamble

I shall certainly be listening in to this programme and I thought it worthwhile drawing it to your attention.

Ventilhorn

[salymap]

Sounds interesting VH. I wonder how long it will take my local library to purchase it. Shall certainly listen.

[MrGongGong]

Thanks for this
Sadly my local "Library" no longer has a real music section
even though 10 years ago it employed a specialist music librarian (who has now gone to TCM)
so a book like this which would have , in the past, become part of the collection will now not even be considered

[Barbirollians]

It would be marvellous if these recordings could be made available - there are only so many times one can listen to his Mozart, Strauss and Hindemith and the BBC Legends disc. His playing remains unsurpassed to my ears.

[salymap]

In the sad absence of Dennis Brain, I've just discovered a CD with horn concertos by several British composers played by David Pyatt: Gordon Jacob, Malcolm Arnold, Ruth Gipps, York Bowen, etc. Is it still available, does anyone know? The Jacob was played a lot, just 16 minutes long with string accompaniment.

However, nothing makes up for not having more Dennis Brain recordings.

[rauschwerk]

In the sad absence of Dennis Brain, I've just discovered a CD with horn concertos by several British composers played by David Pyatt: Gordon Jacob, Malcolm Arnold, Ruth Gipps, York Bowen, etc. Is it still available, does anyone know? The Jacob was played a lot, just 16 minutes long with string accompaniment.

A very fine CD indeed, which was intended as Pyatt's debut recording but the release was much delayed. My favourite piece is the Jacob, which I have listened to many times. It is certainly still available.

[Ventilhorn]

I have received the following email this morning from Stephen Gamble:

Sarah Rock who works for "Music Matters" telephoned today to give me
the disappointing news that their producer has had so much material to
try and fit into the forty-five minutes that there won't be time to
include the excerpts of solo performances that I sent to them.

I wrote a short email in reply to suggest that a one-minute extract
for each recording would be acceptable.

I don't know if they will now include a couple of minutes, as I suggest.

Stephen

Typical BBC cockup!

I hope that this disappointing news will not deter anyone from listening to the programme.

VH

[amateur51]

I have received the following email this morning from Stephen Gamble:



Typical BBC cockup!


VH

oooh I'm very glad not to be sitting opposite HotLips this morning - steam and bitter Seville orange marmalade everywhere

[salymap]

oooh I'm very glad not to be sitting opposite HotLips this morning - steam and bitter Seville orange marmalade everywhere

Well,I for one am very sorry. Gordon Jacob, Ruth Gipps, etc were in the Augener catalogue in my time and I was looking forward to hearing even just a bit of DB's recordings of some of the works mentioned.

And yes, another cockup from the Beeb, too many for comfort these days.

[Ventilhorn]

oooh I'm very glad not to be sitting opposite HotLips this morning - steam and bitter Seville orange marmalade everywhere

The feeling is mutual.

[amateur51]

The feeling is mutual.

Result!

[salymap]

Some people say they remember exactly what they were doing when they heard Kennedy had been killed.

All my memories of that sort are of musicians, Brain, duPre, Ferrier, Neveu, doubtless others. I never met him but remember the shock when I arrived home from a holiday and heard the news. All those irreplaceable people. RIP

[Ventilhorn]

Disappointing? Well no, not really, having been employed by the BBC for five years, I knew what to expect.

Stephen Gamble emailed me as follows:

I am glad that Andrew McGavin was included in "Music Matters" today
but what a poor splice to the next item!

Instead of using the exceedingly rare and special recordings excerpts
that I specially taped for them and sent to the programme, as
requested, the producer re-used material that the BBC had broadcast
numerous times before, including the lecture-recital excerpt of 1955 -
the bit they didn't destroy.

The pre-recorded interview specially arranged with the authors was not
used. Our time was wasted.

The book and authors received a brief mention at the end and if you
blinked, you missed it.

This puts me right off working for the BBC which I had hoped to do at
some point in the future.

Stephen

There was no mention of the merits or otherwise of the book - just the publisher and the price!

As I wrote in a previous post

...A complete cockup!

VH

[Tony Halstead]

Frankly, I was amazed, having expected to hear a BOOK REVIEW.
What we got was a short programme of sound-bites about Dennis Brain, with some telling ( and thankfully intelligent) comments about his musicianship by Messrs Pyatt and Rees, a tantalisingly all-too-brief anecdote from Brain's colleague Andrew McGavin, and some interesting and rather haunting playing on Brain's horn by Pyatt ( too closely recorded for comfort).
I'm still waiting for the promised book review.