Holst - The Planets - Helios: CDH55350 - download

[Matthews] succeeds miraculously in evoking Holst’s spirit while remaining genuine Matthews. This disc is a highly desirable addition to anyone’s collection — BBC Music Magazine More…

Release Date: 29th Sep 2008
Catalogue No: CDH55350
Label: Helios
Length: 74 minutes

Holst: The Planets, Op. 32

Work length49:29

$9.00

$11.15

Hallé Orchestra, The Hallé Choir
Mark Elder

I. Mars – The bringer of war

Track length7:46

$1.50

$1.85

II. Venus – The bringer of peace

Track length7:26

$1.50

$1.85

III. Mercury – The winged messenger

Track length4:05

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Jupiter – The bringer of jollity

Track length7:50

$1.50

$1.85

V. Saturn – The bringer of old age

Track length9:40

$1.50

$1.85

VI. Uranus – The magician

Track length6:01

$1.00

$1.25

VII. Neptune – The mystic

Track length6:41

$1.00

$1.25

Matthews, C: Pluto – The Renewer

Work length6:24

$1.00

$1.25

Hallé Orchestra, The Hallé Choir
Mark Elder

Holst: Lyric Movement, H191

Work length11:59

$2.05

$2.50

Timothy Pooley (viola)
Hallé Orchestra
Mark Elder

Excerpt, Holst: The Planets, Op. 32

Work length6:58

$1.00

$1.25

Hallé Orchestra, The Hallé Choir
Mark Elder

VII. Neptune – The mystic

Track length6:58

$1.00

$1.25

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When Gustav Holst composed his celebrated suite 'The Planets' during the First World War, the solar system was bounded by the orbit of Neptune ('The Mystic' in Holst's astrological subtitle)—which Holst naturally placed at the end of his masterpiece. It was not until fifteen years later that American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, trying to find the reason for peculiarities in Neptune's orbit, realised that there was another planet further out whose gravitational pull was influencing it. And so was discovered the dark, remote and mysterious world of Pluto, named after the king of the Underworld. The discovery was made but three years before Holst's death, but he never expressed any intention of adding it to his by-then famous work. Sixty years later, invited to do so by The Hallé Orchestra, the challenge was taken up by Colin Matthews whose 'Pluto—The Renewer' emerges eerily from the disappearing final bars of 'Neptune'. This was the first recording of Holst's 'Planets' with the additional planet, sumptuously recorded by Tony Faulkner in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

The CD also includes Holst's late Lyric Movement for viola and chamber orchestra, written in 1933, the year before the composer died.

Originally issued on CDA67270

Reviews

[Matthews] succeeds miraculously in evoking Holst’s spirit while remaining genuine Matthews. This disc is a highly desirable addition to anyone’s collection

Colin Matthews has finally completed the picture with Pluto, and hearing it on this fine recording alongside Holst’s original, the scale of his achievement becomes clear. Fast, pacy and light like the solar winds of the planet itself, Colin Matthews has enhanced our enjoyment and appreciation of Holst’s original work, beautifully and movingly played here by the Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder

Pluto is an exhilaratingly fleet essay, laced with Holstian allusions. Elder also presides over a perceptive account of the haunting 1933 Lyric Movement … Here’s to more high-quality productions from this new partnership

Holstians will be grateful for a beautiful account of the melancholy Lyric Movement, but for those mainly interested in The Planets this has few rivals as a performance

Wonderfully imaginative [Pluto] – a lightning-fast scherzo that grows out of the dying moments of a preceding Neptune and finally evaporates as mysteriously as it started

Holst - The Planets

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