Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny.

I - Adagio - Allegro agitato: 0:00
II - Adagio ma non troppo - Cantabile e sostenuto: 8:25
III - Allegro vivo - Lento - Allegro: 17:53

Brian's Symphony No.20 was composed between March and May 1962, although Brian laid it aside for a while in April to write his "Jolly Miller" overture. Like that piece, the symphony is dedicated to his daughter Elfreda and her husband, who had been staying with the composer and his wife for several months at their home in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex. The work was premiered on October 5 of 1976, in a private concert broadcasted by BBC Radio 3. Performed by the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley.

For a while Brian felt he might have written his last work: "Considering the diversity of Bach's Church Cantatas", he wrote to Robert Simpson towards the end of the year, "twenty symphonies is a long way behind — but not a bad number". Indeed, though twelve more symphonies actually remained to be written up to 1968, No.20 would not have been an inappropriate final work. It is the last of a group of three symphonies which Brian had begun the previous year with No.18, all of which are in three movements and display a decidedly more "classical" sense of form and motion than the six one-movement symphonies that had preceded them.

No.20, as befits the last member of this group, is the most expansive and fully developed, even though its developmental processes, especially in the first movement, are decidedly more fluid and allusive than the resemblance to orthodox sonata architecture might lead us to expect. It is also for the largest orchestra of the three (triple woodwind plus E-flat clarinet, full brass including tenor as well as bass tuba, harp, a large percussion section including bells, and strings); and though it lacks neither drama nor profundity, its athletic vigour and serene grandeur are very different from the angry and abrasive moods of No.18.

The first movement is written in a loose sonata form. Begins with a striking slow introduction, establishing the C sharp minor main key, quickly leading to the main allegro. The main theme is muscular and vigorous, with its generally ascending motion. In contrast, the second theme is more smooth and expressive. The development section begins mysteriously, with still, long-held chords and a stealthy, stalking motion in the bass instruments. A lyrical Lento section, with a brief violin solo, intervenes, only to be interrupted by vigorous, highly allusive development of the first theme which substitutes the formal recapitulation section. It leads to another meditative slow episode, begun by solo horn. Out of this the opening phrases of the second theme appear on woodwinds in calm augmentation, and then distant, evocative horn-calls build up an accelerating fanfare that propels us into a coda where the main theme is transformed into a jubilant fast march. A sudden majestic allargando finishes off by alluding to the movement’s introduction and modulating to C sharp major.

The second movement is written in ternary form. Opens with the cellos introducing a lyrical theme, punctuated by timpani and pizzicato basses. This gives rise to an extended paragraph of flowing polyphony, renewed mid-way by the reappearance of the main theme on the brass with trumpet counterpoint. The middle section begins with violin and flute solos against low bass sonorities and continuing on strings only, brings round a development of the original polyphonic complex, beginning on solo horn. The pace increases and the ardour takes on a sense of pain and effort, but calm is soon restored, and then the third section begins with a musing clarinet solo. Here the main theme is less obviously present except by allusion, until after a dramatic accelerando it reappears in the bass instruments to form a peaceful slow coda.

The third movement is constructed as an unusual rondo (A-B-C-A'-Coda). Begins with a fast figure on the timpani. The main theme is rhythmic and lively, followed by a lyrical second theme on the strings. The episode develops its own material as it proceeds, taking on the character of a kind of slow waltz, with an expressive violin solo. Trumpet fanfares bring back the Allegro tempo, with vigorous and fiery development in compound time before the main theme briefly makes its reappearance on trombones. Restoration of the 6/4 metre now brings back the theme in an intervening moderate tempo, with further gentler development in strings and woodwind, before a fast coda begins over a variant of the opening timpani figure and rapidly rises to a triumphant climax.

Source: [ Ссылка ]

Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.

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