Dennis Brain

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and you are listening to Desert Island Discs.

Speaker 10:05

This edition of Desert Island Discs was archived without the music, so although the Castaways' choices are introduced, they're not part of this recording.

Speaker 10:15

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

Speaker 10:21

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen fifty six.

Speaker 10:25

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:28

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:30

On our Desert Island this week is a celebrated instrumentalist. He's made many fine recordings, some of which have preceded him to this island, and I don't think many people will disagree if I say that he's the foremost French horn player in the world today.

Presenter0:43

Here is Dennis Brain.

Presenter0:45

Well first question, Dennis, how have you set about choosing this music for your desert island exile? What have been the basic principles you've worked on?

Dennis Brain0:53

I've chosen pieces of work that I'm not likely to have played.

Dennis Brain0:57

or could possibly have played

Presenter0:59

Yeah.

Dennis Brain0:59

Um pieces by uh

Dennis Brain1:02

pianists, violinists, singers, and, I regret perhaps, only one orchestral.

Presenter1:07

You think perhaps you can hear good performances in your head of the the whole familiar work that you've played

Dennis Brain1:12

I think so, Beethoven five and seven and those.

Presenter1:15

You must have played the Beethoven V a good many times.

Dennis Brain1:18

Yes, I have absolutely no idea. Do you collect records yourself? Yes, rather on those principles.

Presenter1:22

Mhm. That it it's the the artist, the the personality of the artist that count uh as much as the music.

Dennis Brain1:28

The artist and and the piece must be a good piece, of course.

Presenter1:31

Hmm. What's the first ring?

Dennis Brain1:32

Yeah.

Presenter1:32

Cool.

Dennis Brain1:33

The first is a recording by Heifitz.

Dennis Brain1:35

I greatly admire him. I've learned a lot from his records and many of the artists I'm going to put on.

Dennis Brain1:40

And it's called Guitar Muskowski.

Presenter1:45

Hifetz playing guitar.

Presenter1:48

And what's the second one?

Dennis Brain1:50

The second one

Dennis Brain1:51

He's uh the pianist.

Dennis Brain1:54

And of course there are so many magnificent pairings that they choose, it's very difficult, but I think even if there was rivalry between them, they would all plump for one.

Dennis Brain2:02

above others, and that is of course Rachmaninoff.

Dennis Brain2:06

Not a record of him playing his own music, but of a little piece by Liszt called The Dance of the Gnomes.

Presenter2:12

Yes. Is this as technically difficult as as much of Liszt's piano music is? I d I don't know that answer the nomes at all.

Dennis Brain2:18

It is extremely difficult, yes, but it is a very good piece as well. The only thing about it is of course it is rather an old recording.

Presenter2:26

Going back to the beginning of your career, Dennis, uh coming from a musical family as you do, with your your father the foremost horn player in the country of his day, was it a a foregone conclusion that you would be a musician?

Dennis Brain2:37

Yes, it seemed to be accepted in my family that, um

Dennis Brain2:41

At a suitable age I would just take up a horn, perhaps, and and become a horn player.

Presenter2:45

Yes. When did you begin your musical training?

Dennis Brain2:47

I started when I was about seven or eight. My mother was wise enough not to teach me the piano herself, but sent me to the local piano teacher who was very good. And when I was about fourteen

Dennis Brain2:57

My father thought, I suppose, that perhaps it's about time he did something with the instrument and very tactfully came up to me one day and said, um I found an old instrument, would you like just to see what you can do on it?

Presenter3:09

Yeah.

Dennis Brain3:09

And so I did and uh I've been going ever since.

Presenter3:12

Had you ever tried to play the horn before? Had you ever tried your father's instrument?

Dennis Brain3:16

Apparently he put it to my lips when I was three, and I I am supposed to have blown a perfect note, but I don't remember it. Then my brother does.

Presenter3:23

And when he gave it to you, you took to it immediately. Uh

Presenter3:27

Why let's have another record. What's number three?

