Dennis Brain
Encyclopedia
Dennis Brain was a British
virtuoso
horn
player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public. With the collaboration of Herbert von Karajan
and the Philharmonia Orchestra
, he produced what many still consider to be the definitive recordings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's horn concerti.
Dennis Brain was born in London
to a family already well-known for producing fine horn players.
His grandfather, Alfred Edwin Brain Sr. (4 February 186025 October 1925), was considered one of the top horn soloists of his time.
His uncle, Alfred Edwin Brain Jr. (24 October 188529 March 1966), had a successful career playing horn in the United States
with the New York Symphony Society
and later as a soloist in Hollywood.
His father, Aubrey Brain
(12 July 189321 September 1955), held the principal horn position in the BBC Symphony Orchestra
and was also a teacher. Aubrey Brain produced the first Mozart
horn concerto recording in 1927.
His mother, Marion Brain, was a composer and wrote cadenza
s to the first and third Mozart horn concerti which her husband then performed.
His brother, Leonard Brain, (1915–1975), was an oboist
and performed with Dennis in a wind quintet
that Dennis formed. Tina Brain, one of Leonard's children (Dennis' niece), also became a professional horn player.
Brain married Yvonne Brain and had two children: Anthony Paul Brain and Sally Brain. Sally Brain's child Thomas Prower, Dennis Brain's grandson, is an excellent flautist and pianist.
At an early age, Brain was allowed to blow a few notes on his father's horn every Saturday morning. Aubrey Brain held the belief that students should not study the horn seriously until the later teenage years, when the teeth and embouchure
became fully developed. During these years, Brain studied piano
and organ
. It was not until the age of 15 that Dennis was to transfer from St Paul's School to the Royal Academy of Music
to study horn, under his father's tutelage. While there, he continued his piano studies under Max Pirani and organ under G. D. Cunningham
.
Brain debuted in performance on 6 October 1938, playing second horn under his father with the Busch Chamber Players at the Queen's Hall
. They performed Johann Sebastian Bach
's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
. Brain's first recording was of Mozart's Divertimento in D Major K. 334 in February, 1939 with the Léner Quartet
. Again, he played second under his father.
At the age of 21, Brain was appointed to the first horn position in the National Symphony Orchestra. This tenure did not last long as he was soon conscripted into the armed forces with his brother in World War II
. Both brothers joined the Central Band of the Royal Air Force
. When the Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra was formed, Brain joined it. That ensemble went on a goodwill tour of the United States
. During the tour, a number of orchestral conductors invited Brain to join their groups after the war, including Leopold Stokowski
of the Philadelphia Orchestra
.
In 1943, Brain's solo career truly began when Benjamin Britten
wrote his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
for Peter Pears
and Brain. A February 1944 recording of the Beethoven Horn Sonata reveals a twenty-two-year-old Dennis Brain of extraordinary lyric virtuosity, fluidity, and musical instinct, able to uncannily caress notes and soar effortlessly.
Brain originally played a French instrument, a Raoux piston-valve horn, similar to that used by his father. This type of instrument has a particularly fluid tone and a fine legato, but a less robust sound than the German-made instruments which were becoming common. In 1951 he switched to an Alexander
single B instrument, complaining that "they want me to play the right notes all of the time!" The Alexander had a custom lead pipe which was narrower than the usual, and offered a sound which, if not comparable to the Raoux, at least gave a nod in the direction of the lighter French instrument.
and Sir Thomas Beecham
founded the Philharmonia
and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
, respectively. Brain filled the position as principal horn in both. Along with Jack Brymer
(clarinet), Gwydion Brooke
(bassoon), Richard Walton (trumpet), Terence MacDonagh (oboe), and Gerald Jackson (flute), he was a member of the "Royal Family" of wind instrumentalists of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Later, he found that he did not have enough time to fill both positions and resigned from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Expanding his interest in the neglected area of chamber music
, Brain formed a wind quintet
with his brother in 1946. This group eventually grew in size and toured in Germany
, Italy
and Austria
. Brain also founded a trio with pianist
Wilfrid Parry and violin
ist Jean Pougnet
. The trio toured Scotland
twice and made plans to tour Australia
in the winter of 1957. Briefly, Brain put together a chamber ensemble consisting of his friends so that he could conduct music.
