B. W. Grant Barnes, a knowledgeable observer and generous supporter of the Los Angeles arts scene, has written an in-depth report, for Norman Lebrecht's blog, of a recent West Coast performance of Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 27. It was not only the American premiere of the work but its first outing since the 1979 world premiere. The responsible party was the Orange County High School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, a much-lauded group with a remarkable range of repertory: a recording on the MMC label has them playing works of Magnus Lindberg, Brett Dean, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Éric Tanguy, and Steven Stucky. Christopher Russell, OCHSA's longtime conductor, has made a specialty of neglected twentieth-century symphonists — Brian, Rued Langgaard, and Robert Simpson, among others. Oddly, just before coming across Grant's report I'd been researching American performances of Simpson's eleven symphonies, and one of very few mentions I'd found in news archives was an OCHSA rendition of the Seventh in 1999. (Another was a performance of the Third by the Oklahoma City Symphony in 1974.) I have admired Simpson's music since hosting a show called "The Twentieth-Century Symphony" on WHRB-FM in the late eighties; in fact, I made my debut as a music critic reviewing Hyperion's CD of the Sixth and Seventh for the WHRB Program Guide. I will have a bit more to say about Simpson in The New Yorker soon, in advance of the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble's performances of the Horn Quartet at two concerts next month — as far as I know, the first nod to Simpson in New York in more than two decades. Despite various attempts over the years, I have yet to acquire a strong taste for Havergal Brian, but there is still time before night falls.
