Editing Havergal Brian (section)

==Reception and legacy==
Brian's musical influence was limited by the fact that so little of his music was performed or recorded until after his death, by which time his stylistic idiom could be considered anachronistic. Nonetheless, he was held in high regard by composers such as [[Robert Simpson (composer)|Robert Simpson]] and some of his contemporaries, such as [[Granville Bantock]]. His music has generally been championed by a small number of enthusiasts rather than enjoying a more general popularity, and continues to divide opinion. To Mark Morris, writing in his ''Guide to Twentieth Century Composers'', in the ''Gothic Symphony'' Brian achieved "one of the world's artistic masterpieces, in vision, grandeur, and in the combination of complexity and luminosity worthy to stand alongside the great cathedrals of the age that inspired it... [it] is arguably, more than any other late-Romantic work, the climax of the Romantic age.".<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Mark|title=Guide to Twentieth Century Composers|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/Mark_Morris/UK.htm#brian|access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref> Writing in ''[[The Spectator]]'' in 2016, [[Damian Thompson]] claimed that if Brian's 30th symphony were premiered today as the work of a 25-year-old composer, it "might even be hailed as the triumphant reinvention of tonality".<ref>{{cite news|last=Thompson|first=Damian|title=Unsung Hero|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/unsung-hero-12-may-2016|work=The Spectator |access-date=8 January 2011 |date=12 May 2016}}</ref>

Others have been more critical, however. Reviewing the 2011 performance of the ''Gothic Symphony'' at the [[BBC Proms]] David Nice of ''The Arts Desk'' described the work as a "terrible, inchoate mess" and "Big, long, and very short on great ideas";<ref>{{cite web|last=Nice|first=David|title=BBC Proms: Havergal Brian's 'Gothic' Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBCNOW, Brabbins|date=17 July 2011|url=https://theartsdesk.com/classical-music/bbc-proms-havergal-brians-gothic-symphony-bbc-concert-orchestra-bbcnow-brabbins|access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref> writing in ''The Guardian'', Andrew Clements described it as featuring "moments of striking originality, particularly the sparer, more spectral ideas, but much more is either entirely unmemorable or simply grotesquely odd, and often hopelessly over-scored. Ideas come and go; for a work that lasts nearly two hours, the music is surprisingly short-winded."<ref>{{cite web|last=Clements|first=Andrew|title=Prom 4: Gothic Symphony Review|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jul/18/prom-4-gothic-symphony-review|work=The Spectator |access-date=8 January 2011 |date=18 July 2011}}</ref>

In 2022 Brian's ''Legend'' for violin and piano was featured in the BBC Proms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proms at Bristol: Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0019knq |access-date=31 July 2022}}</ref>