Songs, Legend
The Soul of Steel
BRIAN, Havergal

Catalogue Number: TOCC0005
EAN: 5060113440051
Release Date: 04 March 2005
Duration: 56:38

Legend, for violin and piano
Songs for baritone and piano

Brian Rayner Cook, baritone
Roger Vignoles, piano
Stephen Levine, violin
Peter Lawson, piano

Havergal Brian (1876-1972) is renowned as the composer of 32 powerful symphonies (then the largest symphonic cycle since Haydn), 21 of them composed after his 80th birthday; his First Symphony, The Gothic, is reputed to be the largest ever composed. But in the first part of his career Brian was also active on a smaller scale, his songs attracting the advocacy of singers as prominent as John McCormack and John Coates. The range of emotion in these songs is nonetheless vast, from folky innocence via Shakespearean irony to deep tragedy. Brian Rayner Cook’s performances can be taken as authoritative: he studied the songs with the composer. The CD is completed by the Legend, Brian’s only surviving piece of chamber music.

Read about BRIAN, Havergal | Read Reviews
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See also:

• Joubert: Song-Cycles and Chamber Music
• Milford: Piano Music and Songs
• Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume 1
• Prior: Concerto Velesslavitsa
• Spratley: Music for String Orchestra
• Taylor: Chamber Music, Music for Brass
• Tovey: Symphony in D, Bride Of Dionysus: Prelude
• Tovey: Cello Concerto, Air for strings, Elegiac Variations
• Tovey: Chamber Music, Volume 1
• Walters: Song-Cycles and Chamber Music
• Hugh Wood: Chamber Music
• Choral Songs in honour of Queen Victoria

Track Listing, MP3 Downloads & Streaming Samples

Track No.	Track Title/Details	Duration	Sample	Download Track
	Songs for baritone and piano (1910-22) Havergal Brian, composer Brian Rayner Cook, baritone Roger Vignoles, piano (first digital recording)	50:51
1	When Icicles Hang by the Wall	2:11
2	Take, O Take Those Lips Away	1:04
3	Sorrow Song	3:52
4	The Message	2:22
5	Farewell	4:42
6	Care-Charmer Sleep	4:42
7	Since Love is Dead	2:50
8	The Soul of Steel	4:52
9	Why Dost Thou Wound and Break My Heart?	2:54
10	On Parting	2:11
11	Lady Ellayne	1:51
12	Renunciation	3:34
13	Love is a Merry Game	1:45
14	Piping Down the Valleys Wild	2:04
15	The Chimney Sweeper	2:56
16	The Land of Dreams	4:01
17	The Defiled Sanctuary	3:00
18	Legend, for violin and piano (1919) Havergal Brian, composer Stephen Levine, violin Peter Lawson, piano (first digital recording)	5:47

Artists

Havergal Brian, composer

Brian Rayner Cook, baritone
[credit: Richard Armitage]

Roger Vignoles, piano
[credit: Matthew Ford]

Stephen Levine, violin

Peter Lawson, piano