Moscow So:Rowe - BRIAN: Symphony No. 2 / Festival Fanfare

Orthodox in its four-movement structure but, according to the composer, 'very unorthodox inside', Havergal Brian's 'Symphony No. 2' was originally inspired by Goethe's play 'G?�tz von Berlichingen'. In 1972, however, following the death of his beloved daughter, Brian dedicated his forty-year old Symphony to her memory. Scored for a big orchestra which calls, among other requirements, for sixteen horns, three sets of timpani, two pianos and organ, the Symphony includes a furious ostinato-scherzo, and a tragic funeral march entirely conceived in Brian's own terms, yet unafraid to evoke echoes of Siegfried's 'Funeral March' from 'G?�tterd?�mmerung'.