Holst: St. Paul's Suite

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Listeners who know only The Planets have a very incomplete appreciation of Gustav Holst. Most of these works were written for student orchestras. They are tuneful, folk-flavored, and highly imaginative, not aiming far beyond entertainment but achieving that goal admirably. The variety or scoring makes this succession of relatively brief pieces work well as a program, and the performances are quite sensible, with vigorous rhythms and a fine sound from the little orchestra--probably much finer than Holst heard when they were new. Add excellent recorded sound and you've got a winner. --Leslie Gerber

Tracks:

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
Jig: Vivace
Ostinato: Presto
Intermezzo: Andante Con Moto
Finale (The Dargasson): Allegro

Average customer rating:

I recommend it highly
Pour yourself some tea, get the paper and put on this CD

For A Sunday Morning
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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For a Lazy Afternoon (Dig)
Dinner for Two
For a Summer Evening (Dig)
For Your Dreams (Dig)
For a Quiet Evening

ASIN: B00005UWL1
Release Date: 2002-01-15

Tracks:

Grieg: Morning Mood
Dvorak: Waltz From Serenade For Strings
Faure: Pavane, Op. 50
Bach: Air
Holst: Finale (The Dargason) from St. Paul's Suite
Debussy: Prelude To "The Afternoon Of A Faun"
Faure: Sicilienne from Pelleas et Melisande
Bach: Sleepers, Awake
Debussy: En Bateau
Grieg: Anitra's Dance
Britten: Sunday Morning By The Beach
Williams: Seventeen Come Sunday From English Folk Song Suite
Strauss: Morning Newspapers

Customer Reviews:

I recommend it highly.......2005-10-05

I have yet to grow tired of this CD. I listen to it at work several times per week.

Pour yourself some tea, get the paper and put on this CD.......2002-02-14

This truly is a great album for a Sunday morning. I bought it after a recent morning I spent with my boyfriend; we made tea, ate breakfast, cuddled and napped, but I wanted some relaxing classical tunes to put on. I stumbled across this, and it certainly fits the bill.

I also liked that it had a good mix of familiar songs and ones I hadn't heard before. Selections include "Morning" and "Anitra's Dance" by Grieg, "Serenade for Strings in E Major" by Dvorak, "Sunday Morning" by Britten, "Pavane" by Faure, "Seventeen Come Sunday" by Vaughan Williams, "Air on a G String" by Bach, "Morgenblatter" by Strauss, "The Dargason" by Holst, "Prelude a l'Apres-Midi d'un Faune" by Debussy, and "En Bateau" and "Sicilienne" by Faure.

Tracks:

Double Concerto For Two Violins And Small Orchestra Op. 49: I. Scherzo
Double Concerto For Two Violins And Small Orchestra Op. 49: II. Lament
Double Concerto For Two Violins And Small Orchestra Op. 49: III. Variations On A Ground
Two Songs Without Words Op.22: 1. Country Song
Two Songs Without Words: 2. Marching Song
Lyric Movement For Viola And Small Orchestra
Brook Green Suite: IPrelude
Brook Green Suite: II Air
Brook Green Suite: III Dance
A Fugal Concerto For Flute, Oboe And String Orchestra Op. 40 No. 2: I Moderato
A Fugal Concerto For Flute, Oboe And String Orchestra Op. 40 No. 2: II Adagio
A Fugal Concerto For Flute, Oboe And String Orchestra Op. 40 No. 2: III Allegro
St. Paul's Suite Op.29 No.2: I Jig
St. Paul's Suite Op.29 No.2: II Ostinato
St. Paul's Suite Op.29 No.2: III Intermezzo
St. Paul's Suite Op.29 No.2: IV Finale (The Dargason)

Amazon.com

Listeners who know only The Planets have a very incomplete appreciation of Gustav Holst. Most of these works were written for student orchestras. They are tuneful, folk-flavored, and highly imaginative, not aiming far beyond entertainment but achieving that goal admirably. The variety or scoring makes this succession of relatively brief pieces work well as a program, and the performances are quite sensible, with vigorous rhythms and a fine sound from the little orchestra--probably much finer than Holst heard when they were new. Add excellent recorded sound and you've got a winner. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

Holst.......2006-03-24

A great recording.

Although, the violin solo at the end of St. Paul's Suite (Dargason) seems rushed.

A nice work.......2003-01-24

I came across this work to expand my collection of Holst's music. This collection of music is very nice, though some of the music is brief I found them rewarding.

Average customer rating:

Setting the mood.

Classic Thanksgiving Songs of Praise

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

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Home to Thanksgiving
A Classic Thanksgiving: We Gather Together
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Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns

ASIN: B00004U921
Release Date: 2000-10-19

Tracks:

Praise My Soul - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Immortal Invisible - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Canzon Septimi Toni - London Symphony Orchestra Brass/Eric Crees
Concerto Grosso, Op.3 No.12: Allegro - Capella Istropolitana/Jaroslav Krecek
Christmas Concerto: Adagio - Capella Istropolitana/Jaroslav Krecek
Christmas Concerto: Pastorale - Capella Istropolitana/Jaroslav Krecek
Ave Verum Corpus - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Hymn Prelude On Rhosymedre - Gareth Green
My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord - Oxford Camerata/Jeremy Summerly
Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Come Down O Love Divine - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Concerto No.5, Op.5: Allegro - Johann Aratore
An English Suite: Prelude - Capella Istropolitana/Adrian Leaper
St. Paul's Suite: The Dargason - Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Richard Studt
Let All The World In Every Corner Sing - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Fugue In D Major - Wolfgang Rubsam
Praise To The Holiest - Halifax Choral Society/John Pryce-Jones
Symphony No.5: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - National Symphony Orchestra Of Ireland/Reinhard Seifried

Customer Reviews:

Setting the mood........2007-02-20

This is a great collection of fall/harvest/thanksgiving hymnes. I enjoyed listening to it and getting in the Thanksgiving mood.

Holst: St. Paul's and Brook Green Suites; A Fugal Concerto; A Somerset Rhapsody

Average customer rating:

An Interesting Holst Omnibus

Holst: St. Paul's and Brook Green Suites; A Fugal Concerto; A Somerset Rhapsody

Manufacturer: Class. for Pleas. Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

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General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Holst: The Cloud Messenger; A Choral Fantasia; Part-Songs
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Amy Beach: "Gaelic" Symphony; Piano Concerto

ASIN: B000089HB4
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Tracks:

2. Good Friday - Baccholian Singers Of London
4. A Love Song - Baccholian Singers Of London
1. Intercession - Baccholian Singers Of London
6. Before Sleep - Baccholian Singers Of London
3. Drinking Song - Baccholian Singers Of London
A Dirge For Two Veterans, H121 - Baccholian Singers Of London
I. Jig (Vivace)
II. Ostinato (Presto)
III. Intermezzo (Andante Con Moto - Vivace)
IV. Finale: The Dargason (Allegro)
I. Moderato
II. Adagio
III. Allegro
I. Prelude (Allegretto)
II. Air (Andante)
III. Allegro
A Somerset Rhapsody, Op.21 No.2
Andante
Dance Of Spirits Of Earth
Dance Of Spirits Of Water
Dance Of Spirits Of Fire

Customer Reviews:

An Interesting Holst Omnibus.......2006-08-17

This CD brings together disparate small works of Holst, as well as recordings made in two different decades. So we have very good analog recordings of the choruses made in the mid-70s and quite decent digital recordings made in the early 90s. The unifying element is the English Chamber Orchestra--a fine choice for the assignment, of course. Holst is in their blood, and even if Sir Yehudi isn't a noted Holst specialist (at least that I know of), his performance of the "Perfect Fool" ballet music is very spirited and attractively colored. Menuhin's performance is pretty much the equal of Adrian Boult's reference recording of this music. Plus Menuhin has much more modern sound.

The other orchestral works are well handled, too, I think, especially the Fugal Concerto--given a sprightly reading--and A Somerset Rhapsody, droll music given an equally droll reading. I have heard more engaging performances of the delightful "St. Paul's Suite," but this is certainly a decent job. And I'm not familiar with "Brook Green," which isn't Holst at his most memorable anyway.

As for the choral music represented here, this is Holst at his most solemn and meditative. If your tastes run more to "The Planets" than to the "Choral Symphony" and "Choral Fantasia," this may not be your cup of tea. But I think Holst had a unique approach to choral music and find the "Six Choruses" both interesting and entertaining. The Dirge moves me in the same way as the war poetry of Wilfred Owen or Walt Whitman does. In fact, this is a setting of one of Whitman's more famous Civil War poems--a very effective setting, with apropos contributions from brass and percussion. Written in 1914, before the outbreak of the First World War, the Dirge anticipates the "Mars" section of "The Planets" written a couple of years later.

So this disc represents a strange mix of Holst music, but it is all effectively performed and recorded--just the thing to fill in gaps in your Holst collection. More authoritative readings may be found in Decca's British Music Collection box set, but I opted for the modern sound accorded Menuhin and Humphreys on this Classics for Pleasure disc and am quite happy. The price is certainly right!

Average customer rating:

Holst: Works for Chamber Orchestra

Manufacturer: Koch Int'l Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001SDY
Release Date: 1993-12-14

Tracks:

Brook Green Ste for Str Orch: Prelude
Brook Green Ste for Str Orch: Air
Brook Green Ste for Str Orch: Dance
Brook Green Ste for Str Orch: Lyric Mvmt (for Vn & Small Orch) - Yvonne Yendol
A Fugal Conc, Op.40, No.2: Moderato - Alexa Still/Stephen Popperwell
A Fugal Conc, Op.40, No.2: Adagio - Alexa Still/Stephen Popperwell
A Fugal Conc, Op.40, No.2: Allegro - Alexa Still/Stephen Popperwell
Morris Dance Tunes: Bean Setting (Stick Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: Country Gardens (Handkerchief Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: Constant Billy (Stick Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: Shepherd's Hey (Stick or Hand-clapping Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: Laudnum Bunches (Corner Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: Rigs O' Marlow (Stick Dance)
Morris Dance Tunes: How D'ya do (Corner Dance)
St Paul's Ste (for Str Orch): Jig
St Paul's Ste (for Str Orch): Ostinato
St Paul's Ste (for Str Orch): Intermezzo
St Paul's Ste (for Str Orch): Finale (The Dargason)

Average customer rating:

This England

Manufacturer: Asv Living Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001HN9
Release Date: 1993-09-11

Tracks:

Ser for Strs in e, Op.20: I. Allegro Piacevole
Ser for Strs in e, Op.20: II. Larghetto
Ser for Strs in e, Op.20: III. Allegretto
Irmelin Prld
Two Pieces For Small Orch, No.1 On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring
Two Pieces For Small Orch, No.2 Summer Night On The River
St. Paul's Ste, Op.29, No.2: I. Jig
St. Paul's Ste, Op.29, No.2: II. Ostinato
St. Paul's Ste, Op.29, No.2: III. Intermezzo - David Towse/RPO
St. Paul's Ste, Op.29, No.2: IV. Finale (The Dargason)
Brook Green Ste: I. Prld
Brook Green Ste: II. Air
Brook Green Ste: III. Dance
Capriol Ste: I. Basse-Danse
Capriol Ste: II. Pavane
Capriol Ste: III. Tordion
Capriol Ste: IV. Bransles
Capriol Ste: V. Pieds-En-L'Air
Capriol Ste: VI. Mattachins

Holst: Double Concerto; St Paul's Suite; Brook Green Suite

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Extraplanetary Holst

Holst: Double Concerto; St Paul's Suite; Brook Green Suite

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

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The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B000NOIWTY
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Customer Reviews:

Extraplanetary Holst.......2007-07-06

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)is best known, outside England anyway, for his sensationally popular orchestral suite 'The Planets.' Few casual music-lovers know any of his other works and certainly there is nothing else that resembles 'The Planets' in his oeuvre. But he wrote a good deal of music that is neatly made and ultra-English in character. He studied English folksong assiduously, as did his great friend Ralph Vaughan Williams, and much of his music quotes folksong or contains folksong-like melodies that Holst himself invented. That is very much the case in much of the music presented on this CD.

The 'Brook Green Green Suite' (1933) was among the last things he wrote and indeed he wrote most of it while in the hospital. It is primarily for strings although there are optional parts for flute, oboe and clarinet, omitted in this performance. The suite consists of three movements -- Prelude, Air, and Dance -- that frolic and glimmer in the characteristic bright English morning light. The last movement is a siciliano that nonetheless sounds English, not Italian.

'A Song of the Night for Violin and Orchestra' (1905) wasn't published until half a century after Holst's death. This eight-minute piece opens with a mournful violin cadenza that, after a virtuosic middle section, returns in etiolated form at the end. The fine soloist here is Janice Graham who is also the new artistic director of the English Sinfonia, featured on this album. 'Lyric Movement for Viola and Chamber Orchestra', also written in Holst's last year, was dedicated to that era's leading violist, Lionel Tertis. It, too, opens with a yearning cadenza this time answered by a solo flute. Much of the work is hushed, with muted orchestral strings. The plangent viola solo is played by Andriy Viytovych.

The best-known piece on this CD is Holst's 'St Paul's Suite' (1913), written for the orchestra of St. Paul's School for Girls where Holst taught for many years. The four-movement suite for strings -- Jig, Ostinato, Intermezzo and Finale -- is popular with amateur groups. Particularly catchy is the Finale which uses an obsessively recurring figure (taken from the folksong 'Dargason') which is then combined contrapuntally with 'Greensleeves.' The suite is played with jolly abandon by the excellent English Sinfonia strings under Howard Griffiths.

'A Fugal Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Strings' (1923) is a sprightly contrapuntal three movement work lasting eight minutes. It is quintessentially English in spirit, with a dancing first movement, songful Adagio and a concluding allegro with many off-kilter accents. The excellent soloists are flutist Anna Pyne and oboist Philip Harmer. 'Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra' (1929) with Janice Graham and Sarah Ewins, violins, opens more dramatically than anything previous on the CD, with portentous bassoons, cello, bass, clarinets and violas with interruptions by the timpani. After the two violin soloists enter the mood softens and we eavesdrop on a bitonal conversation between them. The 'Lament', in 5/4, again features bitonal lines for the two soloists, against muted strings. 'Variation on a Ground' is based on a oddly metered tune that pits the individual rhythms of the soloists against each other. This work has quintessential English melodies and harmonies but is more urban than pastoral. Sound throughout is clear and lifelike.

Recommended for those who want to increase their familiarity with the music of Gustav Holst.

Scott Morrison

The British Music Collection: Gustav Holst

Average customer rating:

OK, you have "The Planets"...

The British Music Collection: Gustav Holst

Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

English | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Holst: St. Paul's Suite
Holst: Orchestral Works
Dead Man

ASIN: B00005QDYL
Release Date: 2004-03-09

Tracks:

I. Hymn To The Dawn - Osian Ellis
II. Hymn To The Waters - Osian Ellis
III. Hymn To Vena - Osian Ellis
IV. Hymn Of The Travellers - Osian Ellis
Savitri! Savitri! I Am Death - Robert Tear
Like A Spectre Of The Forest - Robert Tear
I Am With Thee (Savitri's Aria) - Robert Tear
Then Enter, Lord; Dwell With Me - Robert Tear
Loneliness And Pain Are Ended - Robert Tear
I. Say, Who Is This? - The Purcell Singers
II. O Love, I Complain - The Purcell Singers
III. Angel Spirits Of Sleep - The Purcell Singers
IV. When First We Met - The Purcell Singers
V. Sorrow And Joy - The Purcell Singers
VI. Love On My Heart From Heaven Fell - The Purcell Singers
VII. Assemble, All Ye Maidens - Susan Longfield
The Evening-Watch, Op.43 No.1 - The Purcell Singers
I. Moderato - Julia Bogorad
II. Adagio - Julia Bogorad
III. Allegro - Julia Bogorad

Tracks:

I. Jig: Vivace - Christopher Hogwood
II. Ostinato: Presto - Christopher Hogwood
III. Intermezzo: Andante Con Moto - Christopher Hogwood
IV. Finale (The Dargason): Allegro - Christopher Hogwood
I. Introduction - Dance Of Spirits Of Earth - London Philharmonic Orchestra
II. Dance Of Spirits Of Water - London Philharmonic Orchestra
III. Dance Of Spirits Of Fire - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Egdon Heath, Op.47, H172 - London Philharmonic Orchestra
The Hymn Of Jesus, Op.37, H140 - BBC Chorus
A Moorside Suite, H172 - Elgar Howarth

Customer Reviews:

OK, you have "The Planets"..........2007-01-12

"Gee, I like this piece, 'The Planets'. I wonder if this guy Holst wrote anything else?" Welcome, music lover. This collection is the next step after Holst's most popular piece. The otherworldliness of the "Hymns from the Rig Veda" may surprise you, as they prepare you for the world of "Savitri", based on a folk tale from India. Want to fall in love all over again? Young Janet Baker will melt your heart as the heroine of this 3 character/1 act opera, conducted by the composer's daughter. A stunning performance, in lovely 1960's sound. This set is worth it for the first disc alone.
I'm not as familiar with some of the other performances, but the pieces are a good sampling of Holst's "other" works, and the "Moorside Suite" will blow you away. It is arguably the best piece ever written for a brass band.