Today marks the 150th-anniversay of Gustav Holst, the composer of (much more than) The Planets. September 21, 1874 (Cheltenham)-May 25, 1934 (London). A selection of his music and also a film.
‘Mars’ from Sir Adrian’s final recording (of five, with concert performances also commercially available) of The Planets, which he premiered on September 29, 1918, at the Queen’s Hall to an invited audience*. This recording, made in May 1978 (Boult aged eighty-nine), issued on LP as ASD 3649, was produced by Christopher Bishop and engineered by Christopher Parker.
*’Just before the Armistice, Gustav Holst burst into my office: “Adrian, the YMCA are sending me to Salonika quite soon and Balfour Gardiner, bless his heart, has given me a parting present consisting of the Queen’s Hall, full of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra for the whole of a Sunday morning. So we’re going to do The Planets, and you’ve got to conduct“.’ ACB.
Producer, John Willan; engineer, Neville Boyling.
Bach/Holst; see Comments.
Members of the NHK Symphony Orchestra/Shigeo Genda. Undated.
15 tracks.
Savitri – Janet Baker & Robert Tear. This and the Choral Hymns conducted by Imogen Holst, the composer’s daughter.
“Soprano: Penelope Chalmer, Mezzo-Soprano: Jane Smith, Contralto: Carole Leatherby, Baritones: Dafydd Wyn Phillips, Mark Hofman; Opera Viva Orchestra/Leslie Head. 1983.”
Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool. NBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent; “early 1940s”.
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic/Sascha Goetzel. BBC Proms 2014.
Hammersmith (west London, where Holst was Head of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School). LPO/Boult.
The Going Home Project, led by Svetlin Roussev. July 31, 2022, Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul.
The Planets – the composer’s 1926 recording with the LSO. Excellent transfer by A. C. (Anthony) Griffith, 1972.
Supplemented by Colin Matthews’s Pluto, The Renewer
What a comprehensive survey Col.
Regarding the unavailable video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXAFseGb8Y