Britten Sinfonia premieres a folk-infused re-imagining of Holst’s The Planets with Stevens & Pound and Robert Macfarlane

28–30 January 2026 | London, Norwich, Cambridge

Folk-classical duo Stevens & Pound joinsprize-winning writer Robert Macfarlane (Is A River Alive?, Underland, The Lost Words) and Britten Sinfonia for the world premiere tour of Stevens & Pound’s The Silent Planet this January.

This exciting new work features live narration by Robert Macfarlane, who has written original text for the piece and performs it on stage alongside Delia Stevens (percussion) and Will Pound (harmonica & melodeon). Together, they present a 21st-century recomposition of four movements from Holst’s The Planets. Drawing on Holst’s folk song influences, Stevens & Pound’s arrangement adds a new movement, Earth: The Silent Planet – the planet Holst purposefully omitted due to it being ‘astrologically insignificant’ – in which we will hear for the first time Robert Macfarlane’s own words about the silencing of Earth.

Robert Macfarlane comments: “The Silent Planet is an exhilarating project to be part of. Delia Stevens and Will Pound are musician-composers of dazzling skill and craft… Earth’s vast, miraculous sound-world mustn’t dim to become a silent — or silenced — planet. In music, word and performance, we want to communicate the wonder, awe and fragility of the planet we inhabit.”

Stevens & Pound comment: “Neither of us ever imagined the sheer ambition of this genre-bending piece existing in our lives until we got in the rehearsal room and sparks started flying as folk and classical traditions collided! Then along came Robert Macfarlane who turned our world upside down again. His words have brought our planets even more life with his inimitable ability to convey a message about the possible futures of our planet in such a characterful and evocatively musical tone. It is thrillingly joyful and a huge honour to be performing this new work with him live.”

An arrangement of The Silent Planet was originally performed to sold-out audiences in Manchester and Liverpool in 2024 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Northern College of Music, conducted by Clark Rundell. The 2026 tour represents the work’s next chapter: the world premiere of an exciting new arrangement with Robert Macfarlane narrating his own newly commissioned text.

The tour opens at Milton Court, London (28 January), marking Stevens & Pound’s London debut, and continues to St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich (29 January – pending the re-opening of The Halls) and West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (30 January). In the first half, Britten Sinfonia and conductor Clark Rundell perform folk-derived works by Britten and Grainger: both A Time There Was: Suite on English Folk Tunes (Britten) and A Lincolnshire Posy (Grainger) are brilliant orchestral reworkings of folk melodies – from which Stevens & Pound will also create a new duo medley that reflects back on Britten and Grainger’s earlier vision.

The Silent Planet tour is part of Britten Sinfonia’s broader focus on environmental themes in its 2025–26 season. Other highlights include Sea Beneath the Skin at the Barbican – a major collaboration with director Lemi Ponifasio featuring Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (2 February) – and Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Mayrhofer’s Recycling Concerto with percussionist Vivi Vassileva (12 & 13 March). Classical-folk collaborations is another theme in Britten Sinfonia’s season, which also features a tour with ZRI Quintet in April.

Stevens & Pound’s genre-defying partnership began only recently as a message on Instagram and soon became an acclaimed duo, blending folk and classical music. Recent highlights include a record deal with Idiom Records, performances at major UK festivals and have already featured on BBC Radio 2’s Folk Show, BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and toured Wales as soloists with Sinfonia Cymru.

The duo releases their new album, Ascending, on 16 January 2026 to coincide with The Silent Planet tour. Ascending features original compositions and reimaginings of works by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Lennon-McCartney. The final track, Earth: The Silent Planet – co-written with Macfarlane – draws directly from the new movement that will be premiered at Milton Court on 28 January.

For full details and booking, visit www.brittensinfonia.com/events/earth-and-other-planets