Dennis Brain3:30

Third is Frank Sinatra, You Go to My Head, which is also one of my wife's favourites.

Presenter3:36

Your family favorite, Frank Sinatra singing You Go to My Head.

Presenter3:40

Well Dennis, at the age of fourteen you took up playing the French horn. What was your first professional engagement?

Dennis Brain3:45

My first engagement was

Dennis Brain3:47

When the Bush Chamber players came over to this country in nineteen thirty eight,

Dennis Brain3:51

to uh do their Bach series of Brandenburg concertos in the Queen's Hall, and they engaged my father naturally his first hole and asked him to get a second. Well, he decided to take the risk and engaged me.

Dennis Brain4:03

And I remember the concert well because it was after Sir Henry's Jubilee concert in the Albert Hall at which Rachmaninoff played his second piano concerto.

Presenter4:11

Yeah.

Presenter4:12

And after that what happened? Did you join a permanent orchestra?

Dennis Brain4:15

After that of course came the war. I joined the army

Presenter4:17

Play a central band. Yeah. Did that mean playing military band music all the time or did you sometimes get together with the string orchestra to play orchestral music?

Dennis Brain4:24

Our CO, Wing Commander O'Donnell, was able to get permission to retain at Uxbridge, which was the band's headquarters, about twenty or so string players.

Dennis Brain4:33

And with the certain members of the the military band, the wind players, he formed an orchestra which then

Dennis Brain4:40

gave concerts to the RES stations and so on in Britain.

Dennis Brain4:44

And even broadcast.

Presenter4:45

Yeah.

Presenter4:46

And you'll travel all over the British Isles.

Dennis Brain4:49

all over the British Isles and to America in in exchange

Dennis Brain4:52

with an uh an American Air Force band which came to England on a sort of war bonds drive.

Presenter4:57

Yeah.

Presenter4:58

Well since then as a soloist and with various orchestras you've travelled what? Pretty well all over the world, haven't you?

Dennis Brain5:03

Yes, including Europe, not Russia.

Presenter5:06

Yeah.

Dennis Brain5:06

Not

Presenter5:06

To

Dennis Brain5:06

Yeah.

Presenter5:06

Uh

Dennis Brain5:06

Last two.

Presenter5:07

Well there's a still to come, we hope.

Presenter5:09

Well after the Warwick

Dennis Brain5:11

After the war the Philharmonia Orchestra was formed, which I joined, and shortly after that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which I also joined. At the same time? Yes.

Dennis Brain5:22

And then of course the

Dennis Brain5:24

Work got m much too much in both orchestras and I had to choose between one or the other and I chose the Philharmonia.

Presenter5:31

Yes.

Dennis Brain5:32

I think uh for a reason that um

Dennis Brain5:36

I wouldn't like to say which is a better orchestra, but uh

Presenter5:39

Okay, of course not.

Dennis Brain5:40

The Philharmonia was inclined to interfere less, perhaps, in solo engagements, than the other.

Presenter5:46

Oh, what about another record?

Dennis Brain5:47

My next record, of course, is my orchestral record.

Presenter5:50

The Philharmonic?

Dennis Brain5:51

No, I'm afraid not. It's a New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dennis Brain5:55

In a work by Richard Strauss, or part of the work, A Hero's Life, The Battle Scene,

Dennis Brain6:00

Richard Strauss of course being perhaps the most colourful writer for the orchestra.

Dennis Brain6:06

And it's conducted by Mengelberg, to whom Richard Strauss dedicated the work.

Presenter6:14

Being a musical ignoromus, Dennis, I'd like to know something about this instrument, the the French horn. It has all those frightening coils, something I've always wondered, how long would it be if it was all straightened out?

Dennis Brain6:25

That's a question I do get asked, yeah. It would be anything from about six feet to sixteen or perhaps a little more.

