Symphony 5 »Wine of summer«
1937

Originally Solo cantata
Sketched in early 1937, draft VS completed 8 April 1937
FS completed 18 June 1937 and renamed Symphony for solo voice and orchestra

Nominal timing 19-21´

baritone soloist
4 flutes (1 also piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons (1 also contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, side drum, cymbals,  glockenspiel, tam-tam, 2 harps, strings

Text : Lord Alfred Douglas

in one movement
 

[a] Cook/Head  22:10

[b] Cook/Pope  20:59

[c] Maxwell/Kok  19:46

United Music Publishers Limited

 

 Articles

Havergal Brian and Leslie Head - Lewis Foreman
includes material on Symphony 5, including 1969 correspondence from HB relating to the premiere

Words for music, perhaps - Chris Kettle
excellent article on the choice of texts for vocal compositions, touching on Tippett's Byzantium as well as Wine of summer

 

Further reading

The symphonies of Havergal Brian - Malcolm MacDonald / volume 1 chapter 7 - see bibliography

 

Performances

11 December 1969 [first performance] . Kensington Town Hall, UK
Brian Rayner Cook (baritone), Kensington Symphony Orchestra, conductor Leslie Head

29 September 1976 / live BBC Radio 3 broadcast . invitation concert at Alexandra Palace, London
Brian Rayner Cook (baritone), New Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Stanley Pope

1 April 2001 [recording] / 7 June 2001 [BBC R3 broadcast]. Before an invited audience, Broadcasting House, Glasgow, UK

Re-broadcast 5 March 2008 as part of the BBC's 'British Symphony' series
Donald Maxwell (baritone), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Kok

 

A performance by Brian Rayner Cook was recorded by Marco Polo in 1993, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Tony Rowe, but this performance has never been issued.


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