Customer Reviews

Orchestral Music

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For listeners expecting more material in the same style of "The Planets" - the work for which Holst is most popular - you won't find it here.

Here you will find rarer works which often have a "folk" influence and are scored for much smaller forces - usually string ensemble or string ensemble with a solo oboe, flute, viola, or piano. Many of the works were composed for student orchestras during Holst's tenure as instructor at St. Paul's Girls' School (hence the "St. Paul's Suite") and James Allen's Girls' School.

The music is delightful and melodic, almost pastoral, and lacking the drama that made up so much of "The Planets". The St. Paul's Suite, probably one of the most famous works for string ensemble is given a fine performance here. And those who are familiar with Percy Grainger's arrangements of "Country Gardens" and "Shepherd's Hey" from "The Mock Morris Dances" will enjoy the simpler and straight forward arrangements that Holst provides for all six Morris dances recorded here.

Ross Pople, who has made a series of recordings for Arte-Nova (a budget line of BMG Classics), gets wonderful performances out of the London Festival Orchestra which sound very much in its element. The four soloists also deliver making this a great recording of these less frequently recorded works by a composer who, sadly, is often considered a one-hit wonder ("The Planets") when many of his other works are deserving of attention.

(There is a full priced version on the Koch label which contains many of the works featured here, but at this price and with the additional works "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Seven Scottish Airs" this recording is a bargain.)