Let’s neither struggle
to find connections between Cooke and
Brian nor protest because there are
none. Themes unified in a CD have their
satisfactions but they are peripheral.
There are pleasures in dramatic diversity
and let’s leave it there.
Brian with his 32 symphonies
has made awkward progress in the record
catalogues. Early LP recordings in the
period 1970-73 deployed youth orchestras
on Unicorn and CBS to present symphonies
10, 21 and 22. The latter, entitled
Symphonia Brevis, is fine work
and the performance was good too. I
played the ten minute track repeatedly
until the work – grand, ungainly and
with epic symphonic gravitas
- fell into focus. It deserves to be
reissued. EMI Classics recorded symphonies
7-9 and 31 before the CD era and these
recordings are all now available at
mid-price on CD. Let’s not forget the
Third Symphony now on Hyperion Helios
- CDH55029 (originally issued on CDA66334).
Naxos recorded a goodly
number of the Brian symphonies in the
1980s and 1990s but show no sign of
completing the canon. Some of those
Marco Polo recordings await a new life
on Naxos where most of the others can
be found. Even so there are plenty of
unrecorded Brian symphonies. Most grievously
missed is the Fifth Symphony for baritone
and orchestra, Wine of Summer
setting words by Lord Alfred Douglas.
It’s a superb work, densely lyrical,
sultry and splendidly intense. It’s
like an amalgam of Szymanowski’s Harnasie,
Bax’s Spring Fire and Strauss’s
Four Last Songs.
With this disc Lyrita
have made available two of the most
fascinating of Brian symphonies. Of
the two, the Sixth is simply stunning.
It is succinct. It has an epic-tragic
symphonic manner that is bold yet remains
connected to the heritage of Sibelius,
Prokofiev, Holst and even Bax. Elements
of the march stride and patter through
this work which exudes both triumph
and threat. The orchestration is masterly
with atmosphere built in impregnable
units of activity. The work was originally
intended as a prelude to an opera on
Synge’s Deirdre of the Sorrows
– the opera was never completed due
to copyright problems. The brass
emit inimical groans and celebration
in the Sixth is mixed with pain. Ostinati
are thrown here and there over stutters
from the rest of the orchestra. The
violins shimmer, the harp lavishes silverpoints
and showers of raindrops, the woodwind
lament and keen and the principal trumpet
calls from a distant field of conflict.
The drenched and shining romance of
the romantic theme for the strings at
10:04 is completely memorable in the
same way as parts of The Gothic.
The other work of which the Tragica
is redolent is another Lyrita jewel
– even if it is a dark one – Alwyn’s
Symphony No. 5 Hydriotaphia.
Having moved in 1958 to Shoreham on
the Sussex littoral, Brian quickly produced
five single-movement symphonies of which
No. 16 is one. This is less accessible
than No. 6 but is just as full of inwoven
magical orchestral episodes: luminous
and eerie intimations of strange worlds
of beauty, horror and triumph. It simply
needs more persistence than No. 6. The
later Brian symphonies have a reputation
for density of ideas and an impenetrable
matte sound and a diffuse collision
of ideas. The Sixteenth is amongst the
clearest of the later symphonies.
Arnold Cooke’s music
has made slow repertoire progress. While
there were LPs it is only now that we
are catching up with even a smattering
of his works. Do try the BMS disc of
his duo string sonatas on BMS432CD.
His Third Symphony shared a Lyrita LP
with the suite from Jabez and the
Devil. [review]
It’s a three movement work unlike the
two Brian monoliths. The first movement
has that beetling Hindemith sound moderated
by some Tapiola-like writing
and several moments that suggest a sympathy
with Rawsthorne’s writing. Then central
Lento is luminous with glowing
strings and seraphic writing for the
flute. Later this becomes more complex
and astringent. The sanguine energy
of the first movement returns for the
finale. This has some quasi-fugal Rawsthorne-suffused
gales which ply the Cooke saplings double
alongside further hints of Hindemith.
Some cooling and cold asides provide
a stilly contrast.
The notes for the Havergal
Brian works are splendid as is to be
expected from Calum Macdonald. I am
afraid that those for the Cooke symphony
by Hugo Cole are of the opaquely descriptive
type but, as ever, it’s the music that
matters!
Three intrinsically
pleasing tonal-melodic symphonies of
real creative fibre.
Rob Barnett
I am grateful to Colin
Mackie for pointing out that there is
in fact a connection between Brian and
Cooke. In 1936 Havergal Brian, writing
in 'Musical Opinion', singled out Cooke
as one of the most promising of the
younger generation of British composers
and praised his: "ability to think
and breathe contrapuntally". It
was therefore quite a nice juxtaposition
to couple the two composers' works on
the CD although it might otherwise appear
an odd pairing.
Other related CD
reviews on MusicWeb International:-
Cooke
Symphony 1, Lyrita
Brian
Symphony 1 The Gothic, Naxos
Brian
Symphony 2, Naxos
Brian
Symphony 4, 12, Naxos
Brian
Symphonies 7-9, 31, EMI Classics
Brian
Symphony 18, Naxos
see also Arnold
Cooke pages
The
Lyrita Catalogue
for details
London PO/Myer Fredman (Brian); Nicholas
Braithwaite (Cooke) 
Sound Sample 
