Holst Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Gustav Holst
Label: Teldec (Warner Classics)
Magazine Review Date: 12/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 64
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 4509-94541-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (The) Planets |
Gustav Holst, Composer
Andrew Davis, Conductor BBC Symphony Chorus (Women's Voices) BBC Symphony Orchestra Gustav Holst, Composer |
| Egdon Heath, 'Homage to Thomas Hardy' |
Gustav Holst, Composer
Andrew Davis, Conductor BBC Symphony Orchestra Gustav Holst, Composer |
Author: Andrew Achenbach
Teldec's welcome British Line series continues with this intelligent, at times mightily impressive account of The Planets. About Tony Faulkner's engineering there can be no reservations: it is spectacularly sumptuous and wide-ranging, with a superbly well-integrated organ contribution throughout (pedal-notes register with just the right degree of presence—sample some 2'58'' into ''Mars'' to get an idea of the recording's powerful bass extension). Moreover, the experienced James Mallinson sees to it that there are none of the slight but irritating production lapses that marred Vernon Handley's otherwise outstanding RPO version on Tring International.
The high spot of Andrew Davis's reading is undoubtedly ''Saturn'', whose remorseless tread has rarely in my experience seemed more implacable. Aided by orchestral playing that is both memorably concentrated and rapt, Holst's textures in the closing section acquire a breathtaking translucency, and how memorably the BBC SO brass thrust home the terrifying central climax at 5'34''. ''Neptune'', too, is exceptionally successful: ethereally delicate tremolando harps set the scene for a tone-picture of exquisite beauty, graced by choral work of notable purity from the women of the BBC Symphony Chorus—try from the Allegretto (3'30'') onwards (a passage so sweetly launched by Davis's admirable cello section).
Elsewhere, ''Mercury'' darts hither and thither in suitably impish fashion (lovely, chuckling staccato oboe and cor anglais at 1'16''), but the sheer menace and unbridled ferocity of ''Mars'' is not readily generated here those massed horns and brass in particular are crucially lacking the necessary cutting edge. ''Venus'' is cool and chaste: if the BBC violins can't (as yet) quite command the Orchestral reviews bloom and sheen of the very finest groups, the liquidity and poise of the woodwind are most striking. Greater ebullience would perhaps have not gone amiss in ''Jupiter'' (its big tune emerges just a trifle stolidly), yet the burst of energy at the close is genuinely exhilarating. The spectacularly ample sound certainly makes the mischievous antics of ''Uranus'' a feast for the ears, and Davis handles the coda superbly, plunging the listener into a world which is truly unnerving in its bleakness.
Davis shows comparable perception in the similarly remote terrain of Egdon Heath. Though Boult's 1961 Decca version hardly boasts the last word in orchestral refinement (double-bass intonation at the start is queasy in the extreme), it generates a pungent, uniquely earthy atmosphere, whereas Previn opts for a mistier, more impressionistic approach. Davis's new performance is perhaps slightly less characterful than either, but, with finely prepared orchestral playing, he succeeds in conveying much of the sombre intensity of Holst's cloud-hung evocation.'
The high spot of Andrew Davis's reading is undoubtedly ''Saturn'', whose remorseless tread has rarely in my experience seemed more implacable. Aided by orchestral playing that is both memorably concentrated and rapt, Holst's textures in the closing section acquire a breathtaking translucency, and how memorably the BBC SO brass thrust home the terrifying central climax at 5'34''. ''Neptune'', too, is exceptionally successful: ethereally delicate tremolando harps set the scene for a tone-picture of exquisite beauty, graced by choral work of notable purity from the women of the BBC Symphony Chorus—try from the Allegretto (3'30'') onwards (a passage so sweetly launched by Davis's admirable cello section).
Elsewhere, ''Mercury'' darts hither and thither in suitably impish fashion (lovely, chuckling staccato oboe and cor anglais at 1'16''), but the sheer menace and unbridled ferocity of ''Mars'' is not readily generated here those massed horns and brass in particular are crucially lacking the necessary cutting edge. ''Venus'' is cool and chaste: if the BBC violins can't (as yet) quite command the Orchestral reviews bloom and sheen of the very finest groups, the liquidity and poise of the woodwind are most striking. Greater ebullience would perhaps have not gone amiss in ''Jupiter'' (its big tune emerges just a trifle stolidly), yet the burst of energy at the close is genuinely exhilarating. The spectacularly ample sound certainly makes the mischievous antics of ''Uranus'' a feast for the ears, and Davis handles the coda superbly, plunging the listener into a world which is truly unnerving in its bleakness.
Davis shows comparable perception in the similarly remote terrain of Egdon Heath. Though Boult's 1961 Decca version hardly boasts the last word in orchestral refinement (double-bass intonation at the start is queasy in the extreme), it generates a pungent, uniquely earthy atmosphere, whereas Previn opts for a mistier, more impressionistic approach. Davis's new performance is perhaps slightly less characterful than either, but, with finely prepared orchestral playing, he succeeds in conveying much of the sombre intensity of Holst's cloud-hung evocation.'
Holst Orchestral Works
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