None of this is new to anyone familiar with his later style but it was interesting to see this same technique in operation in a work of 50 minutes, where the composer might have felt able to expand his ideas more freely.  This clearly was not Brian’s way and I for one immediately began to think of those passages in the Gothic where the ideas seem to almost tumble over one another in a torrent of inspiration.   There can't be many works of one to two hours that actually feel short as a result of this ultra-condensed approach.  Thus it proved with the 2nd. 

Although the rehearsals were intense and gave the impression of a rather heavy-going work, once the performance started it became apparent that one was caught up in the workings of a mind possessed of great momentum.  At the end there were many smiles of satisfaction at the scale of the achievement;  both of the composer, and the ability of the orchestra to bring off a really respectable reading in just one day.  The 18 horns who barked their calls to arms across the hall during the scherzo might have felt especially pleased - not least because some of them had taken up the instrument a few years ago with the express purpose of tackling this very piece. All but seven of the horns returned to the ranks of the string section for the other movements!
Now to the actual parts.  Having consulted with Tony Rowe, Mark Fitzgerald and the Purely For Pleasure event organiser Patsy Moore, I discovered that the parts used in Russia (and which had required extensive correcting during the recording session) had not been retained upon their return to UMP - thus losing all benefits of these vital alterations.  Mark and Patsy had no alternative but to go through every part in the two weeks leading up to the event.  I myself found three further errors in my study of the 1st violin part.  Many other errors were spotted during the course of the rehearsal.  These included wrong notes, wrong transpositions, omissions, miscalculated rest blocks and other errors.  Mark Henegar who had appeared with a full score in order to enjoy following the work's progress, found himself rushing round the orchestra dealing with queries as they occurred.  All this wasted precious time that should have been spent on our familiarisation with this little known and difficult score. Only devoted Brianites could have failed to feel irritation, and it does little to promote considered judgements of the composer. 

I was relieved to see how the musicians seemed to take this all in some humour, and given their determination to do this work this perhaps isn’t surprising; but it is all to easy to see how a hard working professional orchestra might feel less happy having to cope with these difficulties given the busy schedules most of them adhere to.  One can only hope that UMP will take advantage of the gratis proof-reading job undertaken by Mark and Patsy, and incorporate the alterations into any subsequent sets of parts that are sent out.  One must also feel sympathy with Tony Rowe who had so little time for his correcting of the parts in Moscow;  indeed there are still errors that made their way undiscovered onto the recording (there are no prizes for spotting these by the way), which is a shame and doesn't help anyone’s reputation, least of all Brian’s.

Anyway - enough moaning about the performance materials, for in the end a very challenging and enjoyable day was had by all, and the organisers are to be congratulated on such an exciting choice of repertoire.  There are already rumours that Gliere’s 3rd and Brian’s 16th might appear in future workshops.