Holst: Brook Green Suite, The Planets / Boult Etc.

Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Norman Del Mar, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, Central Band of the Royal Air Force, Wing Commander Eric Banks, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Charles Groves, Dame Janet Baker, English Chamber Orchestra, Purcell Singers, Imogen Holst

Gustav Holst: A Somerset Rhapsody, Op.21 No. 2 / Brook Green Suite / The Perfect Fool: ballet music / The Planets, Op. 32 / Suite No. 2 for Military Band in F major, Op. 28 No. 2, H106 / St Paul's Suite, Op. 29 No. 2 / Egdon Heath, a homage to Thomas Hardy, Op.47 / Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op. 26: 2nd Group, H98 / A Choral Fantasia, H177

The Planets, one of the most popular and colourful orchestral scores of the twentieth century, here rubs shoulders with works showing Holst’s interest in English folksong; the mysticism of India; and his austerely beautiful take on Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native” in Egdon Heath.
Holst was born in Cheltenham in England in 1874 into a family with a long musical tradition. He began composing whilst still at school and then at Oxford. He was sent to London to study with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music, and it was here that he met and became a lifelong friend of Vaughan Williams. In 1905 he was appointed Director of Music at St. Paul's School in Hammersmith, London, a post he held until his death in 1934. Holst's most popular work and the piece that has kept him in the public eye since it was first performed in 1916 is The Planets, and the recording presented here is conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, the man who gave the work it's first performance. Great though The Planets is, it only shows one side of Holst's musical personality and the strength of this set is that it provides the opportunity to explore the other sides of this great master's musical personality.

Price: $11.98