Havergal Brian "Gothic" symphony

[BBMmk2]

Ah, thank you ER!! I just thought British Music Society, put an extra B in and then you have certain familiarity! :)

[Serial_Apologist]

I listened to the "re-broadcast" last night - or part of it before succumbing to sleep; can anyone tell me if this was the original broadcast or the Hyperionised one? It sounded something of an improvement in terms of sound quality.

S-A

[Bryn]

I have not actually listened to last nights version but have looked at its dynamic profile. It would appear to be the same as that made available last July but with an overall level boost of approximately one third of a decibel. The dynamic range is not as great as that offered by Hyperion.

[bluestateprommer]

FWIW, from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, the sales figures for the Hyperion HB 1 as of this moment of posting:

Amazon.com: 5151
Amazon.co.uk: 3721

Pretty darn good for a work that's only been performed live 6 times, which must give "The Gothic" some sort of honor as the symphony with perhaps the highest radio of recordings to live performances, 1 to 2. I got hold of a copy, and plan to give it a listen this Saturday.

PS: Of course, I suppose that to best support Hyperion's work on this CD, one should purchase the set directly from Hyperion rather than from Amazon.....

[Bryn]

As far as I am aware there are five recordings, three of which have been made available commercially. In addition to the 1966 Boult, the Lenard and the Brabbins, the 1980 Schmidt sits on a BBC archive DAT (FLACs and mp3s of which have 'leaked out' onto the Internet in the past), and the 2010 Curro can be found (in mp3 format) on the Internet. Mind you, the choral intonation in the Curro pays rather too much tribute to Percy Grainger's microtonal experiments.

[Serial_Apologist]

Mind you, the choral intonation in the Curro pays rather too much tribute to Percy Grainger's microtonal experiments.

Mind you, although I admit I haven't checked, the 2010 Prom performance did seem to suffer from the a capella choral section during the Te Deum section drifting out of tune; the soprano's dramatic entry seemed to be a good tone higher than expected, though she was clearly in tune, as is clearly shown at the point where the brass follows her passage, beginning on the same pitch.

[Beef Oven]

Gothic

The Gothic absolutely knocked me for 6 when I first heard it in the 1980s on my friend's C90 cassette! I think it must have been Schmidt. I have been living with the Lenard performance for over 20 years and I adore it. I bought the Boult and was shocked by how bad it is. It sounds like it was recorded underwater. Boult rushes Part 1 and the Te Deum is a complete mess. I am not sure Boult knew what he was doing on this one.

I was unable to attend the Prom last year because I was overseas and I could not get back for less than £500 (couldn't afford it, almost reduced to tears!).

Having read this thread, I ordered it on Amazon 5 minutes ago. I hope I enjoy it as much as you guys, and I hope it isn't just a reminder that I missed a once in a lifetime chance to see this work.

[BBMmk2]

I was at the Ole Schmidt performance! I was in the arena.

[Bryn]

"Once in a lifetime"? I have attended three performances and others have managed all five, I think. The Boult recording on Testament is based on the 'wrong end' of an FM broadcast, by the way. Hence some of its limitations.

[ahinton]

Mind you, although I admit I haven't checked, the 2010 Prom performance did seem to suffer from the a capella choral section during the Te Deum section drifting out of tune; the soprano's dramatic entry seemed to be a good tone higher than expected, though she was clearly in tune, as is clearly shown at the point where the brass follows her passage, beginning on the same pitch.

Don't they all! The Lenard recording has no shorage of evidence of this. It's pretty challenging stuff, though, even today,especially when one thinks of the need to get so many singers to do it! Massed choral forces all possessing the nerve, aplomb and aural capacity of Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart or our own BBC Singers don't grow anywhere, let alone on trees...

[Beef Oven]

"Once in a lifetime"? I have attended three performances and others have managed all five, I think. The Boult recording on Testament is based on the 'wrong end' of an FM broadcast, by the way. Hence some of its limitations.

Maybe their is hope for me! :)

[Beef Oven]

I was at the Ole Schmidt performance! I was in the arena.

I think I heard you cough 2 minutes 7 seconds into the Te ergo quaesumus section! Amazing things were those TDK C90s!

[BBMmk2]

I think I heard you cough 2 minutes 7 seconds into the Te ergo quaesumus section! Amazing things were those TDK C90s!

:)

I have the TTN performance on right now from last Tuesday.

[Midiman]

I know this is a bit late - but - I have just downloaded the Hyperion FLAC CD masters. I am sorry to say that I find the amount of compression/limiting on these CDs to be far too high. The recording is great - the out of tune organ continuo which was so obvious on the BBC broadcast has gone - the choirs have been pitch shifted by about a tone to being them up to pitch - but - the mastering is simply over the top. Is it a requirement of modern CDs that they must all resemble Pop music?

It appears to me that the Hyperion release has been mastered/limited by about 9 dB too much. Open any of the WAV files in your favourite sound editor and just look at all the "flat lines" at the top of the wave charts. This is a severe disappointment for me as I was hoping that the Hyperion engineers would not do this. Alas, they have done so :-(

[french frank]

Hello, Midiman - and welcome!

I'm sure some of those who commented above will have issues with what you say, but what the heck!