Born in Staffordshire, Havergal Brian played the violin and cello and by the age of twelve was in demand as a church organist. His composition skills were largely self-taught, but he wrote no less than 33 symphonies, the first of which is now lost. The martial vigour of his early overture For Valour contrasts with the imaginative comedy of Doctor Merryheart, a send-up of Straussian programme music. Brian’s capricious side is again displayed in two of his symphonies, especially the pompous No. 15 – yet No. 11’s opening Adagio is among his most profoundly expressive utterances.