Symphony No.1 in D minor ''Gothic'' - Havergal Brian
Channel: Sergio Cánovas
Date: 2017-05-28

Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra & Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir (etc) conducted by Ondrej Lénard.

First part
I - Allegro assai: 0:00
II - Lento espressivo e solenne - (attacca): 13:53
III - Vivace - (attacca): 26:21

Second part
IV - Te Deum laudamus. Allegro moderato sempre marcato e con brio: 39:23
V - Judex crederis esse venturus. Adagio solenne e religioso: 59:26
VI - Te ergo quaesumus. Moderato e molto sostenuto: 1:15:16

Brian's Gothic Symphony was written between 1919-27. It is an enormous choral-symphonic work that uses immense resources, requiring as many as 800 musicians between instrumentalists and singers. The work wasn't performed until June 24 of 1961, performed by the amateur Polyphonia Orchestra conducted by Bryan Fairfax. Its premiere with a professional orchestra had to wait until October 30 of 1966, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

The symphony is divided into two parts of three movements each. The first, being purely orchestral, relates in a general way to Goethe’s Faust, Part I (Faust as the archetypal Gothic-Age man, seeker after hidden knowledge and aspiring mystic). Part II is a gigantic setting of the "Te Deum" and here Brian’s inspiration were the mighty Gothic cathedrals and the music that was sung in it. The Gothic, then, is an acknowledgement of debts to the past, and a manifesto for the future, a massive reaffirmation of the idealism of the English musical renaissance, which had been so cruelly shaken by the Great War, to which the piece's moments of violence and terror seem directly to relate.

Three different levels of musical argument, dramatic, tonal, motivic, create the work’s musical logic. On the expressive plane, Part I is dynamic in the familiar symphonic sense, a demonstration of artistic continuity with the recent past, a logical development from the achievements of Wagner, Bruckner, Strauss, Elgar and early Schoenberg. Part II, however, is cultural drama, an evocation of the totality of Western Music around one great familiar unifying text. From the doubt whether the post-1918 world will respond to such heroic idealism stems the individual drama of the artist, who is heard still praying for the strength to continue in ever more personal tones as the "Te Deum" moves to its racked and agonized but not-quite-despairing conclusion.

The first movement is written in modified sonata form. Opens with a brief but powerful introduction, followed by a nervous and potent main theme. In contrast, the second theme is deeply lyrical and folkloric, presented through a solo of the violin. The music rises in a greatly dissonant climax. The development section is tougher, based on the initial motives combined with new elements. Clarinets seem to recapitulate the second theme, before it is replaced by a new third one in form of a sober march, leading to a dissonant anticlimax. A beautiful violin cadence leads to an inverted recapitulation section, starting with the second theme leading to an excited and rushed interpretation of the main one. The entrance of the organ opens a massive and climatic coda.

The second movement is a slow processional in ternary form. The first section comprises two main elements; a funereal dotted-note rhythm on tubas and timpani and a noble march-melody stated by violas and cellos immediately afterwards, these are developed together alternating, transforming and influencing each other. The music reaches moments of extreme dissonance, followed by a painful anticlimax. The middle section begins with a sudden, nightmarish change of rhythm and tone. The reference to the march theme leads to several climaxes of great dramatic force. The last one leads to a passionate recapitulation of the opening's material. The final climax subsides into the shadows, and after a ghostly coda from horns and tubas, a bass clarinet leads directly into the next part.

The third movement can be considered a very free scherzo. After a sinister opening over a rushing Brucknerian ostinato, A solemn and mysterious horn call appears, leading to a stormy development, which slowly disclose a huge, relentless, underlying momentum. A more lyrical contrasting passage is opened by phrases of the wood over an ostinato of the harp. Eventually the accumulated tension gathers to a head in a violent, warlike development full of march-and-fanfare images. The majestic brass theme is briefly recapitulated, before a massive and chaotic new development comes, concluding with an extensive xylophone cadenza, later becoming a polytonal ostinato. A trombone figure opens a new development crashing into a thundering climax that is the logical culmination of the earlier battlefield imagery. A coda of unexpected calm ensues. The mysterious horn-call is heard for the last time and the music slowly transport us to the second part through a gentle D major chord.

[Musical analysis continued in the comments section]

[Activate subtitles to read the lyrics]