How vividly I remember the initial release of this set on Marco Polo some 15 years ago. There I was, clutching my copy of this legendary work having suffered previously through the hideous sound of a pirate issue of Boult’s performance. Standing in line before me at Tower Records, Lincoln Center, was the New York chapter of the Havergal Brian Society. There were about 10 of them, average age about 70, men with bald scalps and lanky shoulder-length white hair hanging limply in the latest Benjamin Franklin style. All wore thick glasses, and a few had conditions that I thought had been cured by the turn of the last century: goiters, a harelip or two, and various poxes and skin diseases. None had credit cards, or a majority of their teeth, but most had, to put in kindly, olfactorily obvious personal hygiene issues.
“Gothic indeed,” I thought, putting down my copy and deciding to try mail order. “If this is the core market for this composer, Marco Polo’s projected complete cycle is in trouble.” So it has proved, alas, for there seems no sign of anything new on this front, though Brian remains a composer worthy of attention. Yes, his music is quirky, truculent, rhythmically clunky, and not big on catchy tunes, but he has an original voice and I suspect there are more riches awaiting discovery. It’s particularly sad that Lyrita’s super recording of Symphonies Nos. 6 and 16 never made it to CD.
Eventually I got this recording, along with a score for good measure, and was able to enjoy what remains the only acceptable performance of this monstrous, impossible symphony. It’s not perfect. Lots of dynamic markings go ignored (particularly by the brass), and at one point in the third movement the xylophone player gives up entirely and stops dead. Still and all, Ondrej Leonard leads a substantial percentage of the adult population of Bratislava in a noble effort, full of excitement, with enthusiastic (if somewhat rough) choral singing and a very good lineup of soloists (including the young Dagmar Pecková), all vividly if a touch shallowly recorded. We’re not likely to see anything better come along soon, which is odd because the original release sold extremely well and we can only surmise that a new version would also. Until then, if you missed it the first time, enjoy this at budget price. Even better, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can order on line and never be seen with it in public.
