Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic" (Brian) - Performances and Reception

Performances and Reception

Attempts to perform the symphony have frequently met with failure, beginning with the efforts of Hamilton Harty and Eugene Goossens in the depression-affected 1930s and enduring to the current day, usually owing to the extreme logistics of the work. The work was eventually premiered in 1961, and has been followed by a mere handful of performances, often by partly or wholly amateur forces; the 1978 performance for example was an ad hoc amateur orchestra specially assembled for the occasion, in Brian's home county of Staffordshire. The first professional performance in 1966 was enthusiastically received by the audience in the Royal Albert Hall when the composer himself, aged 90, was in attendance to take a bow at the work's conclusion; this performance was also broadcast live by the BBC.

• 24 June 1961, Central Hall, Westminster, Polyphonia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bryan Fairfax

• 30 October 1966, Royal Albert Hall, London, BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult (From which a pirate recording was issued on the Aries label, and from which an official release has now been issued on the Testament label in the spring of 2010)

• 10 October 1976, Royal Albert Hall, London, New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves (The three orchestral movements of the symphony comprising Part One may be played separately without the choral finale. In 1928, Brian submitted this shorter form of the work in the Schubert Centenary Composition competition, where it was awarded second place in the English division.)

• 21 May 1978, Victoria Hall, Hanley, Staffordshire, the Stoke Gothic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Trevor Stokes

• 25 May 1980, Royal Albert Hall, London, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ole Schmidt

• 15 September 1984, St Olave's School, Orpington, Kent, ad hoc orchestra conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald.

• In 1989, the Marco Polo recording company commissioned the first commercial recording of the symphony, which was recorded in two blocks of sessions from 29–31 March (Part One) and 16–22 October (Part Two) at the Concert Hall of Slovak Radio (Bratislava). This involved two orchestras, the CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ondrej Lenárd. The recording was mainly well received by critics, and achieved the greatest sales of any recording released under the Marco Polo label.

• 22 December 2010, the first performance of the work in Australia, the first performance outside England, and the first complete performance anywhere for over 30 years, took place at the QPAC Concert Hall in Brisbane, Queensland. The choruses commenced rehearsals on 19 August. The performance was conducted by John Curro with alumni of the Queensland Youth Symphony and their colleagues as the core of the orchestra. Details of the performance can be found at . (A performance had been planned for the 58th Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival to be held in Brisbane from 29 June 2007, but these plans were delayed until 2010.)

• 17 July 2011, the work was performed at the Proms under Martyn Brabbins, with Susan Gritton soprano, Christine Rice mezzo-soprano, Peter Auty tenor, Alastair Miles bass, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Youth Chorus, Eltham College Boys' Choir, Southend Boys' and Girls' Choirs, The Bach Choir, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Brighton Festival Chorus, Côr Caerdydd, Huddersfield Choral Society, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The performance sold out on the first day of ticket sales. It was enthusiastically received by the audience, with noisy applause (even by Proms standards) lasting several minutes.