Holst's The Planets on Decca
- Thread starter karma67
- Start date
Well, I disagree. I think its a great piece, quite original, and exceptionally well orchestrated. It deserves its popularity. Probably "Venus" and "Uranus" are my favourites.
alanbeeb
pfm Member
Totally agree.... it is one of the best examples of a classical work which is not only a crowd-pleaser with melodies well known outside classical cognosceti - but also is a masterpiece of orchestration and melodic invention - in other words: its a stonker.
The big question for me about it - why are none of Holst's other works in the same league? He did compose a few other quite-good things but nothing that comes remotely close to matching it.
Barrymagrec
pfm Member
Holst had limited time to compose - he had to earn his living mainly by other means so his body of work is quite small. Some of his other works are by no means negligble though, the Beni Mora suite for instance, I find sublime.
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The Planets is a masterpiece, without doubt, and the most exciting thing I ever played as an amateur timpanist, even if I was only second timp so didn’t get the wonderful solo in Uranus... but despite its great success Holst very much regretted the extent to which it overshadowed everything he wrote subsequently.
I think The Hymn of Jesus, from a couple of years later, might be an even greater work (I had the bass drum in that...). The suite from The Perfect Fool is great if you just want to explore from the starting point of The Planets.
Oh, and on a smaller scale, the Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda are lovely things... can you tell that I like Holst?
I think The Hymn of Jesus, from a couple of years later, might be an even greater work (I had the bass drum in that...). The suite from The Perfect Fool is great if you just want to explore from the starting point of The Planets.
Oh, and on a smaller scale, the Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda are lovely things... can you tell that I like Holst?
Barrymagrec
pfm Member
I think I will have a Holst evening - various pieces from this set perhaps :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007QEHQY6/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Seems too cheap to pass up - just ordered!
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Given your moniker, it would seem to be indispensable
It has the Hymn of Jesus... and (if I have read the listing correctly) Imogen Holst - with her hair in a spinsterly bun, and round spectacles - conducting the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, no less, in the Suites for Wind Band. Priceless!
It has the Hymn of Jesus... and (if I have read the listing correctly) Imogen Holst - with her hair in a spinsterly bun, and round spectacles - conducting the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, no less, in the Suites for Wind Band. Priceless!
Barrymagrec
pfm Member
This was mentioned in the old thread above #8. He posted on that thread, very nice chap, extremely knowledgeable.
Nic Robinson
Moderator
I sort of get what you're saying, but I do think it's a masterpiece. I just find it disappointing that for so many it's the limit of their classical exploration.
david ellwood
Kirabosi Kognoscente
I have the phase4 Decca Hermann LPO and haven’t heard better.
George J
Herefordshire member
I have been listening to the Decca recording on mono LP ACL 26 in the last few weeks, where Sargent leads a quite brilliant performance with the LSO. The trouble is that the music defeats the possibilities of the LP medium and there is distortion and mis-tracking in the loudest parts and quite a few of the balances swamp the quieter instruments. But it is a performance with the real spirit of the music ... variously characterised.
What to do?
Sargeant remade the Planets for EMI in stereo in 1957. This was released on CD [Music for Pleasure] in the 1990s, and wow! The performance is much as a few years earlier for Decca, but everything is well balanced and peaks do not distort ...
This is the only recorded performance that I have ever liked right through!
So a very basic part of the British repertoire now finds a place in my recorded music collection at last after decades of living in hope.
As a bonus the CD also contains two equally adept performances of Beni Mora [suite] and the Perfect Fool ballet music!
Best wishes from George
PS: This venerable Planets recording has one of the widest dynamic ranges of any recording I have ever come across. It must have been a proper mare to master for LP! And so I have had to play it a couple of times to find the appropriate level so it does not over-whelm on the loudest parts, which for all that are not distorted, hard sounding, or muddled. Quite an achievement. One has to accept that the quiet parts really are atmospheric in nature. All there but very quiet, just like a real concert.
What to do?
Sargeant remade the Planets for EMI in stereo in 1957. This was released on CD [Music for Pleasure] in the 1990s, and wow! The performance is much as a few years earlier for Decca, but everything is well balanced and peaks do not distort ...
This is the only recorded performance that I have ever liked right through!
So a very basic part of the British repertoire now finds a place in my recorded music collection at last after decades of living in hope.
As a bonus the CD also contains two equally adept performances of Beni Mora [suite] and the Perfect Fool ballet music!
Best wishes from George
PS: This venerable Planets recording has one of the widest dynamic ranges of any recording I have ever come across. It must have been a proper mare to master for LP! And so I have had to play it a couple of times to find the appropriate level so it does not over-whelm on the loudest parts, which for all that are not distorted, hard sounding, or muddled. Quite an achievement. One has to accept that the quiet parts really are atmospheric in nature. All there but very quiet, just like a real concert.
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