BaL 27.09.14 - Holst: The Planets

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So what would be a typically quirky DON choice?

Perhaps one of the 2-piano versions?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I am hoping and praying that D.O.N. doesn't recommend the RSNO/ Lloyd-Jones version which, although exceedingly well played ( and conducted) unfortunately has a gratuitous extra piece tacked on the end so as to somehow complete the Solar System ( even though the extra piece's subject has now been downgraded from its former planetary status. )

There are several versions with the unfortunate appendage.

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, I agree. LPO play like Gods and perhaps the best Mars I've ever heard!

Blimey - never heard (or heard of) that Davan Wetton version! Sounds like I need to make that good!

[Petrushka]

Blimey - never heard (or heard of) that Davan Wetton version! Sounds like I need to make that good!

I don't think I've heard of it either unless it was the one issued on the Tring label some time in the 1980s? I recall that it got a very good Gramophone review if they are one and the same.

[Beef Oven!]

I don't think I've heard of it either unless it was the one issued on the Tring label some time in the 1980s? I recall that it got a very good Gramophone review if they are one and the same.

IIRC I bought it on Collins around 1988. Found it on sale in the Virgin in Oxford Street (Marble Arch?).

[gurnemanz]

IIRC I bought it on Collins around 1988. Found it on sale in the Virgin in Oxford Street (Marble Arch?).

Fancy remembering that detail. For a long time I thought I was too cool to like the Planets but now realise the folly of my ways.

[Beef Oven!]

Fancy remembering that detail. For a long time I thought I was too cool to like the Planets but now realise the folly of my ways.

Sad, but true!

To be fair, I remember a lot of my CD purchases around that time because I was replacing vinyl. I'd given up on jazz and indie/alternative and was building a classical collection.

I've never suffered from believing I was cool, so it was Bolero, The Planets etc, all the way for me!

[Roehre]

I am hoping and praying that D.O.N. doesn't recommend the RSNO/ Lloyd-Jones version which, although exceedingly well played ( and conducted) unfortunately has a gratuitous extra piece tacked on the end so as to somehow complete the Solar System ( even though the extra piece's subject has now been downgraded from its former planetary status. )

and what's wrong with that?
I think it's a great idea and Matthews did a great job.
If you don't like it, don't listen to it, you know that you can program your CD player I assume?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't think I've heard of it either unless it was the one issued on the Tring label some time in the 1980s? I recall that it got a very good Gramophone review if they are one and the same.

No - that was the very well known Vernon Handley:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holst-Planets-Suite-St-Pauls/dp/B00002632G/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1411165800&sr=1-8&keywords=holst%2C+planets%2C+royal+philharmonic+orchestra

[Bryn]

The LPO/Wetton was a CFM magazine complete works cover disc, some time in 2011.

Keep an eye open for it in charity shops.

[Petrushka]

No - that was the very well known Vernon Handley:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holst-Planet...onic+orchestra

Thanks, Ferney. That is indeed the one. Considering Tod Handley's reputation in English music I'm surprised that he never recorded it for a EMI unless they thought they'd got enough Planets in their catalogue.

[Pabmusic]

LSO/Holst exists in two versions, one acoustic, the other electric, quite different in performance...

Indeed there are two versions. In fact it's more complicated still, as this blog suggests (and which has a link to an extra 'take', and to four movements recorded by Ernest Macmillan and the Toronto SO in 1942):

http://music.damians78s.co.uk//?s=planets

[Beef Oven!]

And don't forget this..........

[Pabmusic]

There's another Boult available for download, this time with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planets-Op-Mars-Bringer-War/dp/B00860CNQ0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-2&keywords=planets+boult+vienna

[richardfinegold]

My first Planets, purchased in 1973, was VPO/Karajan which is still a serious contender and by no means trumped by his 1981 BPO version. Boult is a must in this work and I quickly added his 1966 NPO account with his 1978 and final recording following soon after. However, my favourite Boult version is the 1973 Proms recording recently issued as a BBC Music Magazine CD. In a word, stunning.

My favourite other than BBCSO/Boult is LPO/Solti.

The Solti gets my vote.