Customer Reviews

Holst: The Planets / Elgar: 'Enigma' Variations

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Boult's stereo recordings of "The Planets" and "Enigma" variations have been around 30 years and are well-known to collectors. Newbies taking their first steps into these wonderful Britisch scores could hardly do better than in this starting place.

What makes Boult among the greatest interpreters of this music? He was British, of course, and interpreted this music with a sense of proportion that deletes bombast while still making most of the large moments in the scores. His elegance in "Enigma" is still a benchmark in this score.

Boult recorded this music many times; this was his final recording notable for the slower tempo of the menacing opening movement. Many collectors prefer his earlier recording of "The Planets" including his 1950s mono version that was once on a Westminster LP in the United State. Intrepid Internet searchers can still find this recording, made from the perspective of the podium and with far greater drive and emotion than this one.

Still, Boult's stereo recording is spectacular, proportionate and very personal. It will tell you everything you need to know about the scores even though it may lack some of the headlong emotion Boult brought in his earlier recordings. The same is true of Boult's later Vaughan Williams' recordings of the symphonies and other music, which are still beloved even though his earlier mono recordings may outdo them.

Anyone wanting a modern recording of "The Planets" and "Enigma" variations cannot go wrong with this CD. Buy it today and you'll spend the rest of your life trying to find interpretations that match these.

I first heard a live performance of Holst's great symphonic work in Chicago with Solti leading the orchestra. I went back a day later and heard the piece again, but the Beethoven 4th piano concerto, which I had overlooked if that's the right word, during the first concert, emerged as the more interesting piece on day two. It certainly wasn't as loud or as showy, but it asserted a greater musical intelligence and made more of an impact. I had flown all the way from California to hear the Chicago play the Holst work, but I learned a valuable lesson.
There are three ways to approach the Planets. The first is to play hell for leather, the way Holst conducts on records and how he performed at concert. The second is to play it as an orchestra showpiece, which it most certainly is, and display your orchestra, or, on recordings, your recording engineer. The last approach is the one generally chosen by some English conductors, and most especially Boult: to bring out the soul of the work.
Boult performed and recorded this work many times over a very long lifetime of conducting, and, along with his fine body of work with many other native composers, brings to this performance an innate understanding of the work's milieu. Enveloping every section is a valedictory glow. One suspects if Escoffier cooked a last meal for a friend it would have been similarly paced. Nothing is rushed or forced, and the works strengths are revealed as comforting and not merely decorative and brilliant. For the young at heart there are many fine versions of the second approach. But only Boult gives us a Planets we can go back to and savor as I did the Beethoven concerto many years ago.

Ignoring the fact that Adrian Boult "first made 'The Planets' shine," in the words of its composer, the man had an almost peerless authority when it came to British music. And notwithstanding the eclectic array of influences that can be discerned in Holst's most famous orchestral work, "The Planets" is thoroughly British, as is its discmate here, Elgar's "Enigma" Variations. There have been more sonically and musically spectacular recordings of the Holst suite, but most sound superficial compared to Boult's final thoughts on the work. Only a few moments of ragged ensemble betray the fact that Boult was almost 90 when he made this record--although arguably this is an old man's interpretation (i.e. one that could only be arrived at via a lifetime of living with the work). Similarly, the Elgar is the product of a lifelong familiarity with, and affection for, the composer's second most-familiar (after the first of his five "Pomp & Circumstance" marches) piece. Both recordings (analog tapings from the 1970s) come off full, clear and forthright in this "Great Recordings of the Century" remastering.

What is sadly lacking in other performances is the authority that Boult brings to every moment of this Planets...his interpretation is very clear and every texture in the Holst score is made plain as day. One performance to avoid like the plague is Dutioit...

the other performances are very good...also remember it was Boult who conducted the first performance...so here is the one to have.

I must disagree with the reviews that mark this recording down because of tempos that may be slower than others'. I've loved Holst's "The Planets" for over 40 years, and there are lots of great recordings of it. However, this, Boult's last word on the piece, is a stunner. Personally, I don't think "Mars" should go too fast. I think the important thing to bring out is the implacable, inexorable, and inhuman qualities of war. If you play this recording loud, you will experience the most crushing performance of Mars ever recorded. It IS War. Another standout is "Uranus, the Magician." Part of the credit must go to Boult's excellent low brass section, who blow for all they are worth, but never get out of control.

Another standout on the disc is the "Nimrod" variation in the Elgar. What a stunning climax it builds up to. Here is another place where the maturity of Boult's age and experience helps.

I encountered this recording while searching for a recording of Elgar's Enigma Variations. I bought it when I noticed Boult's name, and that Holst's The Planets was also on the recording. The performance of Enigma Variations is superb. It flows nicely, and is very exciting, but it never ceases to keep my attention, particulary in Nimrod, by far the most beautiful of the movements, and here performed under the baton of the master of British music. On the other hand, The Planets is a less than stellar recording. It is Boult's final recording of the Holst work, and often considered his most mature recording. I consider it his most geriatric. The entire recording plods along and fails to maintain any interest. Mars, Bringer of War, is very slow and hesistant - it wants to go faster, but it fails to do so. There is nothing warlike about it. Jupiter, Bringer of Jolity, is absolutely pathetic - I can't bear to listen to this recording of it. It has absolutely no energy due to the horrendously slow tempo. The first waltz section, which normally makes the listener want to get out of his or her seat and dance, does absolutely nothing. What you hear consists of a bunch of notes on a page, not actual music. It is too slow and heavy to feel like a dance. Listening to this section is more burdensome than enjoyable. The middle section, in the style of an English folksong, is well done, but lacking in any emotion. Again, the final waltz feel is drawn out in an attempt to create a dramatic ending...however, the ending is purely enigmatic, and you will find yourself more relieved that the song is over than anything else. I can suggest a few recordings of The Planets that would be better: first, Andre Previn and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (on TelArc), and second, Boult, but this time with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (on Westminster). The latter of these is stylistically an excellent recording, despite some technical flaws in the actual performance. You would be better off to find a recording that actually has some energy to it.

