Havergal Brian (1876-1972) had one of the longest careers of any composer. Perhaps, then, it’s not surprising to find that he wrote 32 symphonies; but it is astonishing that most of them were written when he was in his 70s and 80s. Though the Second symphony stems from 1931, it was dedicated to the memory of Brian’s youngest daughter in 1972, the same year in which the composer died, and the same year in which he wrote the Festival Fanfare that begins this CD. With his penchant for large orchestral forces and an episodic, rhapsodic writing style somewhat reminiscent of Bax, Brian created music that’s difficult to perform–and to record. Marco Polo already has given us five respectable CDs in its Brian symphony series, but this time I think it has missed the boat. Conductor Tony Rowe does not seem to have a firm hand on things, causing many important rhythmic motifs to slip through the cracks and others to sound relatively unsure. The ones that the orchestra does play crisply are undone by the recording, which is distant, has almost no dynamic range, and suffers an alarming lack of presence. The scherzo opens with fantastic hunting horn calls (Brian scores for 16 players!) over an ostinato that involves strings, harp, and piano. But the sound of this accompaniment is so amorphous that the horns have little to play against and the drama is totally lost. This recording only hints at the grand effect that this symphony could present if played and recorded properly. According to the notes, the next CD in this cycle was recorded in Ireland. Let’s hope things go better there.