In November 1953, under the direction of Herbert von Karajan
, and accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Brain recorded the Mozart Horn Concertos Nos. 1–4 for EMI. In July 1954, again conducted by Karajan, Brain performed the organ part in a recording of the Easter hymn from Pietro Mascagni
's Cavalleria rusticana
.
He played with Karl Haas
's London Baroque Ensemble, both on recordings (notably Dittersdorf
's Partita in D, Dvořák
's Serenade in D minor for Winds, Op. 44, and Handel
's Aria for two horns, oboes and bassoon) and in concert.
Brain produced a radio
program entitled The Early Horn in 1955. In it, he emphasized the importance of the player over the instrument in the production of the perfect tone.
Showing off his humorous style, Brain performed a Leopold Mozart
horn concerto on rubber hose pipes at a Gerard Hoffnung
music festival in 1956, trimming the hose to length with garden shears to achieve the correct tuning.
Brain was notoriously careless; his instrument for many years was a French-made piston valve horn with an impressive array of dents, and Benjamin Britten
autographed one score "For Dennis - in case he loses the other one". But Sir Thomas Beecham
described Brain as a "prodigy" and Noël Goodin characterised him as "the genius who tamed the horn"; his old-fashioned and ill-treated instrument was the same as can be heard in many classic recordings of the time. His Alexander horn was badly damaged in his fatal crash, but has since been restored by Paxmans of London and is on public display in the Royal Academy of Music
's free museum.
(Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Canticle III), Malcolm Arnold
(Horn Concerto No. 2), Paul Hindemith
(Concerto for Horn and Orchestra), York Bowen
(Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani), Peter Racine Fricker
(Horn Sonata), Gordon Jacob
(Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra), Mátyás Seiber
(Notturno for Horn and Strings), Humphrey Searle
(Aubade for Horn and Strings), Ernest Tomlinson
(Rhapsody and Rondo for Horn and Orchestra, Romance and Rondo for Horn and Orchestra), Lennox Berkeley
(Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano) and Elisabeth Lutyens
.
Francis Poulenc
wrote Elegie for Horn and Piano to commemorate Brain's death. He happened to be in London when Brain was killed, and he wrote the Elegie the next day. It was premiered on 1 September 1958, exactly one year after Brain's death, by Neill Sanders
and with Poulenc himself on piano.
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death, a new work, Fanfare: a salute to Dennis Brain was commissioned from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
, and premiered in Nottingham on 15 March 2007 by Michael Thompson
. Fifty horn players subscribed £
50 each towards this commission, underwritten by Windblowers of Nottingham.
player. Evidence of Brain's skill at composition was shown when he composed the cadenzas for the first and third concerti for his recordings.
Brain also popularized the two Richard Strauss
horn concerti. He was the second to perform the Horn Concerto No. 2 publicly in 1948.
In 1951, Brain became the first person in modern times to perform Joseph Haydn
's Horn Concerto No. 1.
On 1 September 1957, Brain was killed driving home to London
after performing the Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 6, Pathetique
with the Philharmonia under Eugene Ormandy
at the Edinburgh Festival
. He had driven his Triumph TR2
sports car off the road and into a tree on the A1 road opposite the north gate of De Havilland Aircraft factory at Hatfield. He was scheduled for a recording session of Strauss
's Capriccio
the next morning in London. Brain was a noted enthusiast of fast cars and was known for keeping Autocar
magazine on his stand as he played the Mozart concertos from memory during recording sessions. He was 36 years old at the time of his death. Brain was interred at Hampstead Cemetery
in London.
His headstone is engraved with a passage from Hindemith's Declamation section from his Horn Concerto.:
inspired Beethoven to write for horn, Brain inspired Benjamin Britten
, Malcolm Arnold
and Michael Tippett
. He popularised the classical horn repertoire and his brief career coincided with a renaissance of English classical performance and composition; like his contemporary James Galway
he made the transition from orchestra to soloist, and his death further boosted his status as a musical legend. Recordings from the 1950s are still available and many still consider the Brain / Karajan
recordings as the definitive edition of the Mozart
horn concerti.
Brain was both a great horn player and a figure in popular culture, from his recordings of the Mozart concerti to his ridiculous playing of the hosepipe (perfectly in pitch) in one of Gerard Hoffnung
's surreal musical extravaganzas. His Mozart recordings inspired Flanders and Swann
's Ill Wind and his classical playing inspired future generations of horn players.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
player and was largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public. With the collaboration of Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
and the Philharmonia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, he produced what many still consider to be the definitive recordings of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's horn concerti.
