Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)

Gustav Holst (Composer), Charles Dutoit (Conductor), Montréal Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Ethan Canin (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Montréal Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Charles Dutoit
• Composer: Gustav Holst
• Audio CD (September 29, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00000AFQQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,898 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Mars, The Bringer Of War

2. Venus, The Bringer Of Peace

3. Mercury, The Winged Messenger

4. Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity

5. Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age

6. Uranus, The Magician

7. Neptune, The Mystic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bright, Bold, Etheral... but not all at once, August 16, 2000

By 

"rrr338" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series) (Audio CD)

You really can't miss with this recording. Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony rise to the occasion and deliver a "Planets" that is bright when it has to be (as in "Jupiter"), daringly bold (even for "Mars"), and unearthly etheral ("Neptune"). In many other recordings of this piece, there is usually a weak link, or several. One of the planetary pieces just seems to fall short from the rest. Here you find superb quality all around. I thought I had a really good version with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony, but I like this one even better. The clarity of the recording is remarkable.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent All-Digital Recording, May 16, 2001

By 

jose - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series) (Audio CD)

Perhaps one of the best recordings of orchestral music I have ever heard. The only better performance I've heard of The Planets was by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra-- live at Symphony Hall in Chicago. Perhaps what makes this recording so astounding is not only a stellar performance, but also the fact that it is all digital (DDD)-- hard to come by in the world of classical music. The beat of the timpanis in Mars sounds sharper than ever. A must-have for any collection.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth hearing this performance of "Saturn", May 6, 2005

By 

Kenji Fujishima (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series) (Audio CD)

The "hype" for Gustav Holst's "The Planets" is absolutely true: this is one of the great leaps of the musical imagination. Drawing upon the mythological origins of the names of the planets of the solar systems (excluding Earth and the as-yet-undiscovered Pluto), Holst created a seven-movement suite that is still today beloved for its compelling musical visions and thrilling orchestrations. "The Planets" is, to this day, an enchanting and completely memorable work...especially if it is given a well-played, sympathetic performance.

For the most part, that is what Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra provide in this CD (which only contains the suite). Sure, perhaps at times the playing could use a bit more savage bite---the strings sometimes sound a bit thin, at least compared to the string section of, say, the Berlin Philharmonic---but, when it counts, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra can deliver the goods. And Charles Dutoit's interpretation overall is splendid: sensitive to atmosphere and mood, but also attentive to the bigger picture, movement by movement and as a whole.

Now, for those of you may never have heard this work, you might be thinking, "as a whole? This sounds like simply like a collection of seven little tone poems. What do you mean by 'as a whole'?" Sure, "The Planets" is not exactly a symphony, per se. But, at least as Dutoit and his orchestra play it, there is a center of sorts to the whole work, and that center is "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age." In the previous four movements, Holst follows up the orchestral battle of "Mars, the Bringer of War" with three basically positive movements: the ethereal "Venus, the Bringer of Peace" (a little slow in this performance, but ravishing nevertheless); the quicksilver "Mercury, the Winged Messenger"; and the alternately joyous and yearning "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity," with its highly tuneful central theme.

But then "Saturn" comes creaking in, and suddenly the work goes into altogether darker waters. And this is where this performance really hits its stride. Not even Adrian Boult---who is often considered an authority in this work, and whose last EMI recording of the work (now a part of the "Great Recordings of the Century" series) should be heard as well---is as viscerally frightening as Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra are in rendering Holst's unforgettable depiction of the frailty and fear of death that comes in old age. I would almost say that what took Mahler four long movements to express in his Ninth Symphony, Holst takes in about 10 minutes to express in "Saturn"; a clamorous orchestra tutti with bells and brass prominent gives way to the soft-voiced acceptance of death that closes the movement. The final note---as does the final note of the concluding Adagio of Mahler's Ninth---seems to fade away into oblivion. All of this is fantastically interpreted by Dutoit and performed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; their performance of this movement alone makes this disc worth the purchase.

And so on, from the medium-speed "Sorcerer's Apprentice"-style happenings of "Uranus, the Magician", to "Neptune, the Mystic", a truly mystical finale that introduces a wordless female choir into the mix in its second half. This choir-dominated part of the movement has always struck me as something of a brilliant afterthought, a cool orchestral effect Holst simply couldn't resist putting in, even if the movement could conceivably have been effective without it. (The section is also, strangely, marked "Allegro", although Dutoit takes it at a much slower, arguably more effectively atmospheric tempo.) But the ending, in a way, is magical: as the choir repeats the same two notes and become softer and softer, it is as if we are slowly being transported out of Holst's musical solar system and into some sort of great beyond.

(Very minor) misgivings aside, Holst's "The Planets" is still one of the great glories of orchestral literature, one whose pleasures of the imagination will hopefully always remain fresh. And Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, for the most part, do the work justice. As mentioned before, Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of the work from the late 1970s is also worth hearing, a quite different but no less compelling interpretation powerfully played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (and more fiercely recorded than this more natural-sounding Decca disc). But Dutoit's reading is worthy of your attention nevertheless, especially for the fantastic and deeply moving "Saturn." Recommended.