If the verdict is still uncertain in the case of Havergal Brian this collection provides strong evidence for both defence and prosecution. Of the three big contrapuntal works here the two Preludes and Fugues are very fine, both of them proceeding from plain, even austere musings on Bach via queerly but grippingly unpredictable developments to conclusions of craggy grandeur. All three were apparently written as limbering-up exercises before starting work on the vast Gothic Symphony and they share a good deal of its quality. But the Double Fugue, described by Harold Truscott as “a resplendent achievement”, is both closest to the Gothic in the weird boldness of its changes of direction and, for anyone with a remaining reservation or two about Brian, rather worrying juxtapositions of almost visionary clarity with what, with the best will in the world, I can only describe as exercises in wilful ambiguity that at times seem mere aimless wandering.
Two of the Blake songs here were submitted to a publisher who made the fatuous suggestion that their accompaniments alone be published as piano solos. Incredibly, Brian agreed. Here they are recorded both as songs and as two of the Four Miniatures; as you would expect the latter sound incomplete, even baffling (indeed, with hindsight, like songs with the voice part missing). As songs they are worth knowing, and they are decently sung. But the best of them, unconnected to the others, is the tonally rootless “The Defiled Sanctuary”, with its bold and striking gestures.
For some, the Three Illuminations will sum up the Brian Problem. They are piano miniatures, quirkily titled and full of imaginative ideas and sardonic humour. Each is annotated with a descriptive text and a narration printed above the music. Here they are performed both ‘straight’, emerging as whimsical bagatelles of some charm, and with both introduction and narration. These latter are so embarrassingly unfunny that it is hard to listen to them with patience even for the eight minutes they take to perform. A composer deficient in critical sense? A composer some of whose oddities might be due to a defective sense of humour? Oh dear. As one who greatly admires those of Brian’s symphonies that I know, I rather wish I hadn’t heard the Illuminations, grateful though I am to have encountered the two noble Preludes and Fugues. Formidable performances (even of the Double Fugue, which ideally needs at least three hands), and well recorded.'