Family tradition
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to a family already well-known for producing fine horn players.
His grandfather, Alfred Edwin Brain Sr. (4 February 186025 October 1925), was considered one of the top horn soloists of his time.
His uncle, Alfred Edwin Brain Jr. (24 October 188529 March 1966), had a successful career playing horn in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the New York Symphony Society
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and later as a soloist in Hollywood.
His father, Aubrey Brain
Aubrey Brain
Aubrey Brain was a British horn player and teacher. He was the father of Dennis Brain.-Biography:Aubrey Harold Brain was born in London in 1893. He came from a musical family. His father, A. E. Brain sr. was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra horn quartet...
(12 July 189321 September 1955), held the principal horn position in the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
and was also a teacher. Aubrey Brain produced the first Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
horn concerto recording in 1927.
His mother, Marion Brain, was a composer and wrote cadenza
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
s to the first and third Mozart horn concerti which her husband then performed.
His brother, Leonard Brain, (1915–1975), was an oboist
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
and performed with Dennis in a wind quintet
Wind quintet
A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players . The term also applies to a composition for such a group....
that Dennis formed. Tina Brain, one of Leonard's children (Dennis' niece), also became a professional horn player.
Brain married Yvonne Brain and had two children: Anthony Paul Brain and Sally Brain. Sally Brain's child Thomas Prower, Dennis Brain's grandson, is an excellent flautist and pianist.
Early years
Embouchure
The embouchure is the use of facial muscles and the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of woodwind instruments or the mouthpiece of the brass instruments.The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche , 'mouth'....
became fully developed. During these years, Brain studied piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
. It was not until the age of 15 that Dennis was to transfer from St Paul's School to the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
to study horn, under his father's tutelage. While there, he continued his piano studies under Max Pirani and organ under G. D. Cunningham
G. D. Cunningham
George Dorrington Cunningham was an important concert organist. Born of musical parents, Cunningham studied piano with his mother, subsequently switching to organ at the Guildhall School of Music. Upon graduation he studied with Josiah Booth at Park Chapel, Crouch End, North London...
.
Brain debuted in performance on 6 October 1938, playing second horn under his father with the Busch Chamber Players at the Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
. They performed Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
Brandenburg concertos
The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...
. Brain's first recording was of Mozart's Divertimento in D Major K. 334 in February, 1939 with the Léner Quartet
Léner Quartet
The Léner String Quartet, sometimes written the Lehner String Quartet, was a string quartet of Hungarian origin, founded in Budapest in 1918, which for most of its pre-war career operated in or from London...
. Again, he played second under his father.
At the age of 21, Brain was appointed to the first horn position in the National Symphony Orchestra. This tenure did not last long as he was soon conscripted into the armed forces with his brother in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Both brothers joined the Central Band of the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. When the Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra was formed, Brain joined it. That ensemble went on a goodwill tour of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. During the tour, a number of orchestral conductors invited Brain to join their groups after the war, including Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
.
In 1943, Brain's solo career truly began when Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
wrote his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a song cycle written in 1943 by the English composer Benjamin Britten, scored for tenor accompanied by a solo horn and a small string orchestra...
for Peter Pears
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin Britten....
and Brain. A February 1944 recording of the Beethoven Horn Sonata reveals a twenty-two-year-old Dennis Brain of extraordinary lyric virtuosity, fluidity, and musical instinct, able to uncannily caress notes and soar effortlessly.
Brain originally played a French instrument, a Raoux piston-valve horn, similar to that used by his father. This type of instrument has a particularly fluid tone and a fine legato, but a less robust sound than the German-made instruments which were becoming common. In 1951 he switched to an Alexander
Gebr. Alexander
Gebr. Alexander, of Mainz, Germany, is a manufacturer of instruments, founded in 1782 by Franz Ambros Alexander and still in business today. The company claims to be the oldest musical instrument manufacturing company in Germany.-History:...
single B instrument, complaining that "they want me to play the right notes all of the time!" The Alexander had a custom lead pipe which was narrower than the usual, and offered a sound which, if not comparable to the Raoux, at least gave a nod in the direction of the lighter French instrument.
Later years
By 1945, Brain was the most sought-after horn player in England. He was 24 years old at the time. His father injured himself in a fall and lost much of his stamina to play. After the war, Walter LeggeWalter Legge
Harry Walter Legge was an influential English classical record producer, most notably for EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior...
and Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
founded the Philharmonia
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
, respectively. Brain filled the position as principal horn in both. Along with Jack Brymer
Jack Brymer
John Alexander Brymer OBE , was a British clarinettist, born in South Shields.-Biography:The son of a builder, Jack Brymer started his working life as a teacher, being at Heath Clark School, Thornton Heath, Surrey in the late 1940s...
