I write this a few days before the Gothic’s Proms premiere, its first complete performance in the UK for 31 years. So this year’s 21st anniversary reissue of Ondrej Lenárd’s pioneering Marco Polo recording, on Naxos (with the rebranded Slovak – not Czechoslovak – RSO, I notice) in a limited edition, is most timely. Michael Oliver was lyrical in his original review of both work and performance, which overcame his previous misgivings about the music and its creator. Lenárd’s account still sounds well in Günter Appenheimer’s expert recording, though since then it has been challenged by Testament’s archival release of Boult’s 1966 professional premiere. I outlined the pros and cons of both in my review of the latter last year so won’t repeat myself; suffice it to say, though, that both recordings serve Brian’s vision superbly, and both grace my shelves.

No alternative versions have yet been released of Symphonies Nos 20 and 25 or the early Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme. The last-named, along with Festal Dance (coupled with Symphonies Nos 17 and 32), is all that remains of Brian’s original First Symphony, a (probably) never fully realised spoof symphonic treatment of “Three Blind Mice” which is worked up into a delightfully Straussian yet rather off-beam quasi-symphonic poem. Tovey thought highly enough of it to include it in his Essays in Musical Analysis, and Michael Oliver once again gave a warm welcome to the original issue on Marco Polo, justifiably in my view, as the disc juxtaposes three works from different periods in Brian’s career: early for the Fantastic Variations, (late-)middle for No 20 – one of the more expansive of Brian’s later symphonies with its wonderful slow middle movement – and (early-)late for No 25. Penny produced fine accounts with the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra, for whom the idiom was quite alien. Occasionally that shows in the playing but it is no more of an issue than for a British orchestra performing, say, Kalinnikov. The sound is still of high quality and the restoration of these recordings, especially at super-budget price, will be immensely welcome to the Brian Society as well as to those coming anew to this famously incalculable composer.