In his final years, the work of his Havergal Brian most wanted to hear was his fourth opera, Faust. His wish was never granted, and even after his death only a few extracts were performed – the Prologue in Heaven by the BBC in the late 1970s, and the orchestral Night Ride of Faust and Mephistopheles (Toccata Classics, 2/12). Not until August 2019 was the whole score performed, when Brian’s latest champion, Martyn Brabbins, finally set it down with the wonderful English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus in Abbey Road Studio 1. (The wind machine and organ parts were added separately and, I have to say, seamlessly in April 2021.) Dare one hope that, now that Brabbins is permanently at the helm at ENO, a stage premiere of this remarkable work can be programmed?

And Faust (composed in 1955 56, between Symphonies Nos 11 and 12) needs to be seen as much as heard. It may share the symphonies’ soaring lyricism – as in Faust’s aria in Act 2 scene 2 – and ever-tightening concision of thought (most composers would have made a lot more of the drinking song opening Valentin’s Act 3 scene 1 solo), but Faust is no meta-symphony with voices grafted on as an afterthought. Brian’s libretto is a masterly reduction of Part 1 only of Goethe’s drama (with no added text), focusing on the interactions between Faust, Mephistopheles and Gretchen, concluding with Gretchen’s execution and redemption. Crucially, however, Brian included, uncut, the Prologue with the initial wager between God and Mephistopheles as to whether Faust could be corrupted (like a mash-up of the book of Job and Trading Places). Only Mephistopheles – sung with devilish charm by David Soar – features throughout, while Gretchen does not appear until Act 2. Peter Hoare dominates as the conflicted Faust, however, especially in his scenes with Gretchen, Allison Cook charting convincingly the descent from seduced ingénue to matricide and infanticide. There’s a winning turn from Katie Coventry as the Student in Act 1 scene 2, but all the cast are strong. I liked Simon Bailey’s ironic doubling of God in the Prologue and Evil Spirit subsequently.

Brian’s dramatic pacing works surprisingly well for a composer who never heard or saw any of his operas in the theatre. Detractors will no doubt point to the thickness of the scoring but in Brabbins’s expert hands the textures are laid out with remarkable clarity, the voices never overwhelmed. But after clear-cut and decisive closes to the Prologue and the first three acts, the rather abrupt, almost throwaway
close, as the heavenly voice confirms Gretchen’s redemption and the defeat of Mephistopheles, is puzzling. (So far as I know, Brian did not contemplate setting Part 2.) Brianophiles need not hesitate, of course, but with such a splendidly realised performance, lovers of British opera will hopefully be won over to a unique and – The Tigers (4/15) aside – hitherto unheard operatic voice.