At the time he was earning a pittance copying music, and the hours were long. He would do this all day, and then at night turn to the 'Gothic'. At the time he was living in semi-starvation, and the result of this was that he would often experience hallucinations. Being a hard-headed Northerner, when Brian would look up to see the figure of Bach sitting opposite him, he would realise it was a hallucination, and not take any notice. The symphony has, so far as I know, only been performed a handful of times, and one of those occasions was in Sheffield Town Hall where, apparently, most of the room was taken up by performers, leaving very little space for the audience.
Anecdotal material abounds.
It is said that in the dress rehearsal choir D2 missed their cue, and apparently didn't sing a note in the entire work. Nobody noticed, apparently. I was at the Albert Hall performance, and can testify that the effect was overwhelming. The music is wonderful - stylistically varied, romantic, dense, imaginative and emotional. Despite the difficulties of obtaining a performance, one wonders why this symphony in particular, and Brian's music in general, is not far more popular.