Havergal Brian actually was an interesting and characterful composer, not that you'd know it from this disgusting train wreck of a performance. Yes, it's "legendary", and it enjoyed a previous existence on, among other things, a dim Aries pirate LP that led one to hope that the original tapes sounded better. They don't, at least not such as would make any difference. The limited stereo broadcast sonics (from 1966) can't begin to clarify the score's textural complexities, while Boult, never the most incisive of conductors, holds the reins slackly and seems not to know the difference between melody and accompaniment--to the extent that one can tell, that is. He gets through the first three orchestral movements by playing them relatively quickly and hoping for the best, but when the choruses come in the result is simply mud, a totally chaotic mess of impenetrable noise. If you have the Marco Polo (now Naxos) recording, featuring most of the population of Bratislava, you will experience a much cleaner and more powerful (though far from perfect) sense of what the music is about. Life is too short for this.

--David Hurwitz