There's a fairly obscure British composer named Havergal Brian (1876-1972), whose first symphony is famous for its ambition. Two hours long, it requires a huge (almost double) symphony orchestra, two adult choirs, a children's choir and four choir soloists. Because of its infamy I happened to have a copy of this symphony. It has been performed only a handful of times, and to my knowledge recorded only twice.
Recently, there was a discussion of Brian's other works on the classical music board I monitor. I realized I knew nothing about his other works.
Turns out he was prolific: 32 symphonies, numerous symphonic suites, concertos, sonatas, operas, yadda yadda yadda. There were ZERO releases on the Ukrainian site I like to use, and everything on Apple iTunes was $10 per album. I decided I needed to sample, to see what's worth having.
Went to YouTube, which increasingly has everything you could look for. First thing that popped up was a channel entitled The Complete Works of Havergal Brian. Free for the download.
So what could I do, I had to download all sixty pieces. 21 hours and 1 minute. Burned to 4 CD-Rs in the MP3 format, each one 5 hours long.
Will I ever listen to the whole thing? Probably not. But I have it.
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