(clarinet), Gwydion Brooke
Gwydion Brooke
Gwydion Brooke was the principal bassoonist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of its "Royal Family" of wind instrumentalists, along with Jack Brymer , Dennis Brain , Richard Walton , Terence MacDonagh , and Gerald Jackson .Born Frederick James Gwydion Holbrooke, his father was the...
(bassoon), Richard Walton (trumpet), Terence MacDonagh (oboe), and Gerald Jackson (flute), he was a member of the "Royal Family" of wind instrumentalists of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Later, he found that he did not have enough time to fill both positions and resigned from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Expanding his interest in the neglected area of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, Brain formed a wind quintet
Wind quintet
A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players . The term also applies to a composition for such a group....
with his brother in 1946. This group eventually grew in size and toured in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. Brain also founded a trio with pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
Wilfrid Parry and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist Jean Pougnet
Jean Pougnet
Jean Pougnet was a Mauritian-born concert violinist and orchestra leader, of British nationality, who was highly regarded in both the lighter and more serious classical repertoire during the first half of the twentieth century.- Origins and training :Jean Pougnet was born in Mauritius to British...
. The trio toured Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
twice and made plans to tour Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in the winter of 1957. Briefly, Brain put together a chamber ensemble consisting of his friends so that he could conduct music.
In November 1953, under the direction of Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
, and accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Brain recorded the Mozart Horn Concertos Nos. 1–4 for EMI. In July 1954, again conducted by Karajan, Brain performed the organ part in a recording of the Easter hymn from Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
.
He played with Karl Haas
Karl Haas (conductor)
Karl Wilhelm Jacob Haas , musician, musicologist and conductor, was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, where he studied at the Classical College, then at the Universities of Munich and Heidelberg....
's London Baroque Ensemble, both on recordings (notably Dittersdorf
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...
's Partita in D, Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's Serenade in D minor for Winds, Op. 44, and Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Aria for two horns, oboes and bassoon) and in concert.
Brain produced a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
program entitled The Early Horn in 1955. In it, he emphasized the importance of the player over the instrument in the production of the perfect tone.
Showing off his humorous style, Brain performed a Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
horn concerto on rubber hose pipes at a Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
music festival in 1956, trimming the hose to length with garden shears to achieve the correct tuning.
Brain was notoriously careless; his instrument for many years was a French-made piston valve horn with an impressive array of dents, and Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
autographed one score "For Dennis - in case he loses the other one". But Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
described Brain as a "prodigy" and Noël Goodin characterised him as "the genius who tamed the horn"; his old-fashioned and ill-treated instrument was the same as can be heard in many classic recordings of the time. His Alexander horn was badly damaged in his fatal crash, but has since been restored by Paxmans of London and is on public display in the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
's free museum.
New works and commemorations
Brain often asked composers to write new works for him to perform. Many composers offered their services to Brain without even being asked. Among them were Benjamin BrittenBenjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
(Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Canticle III), Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
(Horn Concerto No. 2), Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
(Concerto for Horn and Orchestra), York Bowen
York Bowen
Edwin York Bowen was an English composer and pianist. Bowen’s musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player...
(Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani), Peter Racine Fricker
Peter Racine Fricker
Peter Racine Fricker was an English composer who lived in the United States for the last thirty years of his life....
(Horn Sonata), Gordon Jacob
Gordon Jacob
Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob was an English composer. He is known for his wind instrument composition and his instructional writings.-Life:...
(Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra), Mátyás Seiber
Mátyás Seiber
Mátyás György Seiber was a Hungarian-born composer who lived and worked in England from 1935 onward.-Career:Seiber was born in Budapest, and studied there with Zoltán Kodály, with whom he toured Hungary collecting folk songs. In 1928, he became director of the jazz department at the Hoch...
(Notturno for Horn and Strings), Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
(Aubade for Horn and Strings), Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson is an English composer, particularly noted for his Light music compositions. He is sometimes credited as Alan Perry.-Life:...
(Rhapsody and Rondo for Horn and Orchestra, Romance and Rondo for Horn and Orchestra), Lennox Berkeley
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
(Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano) and Elisabeth Lutyens
Elisabeth Lutyens
Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE was a significant English composer.- Early life and education :She was one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement...
