Over the course of his long life, the prolific British composer Havergal Brian wrote 32 symphonies, the last in 1968 at age 92, four years before his death in 1972. Just before completing that last symphony, perhaps as insurance in case he died before finishing it, Brian decided to compose a shorter work as kind of coda or capstone to his output.

He gave this short orchestral piece a Latin title, “Ave atque Vale” – “hail and farewell” in English, an allusion to an Elegy by the Roman poet Catullus. In a letter to Robert Simpson, a fellow composer and friend, Brian said he didn’t intend this work as any kind of confession or comment on his life or music, but a purely abstract “last word” from him as a composer.

“Ave atque Vale” received its premiere performance on today’s date in 1973, some six months after Brian’s death, as a studio recording by the London Philharmonic intended for a BBC broadcast that never materialized.

Despite his vast output, Brian’s music was seldom performed during his lifetime. He enjoyed some initial success in the early years of the 20th century, a revival of interest in the 1950s and 60s, but since then his late Romantic, restless and often melancholic music, a quirky blend of Elgar and Mahler, is heard most often via recordings sponsored by the Havergal Brian Society.