Holst: The Planets & The Mystic Trumpeter Op.18
£2.99
- Mars, The Bringer Of War
- Venus, The Bringer Of Peace
- Mercury, The Winged Messenger
- Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity
- Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age
- Uranus, The Magician
- Neptune, The Mystic
- Pluto, The Renewer
- The Mystic Trumpeter, Op.18 - Claire Rutter
Out of this world! - This is a fantastic recording of The Planets, full of energy, mystery and excitement. It is the one I return to most often, and it gives one of the most amazing performances of this work. The tension of Mars is captured perfectly, as is the haste of the virtuosic Mercury. Jupiter captures both the jollity Holst refers to in his title and the majesty of the King of the Gods. Beautiful Venus is portrayed with sensitivity and the angelic voices at the conclusion of Neptune are absolutely beautiful. Neptune is, however, one of the flaws of this recording. Unfortunately, it was decided to include Colin Matthew s Pluto in the recording. This alters the end of Holst s work, sadly maintaining a violin note that feels wrong and out of place, and thus begins one of the most hideous additions I have ever heard. Holst s work should not have been tampered with and built upon, and I hope that orchestras will omit this movement in the future, especially as Pluto is no longer calssified as a planet (it is merely a minor planet now). But it would be unfair to let this affect the whole recording. It may not be the best recording available, but it is a bargain and most definately a one to consider. One of the bonuses to this disk is that it includes another Holst work, The Mystic Trumpeter. Whilst not fantastic, it is a good piece of music, performed by the fabulous Claire Rutter. It is a piece that I listen to not so often, but which is fairly well written and, in this case, performed pretty well. But the main feature is the strongest point of this CD and, despite the conclusion that the RSNO opted to include, it is still one of the best I can find at this price.
Holst s Pluto!!!! - Personally i only bought the cd to listen to Matthews interpretation of Pluto.Unfortunately i wasn t impressed and was out of line in many ways with the original music. I think Matthews was on a loser from the start and should of stayed clear. As for the rest of the music, there are far better versions in the current catalog. Consistent versions include Previn and Boult and have past the course of time.
Matthews hits the right note - The recordings of Gustav Holst s Planets are legion. Amazon has over 100 listings. Numerous too are the lesser composers who have aped the conventions of Mars and Jupiter , in particular, to make themselves a fast buck out of writing film scores. Now, heaven help us, we have a toy classics-lite ensemble named after this well-known suite. In the midst of all this popularity it is easy to forget just what a quality work The Planets is. This excellent new edition from Naxos, marking their fifteen years as a high selling classical label, provides an excellent stimulus to the memory. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra gives a fine account of itself in its rich, enthusiastic, but never overbearing approach to the score. This should not surprise us, because they are lead in their endeavours by composer Colin Matthews. He has more reason than most to have given Holst s most famous work detailed attention, since he bravely responded to a commission from Kent Negano and the Halle orchestra to write a sequel. His Pluto: The Renewer is included on this disc, along with a stirring rendition of Holst s little known The Mystic Trumpeter (opus 18), based on a poem by Walt Whitman. Clare Rutter (sop) does more than enough to convince us that this orchestral song is worth listening to again. What of Matthews endeavours? The Halle first recorded and released Pluto (named after the planet discovered in 1933, a year before Holst died) in 2001, on the Hyperion label. Comparisons with that disc are inevitable. Both are strong, but perhaps not surprisingly Matthews own baton seems to bring a little greater clarity and contrast to his own composition. The RSNO s performance on Mars and Venus is also much more wilful than that of the Halle, and they match up well to each other on the more meditative movements and sequences too. Opinion will obviously be divided, but I think Matthews has written a sequel of compelling authority and vision. He segues his composition out of the embers of Neptune , picking up its mystical resonance before moving us towards a couple of dissonant climaxes. The conclusion too his piece is mesmerising. There are plenty of Holstian references in this 6 minute 42 second score, but Matthews does not try straightforwardly to write Holst . He is his own man. His piece blends in well with the other Planets - as becomes more apparent on successive listenings to the whole refigured work. But it does not mimic. Its language is inventive, such that only those who feel the need to render modern in inverted commas when they use it as an epithet to music are likely to miss the point. The Halle give the nervous or traditional listener the proper ending to Holst s suite as well as Matthews addendum, in case they want to re-programme their CD player accordingly. Naxos and the RSNO go that natural step further by integrating the two without qualification, and they also provide us with a first-rate account of that Holst scena for soprano and orchestra too. A milestone that deserves high praise. My advice would be to get both versions. Then try out some of Matthews other orchestral works on the 1996 Collins Classic recording, which includes Hidden Variables , Memorial , Quatrain and Machines And Dreams .
Interesting, but not Holst ... - Well, most of The Planets is Holst. Pluto is most definitely not. I admire Matthews pluck in writing a final movement, but I don t think it works as well as it could. It s a competent and interesting piece of modern composition, and by itself it could stand alone. I just don t think it fits, and I can t see Pluto s personality the way Matthews does. However, I do rather like the way it links to Neptune,and I can see myself listening to it over again.It s a recording of The Planets which sparkles in places (notably the tutti in Mars) but in others (for example, the last note of Mercury) where it seems to fall a bit flat. That s the trouble with works that are so well-known and widely recorded - it needs to be a bit special to justify itself, and this one isn t particularly consistent.There are certain composers who suffer from the fact that there is one piece of music for which they are particularly well-known, to such an extent that it is very difficult to find anything by them that is *not* that well-known piece. (I call this the Planets effect.) Until fairly recently, Holst suffered from that fate, but Naxos have been assiduous in bringing to the public s attention some significant lesser-known works. In that tradition, there is an added bonus piece on this CD, here, and that s Holst s little-known work The Mystic Trumpeter. It s a setting to music of a Walt Whitman poem, which musically works a lot better than it does lyrically. I d be interested to listen to it without the vocals.In summary, it s a worthwhile addition to your collection, if you can stomach having yet another recording of The Planets, because the extra bits and pieces make up for it.