Help wanted re Dennis Brain

Dear Mr. Mullenger,

I am gathering research for a new biography of Dennis Brain (1921-1957) and part of this project - a large part - is the cataloguing and discovery of additional recordings (unofficial private recordings, official private recordings, radio broadcasts). I have found reference to two single-sided acetate discs of Alan Bush's Trent's Broad Reaches and Autumn Poem with Dennis Brain accompanied by the composer. The recordings date from about January 1955. I have contacted the Alan Bush Trust but their archivist cannot find these discs. It is likely they were produced for the composer's private collection and most probably they are the first performances on 28 January 1955.

I am interested in tracking down recordings made at Aldeburgh in 1955. I have the Britten Canticle III from that Festival, 22 June 1955 and a possible 1955 Aldeburgh recording of Dennis Brain in Haydn Horn Concerto No.2 (the conductor and orchestra can't be identified) and wonder of the Searle Aubade premiere might also have been recorded. The most likely source for such a recording would be the composer. Do you know of the existence of a recording with Dennis Brain?

I am co-writing the book with an American amateur hornplayer. Any help you can give would be most welcome. I have a vast archive of recordings of Dennis Brain (and also some of Aubrey Brain his father, and Alfred Brain his uncle), many of them out of print or unofficial.

Yours sincerely, Stephen Gamble

Have you tried the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound?