Holst: The Planets, Matthews: Pluto

Track Listings

1. Holst: The Planets: Mars The Bringer Of War

2. Holst: The Planets: Venus The Bringer Of Peace

3. Holst: The Planets: Mercury The Winged Messenger

4. Holst: The Planets: Jupiter The Bringer Of Jollity

5. Holst: The Planets: Saturn The Bringer Of Old Age

6. Holst: The Planets: Uranus The Magician

7. Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic

8. Matthews: Pluto The Renewer

9. Holst: Lyric Movement For Violin And Small Orchestra

10. Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic (original ending)

Holst: The Planets, Matthews: Pluto, Music, Gustav Holst, Colin Matthews, Mark Elder, Hallé Orchestra, Tim Pooley, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Concerto, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Orchestral Music, Suite for Orchestra, Viola Concerto

Holst: The Planets; The Mystic Trumpeter; Colin Matthews: Pluto
Average customer rating:

Updating Holst

CD & DVD AUDIO: Familiar, Hearty Planets w rarity Trumpeter

Matthews hits the right note for Holst

Holst: The Planets; The Mystic Trumpeter; Colin Matthews: Pluto

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005YXIV
Release Date: 2002-04-16

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
Pluto, The Renewer
The Mystic Trumpeter, Op.18 - Claire Rutter

Customer Reviews:

Updating Holst.......2005-02-01

This is an excellent recording of the Planets. The Naxos engineers have managed to capture most of the subtle orchestral effects of this work. It is a wholly acceptable recording.

However, this recording adds on to Holst's masterpiece by including Colin Matthews' Pluto. I quite liked Matthews' movement, but I really wonder whether Holst's masterpiece is served by appending a movement so out of character to the original work. Matthews' Pluto is a quite modern work. Some critics have pointed out that had Holst wanted to add an eighth movement, he could have just as easily added earth. (Pluto was not discovered until long after The Planets was composed.) Much like adding a modern structure onto an ancient building, you really have to wonder whether or not this is actually a good idea.

This is still a good recording to have, however. It brings out the shimmering textures of Neptune. Jupiter is certainly glorious.

CD & DVD AUDIO: Familiar, Hearty Planets w rarity Trumpeter.......2003-07-05

Is there any orchestra music lover anywhere, who has not yet heard the planets? I have for long, long years cherished the several versions recorded at one time or another by the late Sir Adrian Boult - who premiered the work - but the new Naxos version with the Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, need not suffer from hallowed comparisons. Perhaps one starts out with this music, revelling in the large moments, rhythmed and swelling and soaring; only to later linger more and more often into musing about the brilliant innovations of the composer's use of the orchestra, along with less of the riot of life and more of the fading away into unfathomable, mysterious regions. In any case, the new CD ... and the new multichannel DVD audio disc release, even more so ... gives plenty to relish on both counts. While the 16-bit CD is bright and wide and clear; the dvd audio disc is multichannel and yields up that much more of everything except distortion. Particularly in dvd audio, often also available at a bargain Naxos price, one senses the care Holst seems to have lavished upon the orchestration of this musical extravaganza. He goes Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov one better, as it were, uniting his musical ideas with the very timbres of the solos and orchestra sections which play them. This must have been almost unbearably striking in 1916, so close on the heels of the riot that premiered Stravinky's Rite of Spring in Paris, just a few years earlier. That the disk finishes with a genuine first, the recording of Holst's Mystic Trumpeter scena for soprano and orchestra, only reminds a listener once again that Naxos can lead the pack when it wants to do so. Bravo, again. Highly recommended for sound, performance, and repertoire. Put this right next to Sir Adrian Boult, on the keeper shelves. Yes, keeper. And if you have one of those fancy surround sound, home theater setups handy, put on the compatible dvd audio/dolby pressing to celebrate just how much music a good multichannel system can put out, in between those movies.

Matthews hits the right note for Holst.......2002-06-17

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.

Tracks:

Holst: The Planets: Mars The Bringer Of War
Holst: The Planets: Venus The Bringer Of Peace
Holst: The Planets: Mercury The Winged Messenger
Holst: The Planets: Jupiter The Bringer Of Jollity
Holst: The Planets: Saturn The Bringer Of Old Age
Holst: The Planets: Uranus The Magician
Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic
Matthews: Pluto The Renewer
Holst: Lyric Movement For Viola And Small Orchestra
Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic (original ending)

Customer Reviews:

Holst vindicated after 76 years........2006-08-29

Pluto was actually discovered when Holst was still alive, but Holst refused to be bothered with that entity. And he was right after all.

Now Pluto is no longer a planet, I doubt this recording will ever be re-released.

Includes new "Pluto" movement.......2002-12-29

I've always enjoyed recordings of Holst's "The Planets" - the quick intensity of "Mercury" - the lush romanticism of "Venus" - the battle frenzy of "Mars" - the majesty of "Jupiter" - and all the rest. And this is one of the better renditions of those numbers available.

But I've always wondered what Holst might have thought of "Pluto" - until this recording. Holst gave us classical interpretations of the planets as though they were gods - an interpretation that was held by those who gave the Planets their names. Holst's interpretations of Mars as the Bringer of War and Jupiter as the Bringer of Joy have always been some of my favorite Holst works.

The Halle Orchestra, under the baton of Lyn Fletcher, give one of the more memorable performances of "The Planets" that I can remember - and then add to it by introducing us to Colin Matthews' "Pluto - Bringer of Renewal".

"Pluto" was composed by Colin Matthews and performed for the first time for this album. In acutality, it adds a sense of coming around in a circle to "The Planets". The echoes of the other numbers of Holst's masterwork make this a fine addition to the classical music library.

In addition, this album contains the rarely heard "Lyric Movement" - a chorus for Viola and small orchestra that was one of Holst's last works.

Tracks:

I. Mars, The Bringer Of War
II. Venus, The Bringer Of Peace
III. Mercury, The Winged Messenger
IV. Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity
V. Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age
VI. Uranus, The Magician
VII. Neptune, The Mystic - The Cambridge Singers
Pluto, The Renewer
A Somerset Rhapsody, Op.21

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1. Holst: The Planets: Mars The Bringer Of War
2. Holst: The Planets: Venus The Bringer Of Peace
3. Holst: The Planets: Mercury The Winged Messenger
4. Holst: The Planets: Jupiter The Bringer Of Jollity
5. Holst: The Planets: Saturn The Bringer Of Old Age
6. Holst: The Planets: Uranus The Magician
7. Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic
8. Matthews: Pluto The Renewer
9. Holst: Lyric Movement For Violin And Small Orchestra
10. Holst: The Planets: Neptune The Mystic (original ending)