BaL 11.01.25 - Holst: The Planets

[mikealdren]

Going back to Stokowski and The Planets ... He featured a great deal of 20th Century music when he was conductor of the NBC Symphony for three years during the war, Toscanini having declined to sign a new contract for the 1941-42 season. However, he changed his mind when Stokowski started getting excellent reviews for his concerts and returned the following year as his co-conductor. Toscanini's critics often dismiss him as a "speed merchant" and Glenn Gould once referred to each new Toscanini recording as "one metronomic steeplechase after another." One wonders if Toscanini's tempos had an effect on Stokowski at the time because in "Jupiter" he whips through it at 100 miles an hour in some places so as to make one suspect that they did! ... This comes from a complete broadcast of the work on 14 February 1943 ..

They did indeed but, as speeds have increased over the years, his tempi so often feel appropriate nowadays.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My first recording of the work was Dutiot’s, and it is very fine, just as others have said. However, my favourites now are the VPO/ Karajan and the 1966 Boult. I had the 1978 Boult too, but it’s quite sluggish in Mars.