Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Singers conducted by Lionel Friend. For a list of singers: tinyurl.com/27vx2u94
I - Prologue: Scene I. Hampstead Heath. "Don't you think it's very hot?" (0:00) - "Anything serious, Henry?" (4:26) - "War! War! War!" (7:02) - Allegro moderato: Symphonic variations on "Has anybody here seen Kelly?" (7:50) - "Make way! Make way!" (10:18) - "Silence for the town crier!" (12:10) - "Very comical! Eh?" (13:40) - Scene II. Wild horsemen (19:12) - "Time! Time! 'op it, 'op it, 'op it, 'op it!" (28:25) - "Do you love me?" (29:53)
II - Act I: Scene I. "Stop! Stop! Stop! What is the matter?" (36:19) - Scene II. "Who are they?" (40:00) - "Halt! Right turn! Left turn! 'Shun!" (42:39)
III - Act II: Scene I. Midnight. Allegro misterioso (49:22) - "Sir John! Sir John! Shall I remember thee in the day of battles" (54:57) - "Sir John! Sir John! Look upon me and know me" (55:49) - "Sir John! Sir John! Lie easy on thy bed" (57:33) - "Sir John! Sir John! (1:00:08) - Scene II. Military Parade Ground (1:04:22) - "Sorry I'm late boys" (1:06:45) - Scene III. Andante pastorale (1:10:00) - "I think we shall get a much better view" (1:12:30) - "My dear Lord Bishop, how are you today?" (1:18:50) - "Charge! Charge! Charge!" (1:22:04) - Scene IV. Promenade and Dance: Green Pastures (1:26:22) - "What in the name of Adam and Eve?" (1:34:08) - "La la la la la, etc" (1:35:17) - Scene V. "My lads, I am sorry to say you have done badly" (1:37:31) - "Sergeant Major, who are these men under arrest?" (1:39:54) - "My lads, My lads" (1:41:04)
IV - Act III: Entr'acte. Ballets I & II - Ballet I. Gargoyles (1:43:39) - Ballet II. Lacryma (1:53:21) - Scene I. "What did you say?" (2:03:37) - "You are going to be very busy" (2:06:17) - Scene II. Adagio (2:09:19) - "La la la la, etc... Throw them out!" (2:11:14) - "Will you be good enough to direct me to Mont Duresco?" (2:13:18) - "Yonder shine the lights of Mont Duresco" (2:24:44) - Scene III. "Halt! Who goes there?": Shadow Dance (2:28:53) - Scene IV. "Call out the guard!... Fire! Fire" (2:33:34) - "I don't understand this" (2:37:42) - "This is the worst of all the nightmares" (2:39:55) - "Dear Pamela... Dear Sir John" (2:40:46)
Brian's "The Tigers" (originally titled as "The Grotesques") was composed between February 1917 and March 1919, but then left aside unorchestrated to work on the tremendous Gothic Symphony. In the meantime, Brian extracted extracted several orchestral fragments between 1921-2. After "The Gothic" was completed in 1927, Brian returned to the opera and finished it on 1929. A vocal reduction with piano substituting the orchestra was published by Cranz & Co. on 1932. However, the full score was lost and wasn't rediscovered until 1977 (by then five years after the composer's death), following publicity and offer of reward by the Havergal Brian Society. It was "premiered" between January 3-8 of 1983 when it was recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studios, then broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 on May 3 of 1983.
From the very beginning of his career Brian ambitioned writing an opera, but the several libretti he was presented with didn't satisfy him. When the war broke out in 1914, Brian volunteered in August and joined the first battalion of The Honourable Artillery Company. Before it was posted to France, Brian was moved to the second battalion, a unit of the Home Guard. There the composer was dismayed by the lack of grip and patriotism of the unit, claiming that the soldier seemed more prepared for a picnic than a war. While going home in a train on leave for Christmas Eve, the composer was shocked by the sight of four maimed soldiers returning from France, who had lost their limbs due to friendly fire from the British artillery.
In a letter to his friend Granville Bantock, Brian wrote the following: "It is all very well to sing anthems and shout patriotic incantations, but who is going to care for all this mass of maimed humanity when the thing is over?" On May 4 of 1915, the composer was discharged from service as unfit due to flat feet. Afterwards he worked in the London Pay & Record Office of the Canadian contingent listing the last effects of men fell in combat, a cold insight of the ongoing carnage in the western front. By 1916, he was working in a Vickers munition factory, when conductor Sir Thomas Beecham again brought up the idea of an opera to the composer. Inspired by his experiences in the Home Guard, Brian wrote his own libretto that can be described as a "satirico-farcical comedy of manners with dark, dreamlike undertones".
[Text continued in the comments section]
Picture: "The Potsdam Variety Troupe" (1917) Satirical cartoon by Punch's Almanack ridiculing the main leaders of the Central Powers and Greece.
Source: Recording's booklet (sadly not available online).
