Holst IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER film

[makropulos]

Is there anything about Conrad Noel, the Red Priest, and where roughly does it come [please]? I believe he also preached at All Hallows,Barking by the Tower, a small Church near the Tower of London, which I visited once with a knowledgeable friend. Unfortunately, my memory has let me down on the details of the Church.

Salymap - you may find this interesting (I certainly did):

http://www.anglocatholicsocialism.org/noel.html

It has several good extracts from Noel's writings, and begins with a quotation from his 1945 autobiography, which looks like a book worth tracking down.

There's also this: http://www.foxearth.org.uk/holst.html

Complete digitized versions of three of Noel's books are available online at archive.org:
Socialism in Church History: http://www.archive.org/details/socia...chur00noelgoog
The Labour Party: What it is and what it wants: http://www.archive.org/details/labou...hati00noeluoft
Byways of Belief: http://www.archive.org/details/bywaysofbelief00noeliala

Hope that helps.

[salymap]

makropulos. Marvellous. Thanks a lot. A lot of detail about Holst in Thaxted and also about Conrad Noel.

It seems likely that he would have been at home in the Barking by the Tower Church and preached there.

[Serial_Apologist]

And I'd just like to add my thanks to saly's makropulos.

It's funny to think back through all the years of loving Holst's and Vaughan Williams's music, and not realising until quite recently how closely my ideas of "the spiritual" and the political coincide to theirs - probably an aspect of having gone through the radical sixties, when some of these notions abroad in much more brash form among the hippie generation would find their way into environmentalism and the green movement in more manageable form.

Also ironic to note the interest back then in radical politics among parts of the aristocracy, ahem! Would these people still be radical in their thinking in today's consumer-driven society, one can't help wondering?

S-A

[salymap]

Must be more than half way through the film by now. Seeing and hearing 'Mars' with close-ups of the brass and percussion make one realise what an impact it makes still in the concert hall. We mustn't make the mistake of denigrating The Planets just because they are played rather too much now. Glad I recorded this film, even if a little too long imo.

[Nick Armstrong]

In case anyone wants to catch it again on the big screen, it's repeated tonight on BBC4 from 12:20 - 2:40am.

[Norfolk Born]

Finally got round to watching it last night (interspersed with Coronation Street of course). Some stunning visuals, some of them with clearly unrelated muscial extracts - the aim being, perhaps, to prove that Holst's music deserves to be considered outside of and beyond its obvious contexts? I agree that it could have been shorter by at least 20 minutes. I couldn't help recalling Ken Russell's 'Elgar', which said at least as much, if not more, about its subject and made its points in well under an hour.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In case anyone wants to catch it again on the big screen, it's repeated tonight on BBC4 from 12:20 - 2:40am.

Thanks for that, Caliban. I missed the first showing.

[salymap]

In case anyone wants to catch it again on the big screen, it's repeated tonight on BBC4 from 12:20 - 2:40am.

Thanks for that Caliban, I managed to get an urgent email to a friend,who wanted to record it for her musician husband, but had missed it so far.

[Nick Armstrong]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've just watched it. Absolutely brilliant. What a man!

[Norfolk Born]

Just out of interest - did you watch it in one sitting? I watched it in four (to me) more manageable chunks.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I did watch some of it again using iplayer in case my early judgement was too hasty, but I'm afraid my opinion, as a fanatical admirer of Holst, is unchanged and probably even more negative, a very poor effort with far too much important material omitted, too much jumping around and only scratching the surface of the complexity of Holst the man. Another key area missed out which I'd omitted to mention before was his friendship with the poet Robert Bridges. I would also still like to know what happened to the interviews with Carter, Rubbra & Howells that were advertised. Weren't some of theses interviews and those with Imogen actually recorded for a planned programme in the 1970's which was never completed?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just out of interest - did you watch it in one sitting? I watched it in four (to me) more manageable chunks.

In one sitting - yes. This was partly because I was captivated by the music, and partly because having just returned from the Lake District, my feet are extremely sore, which is encouraging me not to move around as much as I normally do.

[MickyD]

I viewed it in two sittings on consecutive evenings, which was just about right for me. I found a lot of it interesting, not knowing Holst the man at all, but I certainly think that the first 15 minutes could have easily been ditched...all those clips of modern performers doing I Vow to Thee my Country was very tedious. I honestly wondered just when Tony Palmer was going to get on with it. I thought some of the performances shot for the programme were quite good, though I was shocked to see Tamas Vasary looking so old and frail.

[salymap]

I watched my video in about five sittings but enjoyed it on the whole. Nothing about his wife or homelife, unlike the Elgar and other films. Imogen was wonderful, he must have proud of his daughter, I hope so.
I enjoyed the Thaxted part too. I must explore Egdon Heath and other works I don't know very well.