.
Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
wrote Elegie for Horn and Piano to commemorate Brain's death. He happened to be in London when Brain was killed, and he wrote the Elegie the next day. It was premiered on 1 September 1958, exactly one year after Brain's death, by Neill Sanders
Neill Sanders
Neill Sanders was a British horn player, principal hornist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Melos Ensemble for 29 years. He was a professor in Kalamazoo, Michigan and founded a chamber ensemble and a festival there.-Biography:Neill Sanders...
and with Poulenc himself on piano.
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death, a new work, Fanfare: a salute to Dennis Brain was commissioned from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, and premiered in Nottingham on 15 March 2007 by Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson (horn player)
Michael Thompson is a British horn player.After studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Thompson was appointed Principal Horn with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra aged just 18 years...
. Fifty horn players subscribed £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
50 each towards this commission, underwritten by Windblowers of Nottingham.
Revived works
Brain collaborated with Karajan to produce recordings of the four Mozart horn concerti, works now considered to be the basis of the solo horn repertory. The concerti were originally written for Joseph Leutgeb, a Viennese natural hornNatural horn
The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the ancestor of the modern-day horn, and is differentiated by its lack of valves. It consists of a mouthpiece, some long coiled tubing, and a large flared bell. Pitch changes are made through a few different techniques:* Modulating the lip tension as...
player. Evidence of Brain's skill at composition was shown when he composed the cadenzas for the first and third concerti for his recordings.
Brain also popularized the two Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
horn concerti. He was the second to perform the Horn Concerto No. 2 publicly in 1948.
In 1951, Brain became the first person in modern times to perform Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's Horn Concerto No. 1.
Death
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
after performing the Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
Symphony No. 6, Pathetique
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...
with the Philharmonia under Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. He had driven his Triumph TR2
Triumph TR2
The Triumph TR2 is a sports car which was produced by the Standard Motor Company in the United Kingdom between 1953 and 1955, during which time 8,636 cars were produced....
sports car off the road and into a tree on the A1 road opposite the north gate of De Havilland Aircraft factory at Hatfield. He was scheduled for a recording session of Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Capriccio
Capriccio (opera)
Capriccio is the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music". The opera received its premiere performance at the Nationaltheater München on October 28, 1942. Clemens Krauss and Strauss himself wrote the German libretto...
the next morning in London. Brain was a noted enthusiast of fast cars and was known for keeping Autocar
Autocar
Autocar is a weekly British automobile magazine published by Haymarket Motoring Publications Ltd. It refers to itself as "The World's oldest car magazine".-History:...
magazine on his stand as he played the Mozart concertos from memory during recording sessions. He was 36 years old at the time of his death. Brain was interred at Hampstead Cemetery
Hampstead Cemetery
Hampstead Cemetery is a historic cemetery in West Hampstead, London, located at the upper extremity of the NW6 district. Despite the name, the cemetery is three-quarters of a mile from Hampstead Village, and bears a different postcode...
in London.
His headstone is engraved with a passage from Hindemith's Declamation section from his Horn Concerto.:
My call transforms
The hall to autumn-tinted groves
What is into what
Has been....
Legacy
The beauty of Brain's music and the tragedy of his death captured the public imagination like no British horn player before or since. Horn players in general do not have the profile of the great violinists although the principal horn is generally paid second only to the leader of an orchestra, the horn being notoriously difficult to play. Giovanni PuntoGiovanni Punto
Giovanni Punto was a Czech horn player and a pioneer of the hand-stopping technique which allows natural horns to play a greater number of notes.He was an international celebrity in the 18th and early 19th centuries, known in London,...
inspired Beethoven to write for horn, Brain inspired Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
and Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
. He popularised the classical horn repertoire and his brief career coincided with a renaissance of English classical performance and composition; like his contemporary James Galway
James Galway
- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...
he made the transition from orchestra to soloist, and his death further boosted his status as a musical legend. Recordings from the 1950s are still available and many still consider the Brain / Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
recordings as the definitive edition of the Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
horn concerti.
Brain was both a great horn player and a figure in popular culture, from his recordings of the Mozart concerti to his ridiculous playing of the hosepipe (perfectly in pitch) in one of Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
's surreal musical extravaganzas. His Mozart recordings inspired Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann
The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann , who collaborated in writing and performing comic songs....
's Ill Wind and his classical playing inspired future generations of horn players.