Prom 4: Sunday 17th July 2011 at 7.00 p.m. (Brian 'The Gothic')

[salymap]

Local reporter ??

[french frank]

Local reporter ??

Oh, yaah .. from the Staffordshire Sentinel of 1908

[RobertLeDiable]

Gosh - those poor choirs!

[BBMmk2]

RobertLeDiable, they are having a difficult night tonight!! It amazes me each time I have heard this wor, despite the gargantuanous of the size, its the originality thatcomes through all the different lines!

[RobertLeDiable]

I pity the poor choirmasters who've had to attempt to teach this stuff to their singers. Must have been soul-destroying.

[Barbirollians]

Some fascinating stuff but generally rather less than a sum of its parts I reckon

[Chris Newman]

I have to say I am very impressed. I hope that iPlayer copes with the sound as I would like to hear it again. I did hear the Ole Schmidt performance on earphones with a transistor radio at a campsite in Kendal where i was orienteering. Tonight's performance sounded infinitely better rehearsed. I bought the Slovak recording (a bargain on Naxos which used to be on Marco Polo) yesterday but have resisted the temptation to jump the gun.

Brian often writes some very clear passages of almost chamber texture and great beauty. To my ears the spirit of RVW lurks throughout giving the work a definite English sound. All too often composers' renditions of Te Deums lay themselves open to the joke about tediums but not in this magnum opus; the balance between joyousness and feeling threatened was palpable. There were some marvellous ideas on the way. I loved the refulgent brass at Tu Rex gloriae Christus and the soprano voice bursting thrilingly out of the terrifying choral miasma towards the end of the Judex crederis.

I wish I had been there. It must have felt very special.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I got a lot out of this performance by pre-reading, then following, the work's analysis in The Symphonies of Havergal Brian by Malcolm MacDonald. I'll have to find time for a few more listens to the Naxos recording, which I found impressive in parts on one hearing but haven't rushed back to.

IMHO the performance was amazing given the extreme chromaticism of much of the choral writing, particularly in a capella sections. The soloists did very well too - I especially liked the soprano. Did the alto get a solo? - if so I missed it.

Fanatastic - I'll probably buy any CD issue.

Does anyone know how much full rehearsal time Brabbins had to stitch all his forces together and weld them into a performance?

[johnb]

I'm really not sure what to say about the concert.

To broadcast such a vast number of forces and give any kind of approximation to the listener of what the experience is in the hall is a challenge, to put it mildly. This wasn't exactly helped by the engineers (once again) imposing severe limiting, at -10.5dB, on the music (not on the announcer). This meant that the climaxes and transients were considerably muted. This has nothing to do with iPlayer or HD sound as the Freeview broadcast suffered in the same way. (I had reservations about the sound while I was listening to it on HD and have just checked it out.)

It is terrible that a work so rarely performed and in such need of really good sound engineering should be so ill served.

Apart from the sound quality and the difficulties the engineers had (partly self generated) my first impression is that of emerging from getting on for two hours of having my ears battered by the climaxes. I'm not sure that I made any sense of the work as a whole.

I'll try listening again in a few days.

[Alison]

A big cheer for Mr Brabbins. Well done sir !

[johnb]

Seeing Alison's post has made me feel churlish for not having mentioned the performers.

Yes, Martyn Brabbins and all the forces involved deserve our heartfelt thanks and congratulations.

[Alison]

John

My way in to the Brian Symphonies was the outstanding three volume survey by Malcolm MacDdonald.

I see the three books are still available second hand. In the summer holidays I used to love listening to the

symphonies, perhaps in the garden, and following the course of the works in the book. I learnt so much about other

music as well !

[Alf-Prufrock]

This wasn't exactly helped by the engineers (once again) imposing severe limiting, at -10.5dB, on the music (not on the announcer).

I listened to the concert on HD IPlayer, or whatever they call the thing. The dynamic compression was 'damnable and palpable' as a teacher of mine was wont to proclaim. Forte, fortissimo and even mezzoforte were almost indistinguishable. I managed to record the feed and the wave displays a definite straight-line edge. (I agree that the limiting cut in at around -10.5dB.) I shall record the replay from Freeview on Tuesday but I fear there will be no improvement. I might try recording the non-HD feed too, though it is certainly an odd expectation to hope it will be better than the HD.

And I agree the announcer achieved greater loudness than the combined choirs and voices at their damnedest. Tom Service achieved an ecstatic -6dB at his height.

I think I might have enjoyed the performance more if I had not been distracted by the poor dynamic range. It seemed to be a noble effort.

[johnb]

Alison,

That reminds me. A few years ago I attended some lectures given by Malcolm MacDonald on the Shostakovich symphonies (part of the, then, "Lifelong Learning" courses at Bristol University). He was very good but seemed uncomfortable lecturing. He would walk from one side to the other, in front of the attendees but never, ever look at us! Mind you, in his position, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed looking us.

(Part way through the series of lectures he left to go on holiday, I think, and the later symphonies were dealt with by the truly inspirational John Pickard.)

[johnb]

Alf-Prufrock,

I'm afraid you are likely to be disappointed by Freeview. I simultaneously captured the Freeview mp2 stream, just in case there were difficulties with HD sound, and the same limiting is present on that too.

I feel really furious.