Dennis Brain: A Life in Music

Preface

vii At the age of thirteen I was lucky enough to meet and have a number of lessons from Dennis Brain (my parents lived quite close to where he and his wife lived in London). At that age I was quite simply in awe of his technique, being unaware of the subtleties that make the difference between great and inspirational performers. As a young person, slow music was more boring than fast music, and also I assumed that all horn players played as he did! It was only later in life, having listened to many performers, that I came to realize that he had a unique talent for expressing and enhancing the underlying possibilities of a phrase, whether it be in a concerto or just two or three solo notes in a complex orchestral composition. Although Mozart made a well-known exception to this, most music consists of black symbols on a white page, and it is the performer’s task to add aural shading, color, and nuance to the composer’s instructions. The player can also, subtly, alter the dynamics of a phrase, its articulation, and the way in which it is projected. A single note can be played accurately but in an ungainly style or transformed into a surprisingly beautiful sound from its beginning to its end, and the same is true of a phrase or a complete composition . One only has to listen to different people reading the same text passage aloud to appreciate the variety of interpretations that can be achieved in the performance of music. Most of us are likely to be able to recognize speech that holds our attention and gives us the anticipatory delight to hear more. In music, it should be just the same, but in many instances we get only a technically excellent performance of the notes on the page. Without exception, Dennis Brain gave us the former, always playing with exceptional sensitivity, linking phrases together so that the whole sentence or movement flowed as a cohesive statement whilst, at the same time, producing little subtleties of inflection, rubato, and tone color that never cease to amaze and delight the experienced listener. As with all the arts, fashions come and go, the more successful returning time and time again. In Dennis’s case, some might say that his sound is Preface viii Dennis Brain: A Life in Music too lightweight compared with most of today’s players with their larger bore instruments but, as with all “progress,” there is a downside. At strong volumes, the modern horns can have a tendency to swamp or cloud over other instruments rather than blending with and adding extra color to the ensemble. At quieter dynamics, the old narrower bore instruments had a more focused sound, the character of which could be appreciated from the furthest seat in the concert hall. Dennis’s sound had these characteristics on his single B-flat horn and possibly even more so on his Raoux. Apart from his huge, natural technical skill, Dennis’s outstanding talent was the innate ability to charm, surprise, make one smile, and make one wish for more. Very much like the person himself. He surely ranks with the finest players on any instrument at any time. —James Diack, ARCM, Hon. ARAM October 2010 ...