Presenter6:27

It could

Dennis Brain6:31

or less according to the type of instrument.

Presenter6:33

Yeah.

Dennis Brain6:33

It was originally a hunting horn without any vowels, on which you could only play a certain series of notes, rather like the bugle.

Presenter6:40

Uh

Dennis Brain6:40

Uh Perhaps a few more. Then of course valves were added which gave you a complete chromatic range, and now of course we even get five or six valved instruments.

Presenter6:48

Yeah.

Presenter6:48

When you choose an instrument, um when you choose a French horn, do you choose as for example, when you choose a violin, you choose an old and mellow one, and when you choose a harp, as Sidoni Gussens told us some time back on this programme, a new one is best. Wh when you're choosing a French horn, what do you go for?

Dennis Brain7:04

One goes for th a compromise. One tries to get an instrument which is made out of mellow brass, rather than the sort of brass you associate with a saucepan.

Dennis Brain7:13

But on the other hand, one wants to get an instrument made.

Speaker 17:13

Um

Dennis Brain7:17

by modern techniques and with modern valves,'cause valves do wear.

Presenter7:21

Mm-hmm.

Presenter7:22

As a soloist, you've recorded a number of horn concertos by Mozart and Haydn and so on, and also a number of solo works. Is there a large repertoire for the French horn?

Dennis Brain7:32

The repertoire, fortunately, is rather small compared with that of the violin or the piano.

Dennis Brain7:36

There are four Mozart, two Haydn, two Strass concertos and one or two others.

Dennis Brain7:41

Works.

Dennis Brain7:42

And it's rather a sad thought that if I go on playing at a concert where I play with the violin and piano for the next thirty or forty years, assuming one goes on that time, I shall always have to play the same work, which is the Brahmshorn trio.

Presenter7:55

Almost as bad as the Beethoven Fifth.

Dennis Brain7:57

Yes, of course, but the Brahms is chamber music, which does bring me to my next record.

Dennis Brain8:02

Uh it's a little piece for four horns and harpsichord, pure chamber music, music of the size of combination to be performed in a chamber or small room, and it's called um horn belt boogie.

Dennis Brain8:14

Recorded by Mitch Miller.

Presenter8:17

Well that puts rather a new light on chamber music as usually defined.

Presenter8:21

Dennis, do you play that sort of music yourself?

Dennis Brain8:23

I have done. I used to play with Givaldo at the end of the war when he had horns in his orchestra and for the fun of it we did an arrangement of Where in the World and one or two other little things like that.

Dennis Brain8:34

Only thing is, of course, that uh the trombone is so much better at performing that sort of music than the horn.

Presenter8:39

Yeah.

Dennis Brain8:39

Except perhaps so much miller.

Presenter8:42

Are modern composers in in the more serious kind of music writing much for the horn nowadays?

Dennis Brain8:48

I think there are many continental and American composers, and of course in England there's Gordon Brown and Gordon Jacob who have written concertos and Humphrey Sill and Elizabeth Lutchens.

Dennis Brain8:57

and perhaps the biggest work to come along in the last twenty years

Dennis Brain9:01

is the serenade of Benjamin Britton written for tenor voice, horn and strings.

Dennis Brain9:07

And that of course brings me automatically to the next record, which is the only English record I'm putting on.

Dennis Brain9:14

English in every sense.

Dennis Brain9:16

It's an English folk song played by English artists. It's Sally Gardens.

Dennis Brain9:19

Arranged by Benjamin Britton, sung by Peter Peirce, accompanied by Benjamin Britton.

Presenter9:26

Well now comes the question that must be asked.

Presenter9:28

How well do you think you're equipped for a desert island existence, Dennis? Are you you a handyman?

Dennis Brain9:34

Well, I suppose I'm as handy as most people around the house, mending fuses, painting and cooking and so on.

Presenter9:41

Cooking, that's useful.

Dennis Brain9:43

The good cook?