To check the score (piano and voices only): tinyurl.com/2y9vcnu9
BBC Symphony Orchestra & BBC Singers conducted by Lionel Friend. For a list of singers: tinyurl.com/27vx2u94
I - Prologue: Scene I. Hampstead Heath. "Don't you think it's very hot?" (0:00) - "Anything serious, Henry?" (4:26) - "War! War! War!" (7:02) - Allegro moderato: Symphonic variations on "Has anybody here seen Kelly?" (7:50) - "Make way! Make way!" (10:18) - "Silence for the town crier!" (12:10) - "Very comical! Eh?" (13:40) - Scene II. Wild horsemen (19:12) - "Time! Time! 'op it, 'op it, 'op it, 'op it!" (28:25) - "Do you love me?" (29:53)
II - Act I: Scene I. "Stop! Stop! Stop! What is the matter?" (36:19) - Scene II. "Who are they?" (40:00) - "Halt! Right turn! Left turn! 'Shun!" (42:39)
III - Act II: Scene I. Midnight. Allegro misterioso (49:22) - "Sir John! Sir John! Shall I remember thee in the day of battles" (54:57) - "Sir John! Sir John! Look upon me and know me" (55:49) - "Sir John! Sir John! Lie easy on thy bed" (57:33) - "Sir John! Sir John! (1:00:08) - Scene II. Military Parade Ground (1:04:22) - "Sorry I'm late boys" (1:06:45) - Scene III. Andante pastorale (1:10:00) - "I think we shall get a much better view" (1:12:30) - "My dear Lord Bishop, how are you today?" (1:18:50) - "Charge! Charge! Charge!" (1:22:04) - Scene IV. Promenade and Dance: Green Pastures (1:26:22) - "What in the name of Adam and Eve?" (1:34:08) - "La la la la la, etc" (1:35:17) - Scene V. "My lads, I am sorry to say you have done badly" (1:37:31) - "Sergeant Major, who are these men under arrest?" (1:39:54) - "My lads, My lads" (1:41:04)
IV - Act III: Entr'acte. Ballets I & II - Ballet I. Gargoyles (1:43:39) - Ballet II. Lacryma (1:53:21) - Scene I. "What did you say?" (2:03:37) - "You are going to be very busy" (2:06:17) - Scene II. Adagio (2:09:19) - "La la la la, etc... Throw them out!" (2:11:14) - "Will you be good enough to direct me to Mont Duresco?" (2:13:18) - "Yonder shine the lights of Mont Duresco" (2:24:44) - Scene III. "Halt! Who goes there?": Shadow Dance (2:28:53) - Scene IV. "Call out the guard!... Fire! Fire" (2:33:34) - "I don't understand this" (2:37:42) - "This is the worst of all the nightmares" (2:39:55) - "Dear Pamela... Dear Sir John" (2:40:46)
Brian's "The Tigers" (originally titled as "The Grotesques") was composed between February 1917 and March 1919, but then left aside unorchestrated to work on the tremendous Gothic Symphony. In the meantime, Brian extracted extracted several orchestral fragments between 1921-2. After "The Gothic" was completed in 1927, Brian returned to the opera and finished it on 1929. A vocal reduction with piano substituting the orchestra was published by Cranz & Co. on 1932. However, the full score was lost and wasn't rediscovered until 1977 (by then five years after the composer's death), following publicity and offer of reward by the Havergal Brian Society. It was "premiered" between January 3-8 of 1983 when it was recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studios, then broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 on May 3 of 1983.
From the very beginning of his career Brian ambitioned writing an opera, but the several libretti he was presented with didn't satisfy him. When the war broke out in 1914, Brian volunteered in August and joined the first battalion of The Honourable Artillery Company. Before it was posted to France, Brian was moved to the second battalion, a unit of the Home Guard. There the composer was dismayed by the lack of grip and patriotism of the unit, claiming that the soldier seemed more prepared for a picnic than a war. While going home in a train on leave for Christmas Eve, the composer was shocked by the sight of four maimed soldiers returning from France, who had lost their limbs due to friendly fire from the British artillery.
In a letter to his friend Granville Bantock, Brian wrote the following: "It is all very well to sing anthems and shout patriotic incantations, but who is going to care for all this mass of maimed humanity when the thing is over?" On May 4 of 1915, the composer was discharged from service as unfit due to flat feet. Afterwards he worked in the London Pay & Record Office of the Canadian contingent listing the last effects of men fell in combat, a cold insight of the ongoing carnage in the western front. By 1916, he was working in a Vickers munition factory, when conductor Sir Thomas Beecham again brought up the idea of an opera to the composer. Inspired by his experiences in the Home Guard, Brian wrote his own libretto that can be described as a "satirico-farcical comedy of manners with dark, dreamlike undertones".
[Text continued in the comments section]
Picture: "The Potsdam Variety Troupe" (1917) Satirical cartoon by Punch's Almanack ridiculing the main leaders of the Central Powers and Greece.
Source: Recording's booklet (sadly not available online).
To check the score (piano and voices only): tinyurl.com/2y9vcnu9