Unfortunately, both The Planets and Enigma Variations have been recorded so many times, it is impossible for an average listener to know which recording to acquire. Look no further -- this recording surpasses ANY OTHER recording of either The Planets OR Enigma that I have ever heard.

The problem with other recordings of The Planets comes from what we learn in Music 101, Intro to Music course in college. The very first thing we learn in that class is that "the strings are the backbone of the orchestra." That had not changed by the time these works were composed. Most Planets conductors have not learned to keep their trumpet section under control, and in pieces where the trumpet section has the melody, the trumpets are so loud and obnoxious that they are "blasty." Boult keeps the trumpets in HIS orchestra under control. Even in the most joyous moments of Jupiter, the trumpets sound musical and not over-loud and blasty. The result is stunning -- for the first time, I can HEAR the strings and winds in the loud parts of Jupiter and they have wonderful parts. Plus, during the Jupiter movement when the "ostinato" starts, Boult begins with a much slower tempo so that we can hear what is going on with the french horns and the woodwinds and the result is stunning. Rather than sounding "too slow" the music sounds much more glorious than when the trumpets are covering every other instrument up. Plus, Boult does opt for an accelerando during this part so that the piece is still driving and wonderful. The first time I heard this recording I was stunned at how much more beautiful it really is compared to any other recording I have heard.

Similarly, I understand that some listeners will want to hear blasty trumpets and a really fast tempo for Mars. However, I feel Boult's interpretation of Mars is much more musical than others. Once again, the trumpets are plenty loud without being blasty and the slightly slower tempo simply brings out the grandeur of the music.

Finally, on the "fast" movements of Enigma, on this recording, we can always hear the strings. Most recordings of this work suffer because the strings sound all muddled. Particularly in the final movement of Enigma -- Boult starts out at a slower tempo so that you can actually HEAR what the melody line is in the violins and it is very well done.

Do not listen to the naysayers -- this is an extremely, extremely wonderful recording of both of these works. Many recordings don't come anywhere near the musicality of Boult's obvious conducting talent.

Boult's planets it never sound a showpiece-spectacular version but solemn. If you take the essence of this work you may consider it such a set of Symphonic Variations but with an ineffable premise: the English roots. Think in the lyric polychrome of every planet, there is joy of living, fierceness, tenderness and noblesse but never a bit of late romanticism but a robust sense of imperial dignity. Think in enigma Variations for instance, a work that surely must have influenced in the similitude of the formal construction.

If you lack that vision, forgetting perhaps this a huge solemn sidereal poem with slender tints of effervescent fierceness in Mars, exuberance tonal in Jupiter and restrained melancholy in Saturne.

And it is not a mere hazard that Adrian Boult be an Elgar champion. That' s why he brings such eloquence, elegance and nuance this masterpiece.

In what Enigma Variations is very interesting but there is a real master performance: Leonard Bernstein and BBC Symphony simply unbeatable.

I wouldn't call this a Great Recording of the 20th Century, despite the title given by EMI. "Pretty Good Recording" is more like it. The Enigma Vars, an Andrian Boult specialty, is the best performance on the disc--rounded and rolled and purely British, with a curled upper lip. The famous Nimrod variation is suitably stately and beautiful, the Intermezzo light and sweet. Still, I perfer more contrast among the different variants; I wouldn't call this the best Enigma out there, despite what some have said (my favorite recording is actually that conducted by the composer in 1926; it's a good deal more brisk and dynamically-shaded than most subsequent efforts), but it is consistent in its interpretation, and the sound is good.

The Planets is another matter. Boult is strongly identified with this work as well, and I believe he recorded it four times. This is his last, and, to me, it doesn't work. Mars is sluggish and never builds. It doesn't sound the least bit threatening--I think he's going for "expansive," but the phrasing isn't there, and the trumpets in particular are ratty. Venus doesn't hold together either--the overall shape of this piece seems to elude Boult. Ditto Mercury, which is all speed and no shape. Jupiter is the worst movement--heavy and slow, without sufficient playfullness where it's needed, folksiness where it's needed or majesty where it's needed. Saturn (Holst's favorite movement) also suffers from ratty brass and a buildup that's insuffient. Uranus is loud and forceful but without the playful bounce--and that sums up a lot of what bothers me here--this is a joyless Planets, with the bounce and the humor (or "humour") missing. (I will admit that Uranus has a very impressive blast of a chord just before the coda, however.) Neptune (my favorite movement) isn't mystical or etherial enough, and the chorus is a little too present--they should be felt more than heard.

Overall, dispensible. There are other good Enigmas out there, and better Planets by Previn, Ormandy, Bernstein, and others.