Dennis Brain9:44

No, but uh providing I have flour and so on, I can make some pancakes.

Presenter9:48

Well, the flour's up to you. You'll have to uh cultivate whatever kind of wild corn there is on the island. Panc um eggs, I suppose, sea birds' eggs. Well, you should be all right for pancakes, at any rate.

Dennis Brain9:57

Okay.

Presenter9:58

What are your hobbies apart from uh

Presenter10:00

Mending fuses

Dennis Brain10:02

A motoring principally, but very good hobby to have because uh one travels quite a bit and it's usually quicker.

Dennis Brain10:09

and more practical than public transport.

Presenter10:12

You don't go in for it seriously, you're going to rallies and that's all.

Presenter10:16

Well, what about another record, number seven we've got tuna?

Dennis Brain10:19

Well this record had personal connections for me because at the end of the war I went to America with the Air Force when England was its its most austere.

Dennis Brain10:29

And of course i in the New York nightclubs

Dennis Brain10:32

All the top line American bands were playing and the combination of that and a good meal was too much for me. So I went along to hear Tommy Dorsey's band and during the evening they played.

Dennis Brain10:43

This record, with the same artists that are playing on the record except for Gene Cruper, it's called Well Get It and Ziggy Ellman and Carl Peterson really do try and succeed.

Dennis Brain10:54

Well, we won't have time to play at all, but as the best is yet to come, let's skip to the end.

Presenter11:01

Tommy Dorsey and his band, and they certainly got it.

Presenter11:05

I'll watch the last one, Dennis, number eight.

Dennis Brain11:07

The last one is in the nature of a lullaby, which I think one would need after the previous record. It's called A West Finnish Dance by the Finnish composer Palmgren.

Presenter11:12

Uh

Dennis Brain11:16

and played by a pianist whom I very greatly admire, Mazevich.

Dennis Brain11:22

I remember when I was about twenty, I was playing at a concert at which he was playing the Emperor Concerto, and uh I wanted his autograph.

Dennis Brain11:30

I went down and asked him for it and he said, Well, of course you know it'll be half a crown for the Musicians Benevolent Fund or some other charity. I said, Oh, that's all right.

Dennis Brain11:38

Paid him up the autograph. About two years after that, I know you didn't know me from Adam.

Dennis Brain11:43

I had to get another one for somebody.

Dennis Brain11:45

And I asked him again.

Dennis Brain11:47

And he looked me straight in the face with that impassive countenance and said

Dennis Brain11:51

Why, wasn't the other one any good?

Presenter11:54

Well after that let's hear Moisevich play the West Finnish dance.

Presenter12:00

There are your eight records. Now you've got one more choice to make. That's your luxury object. What one luxury would you like to take with you?

Dennis Brain12:07

I think I should plump for an inexhaustible supply of motor magazines.

Presenter12:11

Yes. I don't know about inexhaustible. We'll certainly give you a complete set of back numbers of two or three of the best. How'll that do?

Dennis Brain12:17

Print

Presenter12:17

Yeah. Well, as we usually say when people have chosen something to read, you can have something else. We'll give you another choice. What else would you like?

Dennis Brain12:24

Uh a typewriter.

Presenter12:26

Yeah.

Dennis Brain12:26

Because I'm not a very good correspondent. I don't like writing letters, and whenever I would wake up in the morning and see it

Dennis Brain12:33

I should be able to look straight at it without getting a guilty conscience.

Presenter12:37

You wouldn't use it to write a book? No.

Dennis Brain12:38

Why wouldn't you write a book?

Presenter12:39

Well, that's rather a change.

Presenter12:41

And you're not going to choose your friend Jorn to take with you.

Dennis Brain12:44

Well of course the not taking of the French form would also be a luxury object.

Presenter12:48

Well, many thanks, Dennis, Ben, for letting us hear your choice of desert it and disc. Goodbye, everyone.

Dennis Brain12:53

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