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last updated 14 January 2010
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Dennis Brain (1921-1957)
Dennis Brain was third generation horn player in his family. In fact his niece Tina has ensured there is a fourth generation Brain playing the French horn. After studying with his father at the Royal Academy of Music Dennis joined his older brother Leonard in the Royal Air Force Central band, based in Uxbridge, west of London. From here they could travel by Underground train to Holborn where Sidney Beer had created the National Symphony Orchestra to give concerts in the Kingsway Hall. Beer's orchestra composed of young musicians serving in military bands around London produced a remarkable sound, quite different to pre-war orchestras, in fact it was a foretaste of the orchestral sound that was to emerge in London after the war. The RAF Central band and the RAF Orchestra , also based at Uxbridge, had the benefit of Dennis playing for them. Like most young men Dennis was not adverse to experimenting and was keen to use his skills to play jazz as well as the latest contemporary music. The creation of two new post war orchestras in London, Walter Legge's Philharmonia and Sir Thomas Beccham's Royal Philharmonic resulted in them sharing Dennis Brain in the principal horn post. However Dennis' engagements eventually became to great and he resigned his post with the RPO in 1953. Dennis' other loves were his wife Yvonne who he married in 1945, playing the organ, he was a fine organist, and cars, especially fast cars. A motoring magazine was invariably to be found close to if not on his music stand. It was driving his Triumph sports car from Edinburgh to London which would rob the world of a great artist.
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1PD35 The World of Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain (1921-1957) plays in:
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Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 5 - II Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza [Listen]
Dennis Brain (horn), National Symphony Orchestra conductor Sidney Beer
The second movement of the 5th Symphony is classic Tchaikovsky with colourful orchestration and a memorable main theme introduced by a solo horn. Next the oboe (Leon Goossens) is heard and a new melody enters and builds up to a powerful climax but the movement's orchestral tones descend until the clarinets (Reginald Kell and Bernard Walton) are left alone to close close the movement. In this war time performance Dennis Brain is playing with the National Symphony Orchestra in Decca's first full frequency range recording, although still using noisy 78 rpm discs as the carrier for the new sound.
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Mozart - Cosi fan Tutte - Per pieta ben mio [Listen]
Joan Cross (soprano), Dennis Brain (horn), Philharmonia Orchestra conductor Lawrance Collingwood
Dennis Brain displays grace and delicacy in accompanying soprano Joan Cross (1900 - 1993) in Fiordiligi's aria 'Per pieta' in Act II of Cosi Fan Tutte. Joan Cross had been a successful leading soprano at London's Saddlers Wells Theatre, a company she had directed during the war years. The last ten years of her singing career she was associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten starting with "Peter Grimes" in 1945.
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Beethoven - Horn Sonata in F major Op.17[Listen]
Dennis Brain (horn) Dennis Matthews (piano)
Beethoven wrote this sonata in 1800 for Giovanni Punto (1746-1803) a virtuoso horn player who had moved to Vienna that year after resigning from a conducting post in Paris. The performance on this disc is the sound track from a film made by Ken Cameron (available on Yesterday's Britain DVDClassical Music in the Forties) as a pilot for the "We Make Music" films that were to feature most of the instruments of the orchestra demonstrated by leading exponents.
This film can also be downloaded as an MP4 file for only GBP1.95
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Edward Williams - Open House [Listen]
Natalie James (oboe), Bernard Walton (clarinet), Dennis Brain (horn), Cecil James (bassoon)
Edward Williams used a wind quartet for the British Transport Films short "Open House" which toured stately homes that could be reached from London by Green Line Coach. For this compact disc I have edited the original music session takes into a continuous piece. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II Edward Williams joined Denham Studios music department and from 1948 wrote many scores for British documentary films. In more recent times Williams has been associated with the BBC Natural History unit , most notably the Life on Earth series.
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Dukas - Villanelle[Listen]
Dennis Brain (horn), Gerald Moore (piano)
Dukas wrote much music but being a perfectionist destroyed most of it. The Villanelle is one of the few works that survived. It is a portrait of a country girl. The music cleverly woven out of a simple theme.
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Benjamin Britten - Serenade for tenor, horn and strings [Listen]
Peter Pears (tenor), Dennis Brain (horn), strings of the New Symphony Orchestra of London, conductor Sir Eugene Goossens
Six vocal nocturnes are framed by two gentle and beguiling horn solos. The six nocturnes are Pastoral (Cotton), Nocturne (Tennyson), Elegy (Blake), Dirge (Anon., 15th century), Hymn (Ben Jonson) and Sonnet (Keates). This performance is the second of two recorded by Dennis Brain for Decca. The other performance featured the composer and Peter Pears (1910-1986). On this occasion Britten was indisposed so Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) step in.
or phone Priory Records 01525 377566
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Extra Tracks
A sample of downloads selecled by a customer for delivery on CD | Beulah Extra is available on CD - select Beulah Extra download tracks and have them supplied on compact disc. The limit is 75 minutes of music per disc. Each disc costs GBP11.45 post free (standard mail/airmail worldwide, signed for or registered mail will be charged extra). Allow 14 days for delivery.
Watch our video that shows you how to compile your CD |
Below are tracks from our library that never made it onto one of our compact discs. They can be downloaded here as high quality 320kbs AAC encoded (MP3) files.
Purchasers of tracks have unlimted personal use but must not pass or sell on to third parties nor broadcast without prior permission from PPL
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- 1st movement
- 2nd movement
- 3rd movement
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