The contrast between Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 4, "Das Siegeslied" (Psalm of Victory) (1932-1933) and his Symphony No. 12 (1957) is striking, insofar as the former represents the composer's tendency toward post-Romantic gigantism, while the latter is practically a suite in miniature form, reflecting the influence of modernism. This Naxos album, a reissue of a 1992 release on Marco Polo, is a good test case for listeners new to Brian's music because it points up the extremes of his musical rhetoric and is a fair overview ...
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The contrast between Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 4, "Das Siegeslied" (Psalm of Victory) (1932-1933) and his Symphony No. 12 (1957) is striking, insofar as the former represents the composer's tendency toward post-Romantic gigantism, while the latter is practically a suite in miniature form, reflecting the influence of modernism. This Naxos album, a reissue of a 1992 release on Marco Polo, is a good test case for listeners new to Brian's music because it points up the extremes of his musical rhetoric and is a fair overview that doesn't hide less attractive features of his work. Yes, the Symphony No. 4 is a rather grotesque, militaristic paean to Old Testament vengeance and German bombast, and its massed choirs and enormous orchestra may bring to mind Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand," though it has little of that work's profundity and ecstasy. Yet even though Brian extols Macht und Kraft (might and power) in this sprawling setting in German of Psalm 68 -- composed in the years that marked the...
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