Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Among the greatest classic recordings of each score, October 20, 2006
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.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indubitably British, November 29, 2004
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.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Planets That Eshews Bombast and Embraces Wisdom., June 27, 2005
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.
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~ Ludwig van Beethoven
~ Gustav Holst
~ Edward Elgar
is mainly Classical”
