Holst: The Planets; The Mystic Trumpeter; Colin Matthews: Pluto

Gustav Holst (Composer), Colin Matthews (Composer), David Lloyd-Jones (Conductor), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Orchestra), Claire Rutter (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Claire Rutter
• Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
• Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones
• Composer: Gustav Holst, Colin Matthews
• Audio CD (April 16, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00005YXIV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,400 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

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A super-budget-price rival to Mark Elder's recent recording of The Planets and a real rival in three senses: it is stirring and splendidly played, it includes Colin Matthews's striking appendix to Holst's suite and it adds a rarity that this composer's admirers will want to investigate. Here the new Naxos has a distinct edge: Elder offers the beautiful but fairly well-known Lyric Movement, whereas The Mystic Trumpeter is a substantial (19-minute) hitherto unrecorded work, an impassioned Whitman setting for soprano and orchestra in which Holst is audibly shaking off the Wagnerian trappings of what he called his 'early horrors' and becoming unmistakably himself in the climactic section and the poetic quiet close. It is an important rediscovery, performed with real conviction.Elder's recording, by adding a separate performance of 'Neptune', enables the listener to hear The Planets with or without Matthews's 'Pluto'. This new version does not but, as in Elder's reading, the violin note that links the two is so quiet and so long-held that an early fade-out is easy to manage. As to Lloyd-Jones's performance of The Planets, it is very nearly the equal of Elder's. I say 'very nearly' because Elder's Halle Orchestra play with exceptional delicacy and richness; Elder's musical directorship of the Halle is obviously bearing splendid fruit. In 'Venus' the RSNO's violins are just a shade glassier than the Halle's, but the climax of 'Saturn' is no less powerful and I very much liked the bright, sharp, almost raucous colours of 'Uranus'. There is energy as well as weight to 'Mars' and the big tune of 'Jupiter' is grandly full voiced. Like most people who grew up with The Planets I have distinguished performances from the past (Boult, Sargent, Previn) in my head. Neither Elder's nor Lloyd-Jones's readings have suffered from this. Both are distinguished; I marginally prefer Elder, but now that I have heard it I would not be without The Mystic Trumpeter. Michael Oliver

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Matthews hits the right note for Holst, June 17, 2002

By	Simon Barrow (Exeter, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

The recordings of Gustav Holst's 'Planets' are legion. Amazon has over 100 listings. Numerous too are the lesser composers who have aped the conventions of 'Mars' and 'Jupiter', in particular, to make themselves a fast buck out of writing film scores. Now, heaven help us, we have a toy classics-lite ensemble named after this well-known suite.

In the midst of all this popularity it is easy to forget just what a quality work 'The Planets' is. This excellent new edition from Naxos, marking their fifteen years as a high selling classical label, provides an excellent stimulus to the memory. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra gives a fine account of itself in its rich, enthusiastic, but never overbearing approach to the score. This should not surprise us, because they are lead in their endeavours by composer Colin Matthews. He has more reason than most to have given Holst's most famous work detailed attention, since he bravely responded to a commission from Kent Negano and the Halle orchestra to write a sequel. His 'Pluto: The Renewer' is included on this disc, along with a stirring rendition of Holst's little known 'The Mystic Trumpeter' (opus 18), based on a poem by Walt Whitman. Clare Rutter (sop) does more than enough to convince us that this orchestral song is worth listening to again.

What of Matthews' endeavours? The Halle first recorded and released 'Pluto' (named after the planet discovered in 1933, a year before Holst died) in 2001, on the Hyperion label. Comparisons with that disc are inevitable. Both are strong, but perhaps not surprisingly Matthews' own baton seems to bring a little greater clarity and contrast to his own composition. The RSNO's performance on 'Mars' and 'Venus' is also much more wilful than that of the Halle, and they match up well to each other on the more meditative movements and sequences too.

Opinion will obviously be divided, but I think Matthews has written a sequel of compelling authority and vision. He segues his composition out of the embers of 'Neptune', picking up its mystical resonance before moving us towards a couple of dissonant climaxes. The conclusion too his piece is mesmerising. There are plenty of Holstian references in this 6 minute 42 second score, but Matthews does not try straightforwardly to 'write Holst'. He is his own man. His piece blends in well with the other Planets - as becomes more apparent on successive listenings to the whole refigured work. But it does not mimic. Its language is inventive, such that only those who feel the need to render modern in inverted commas when they use it as an epithet to music are likely to miss the point.

The Halle give the nervous or traditional listener the 'proper' ending to Holst's suite as well as Matthews' addendum, in case they want to re-programme their CD player accordingly. Naxos and the RSNO go that natural step further by integrating the two without qualification, and they also provide us with a first-rate account of that Holst 'scena' for soprano and orchestra too. A milestone that deserves high praise. My advice would be to get both versions. Then try out some of Matthews' other orchestral works on the 1996 Collins Classic recording, which includes 'Hidden Variables', 'Memorial', 'Quatrain' and 'Machines And Dreams'.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CD & DVD AUDIO: Familiar, Hearty Planets w rarity Trumpeter, July 4, 2003

By	Dan Fee "music fan aka drdanfee" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Is there any orchestra music lover anywhere, who has not yet heard the planets? I have for long, long years cherished the several versions recorded at one time or another by the late Sir Adrian Boult - who premiered the work - but the new Naxos version with the Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, need not suffer from hallowed comparisons. Perhaps one starts out with this music, revelling in the large moments, rhythmed and swelling and soaring; only to later linger more and more often into musing about the brilliant innovations of the composer's use of the orchestra, along with less of the riot of life and more of the fading away into unfathomable, mysterious regions. In any case, the new CD ... and the new multichannel DVD audio disc release, even more so ... gives plenty to relish on both counts. While the 16-bit CD is bright and wide and clear; the dvd audio disc is multichannel and yields up that much more of everything except distortion. Particularly in dvd audio, often also available at a bargain Naxos price, one senses the care Holst seems to have lavished upon the orchestration of this musical extravaganza. He goes Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov one better, as it were, uniting his musical ideas with the very timbres of the solos and orchestra sections which play them. This must have been almost unbearably striking in 1916, so close on the heels of the riot that premiered Stravinky's Rite of Spring in Paris, just a few years earlier. That the disk finishes with a genuine first, the recording of Holst's Mystic Trumpeter scena for soprano and orchestra, only reminds a listener once again that Naxos can lead the pack when it wants to do so. Bravo, again. Highly recommended for sound, performance, and repertoire. Put this right next to Sir Adrian Boult, on the keeper shelves. Yes, keeper. And if you have one of those fancy surround sound, home theater setups handy, put on the compatible dvd audio/dolby pressing to celebrate just how much music a good multichannel system can put out, in between those movies.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Updating Holst, February 1, 2005

By	Robert Badger (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent recording of the Planets. The Naxos engineers have managed to capture most of the subtle orchestral effects of this work. It is a wholly acceptable recording.

However, this recording adds on to Holst's masterpiece by including Colin Matthews' Pluto. I quite liked Matthews' movement, but I really wonder whether Holst's masterpiece is served by appending a movement so out of character to the original work. Matthews' Pluto is a quite modern work. Some critics have pointed out that had Holst wanted to add an eighth movement, he could have just as easily added earth. (Pluto was not discovered until long after The Planets was composed.) Much like adding a modern structure onto an ancient building, you really have to wonder whether or not this is actually a good idea.

This is still a good recording to have, however. It brings out the shimmering textures of Neptune. Jupiter is certainly glorious.