Search - Adrian Leaper :: Holst: Planets (The) / Suite De Ballet, Op. 10

A (wearily) famous suite, and a sparkling early work.

darragh o'donoghue | 09/05/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of Naxos' earliest recordings of a popular classic, and so plays it safe. For an interplanetary journey, the listener neer feels like s/he is travelling the solar system - there is no sense of boundless, awesome vastness.this, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. 'The Planets' is one of those international classics that have become so familiar and unidiomatic as to be almost muzak. In trying to play the suite as a proto-sci-fi soundtrack, better orchestras lose sight of its Englishness, its perverse homeliness (see the contrast in 'Jupiter' between spacious rapture and a very English nostalgia), its playfulness.By letting us hear the individual instruments, by reducing the sense of space, Leaper turns it into a ballet - the pummelling rhythms of 'Mars' co-exist with broad, dancing melodies; 'Uranus - the Magician' is suitably mischievous. This is by no means a 'great' or 'important' performance, and it soon palls, but it's worth a fiver.Much more enjoyable is the playing of the 'Suite de Ballet', a litle-known, rollicking, tuneful early work reminiscent of the best of Adam or Delibes. The 'Danse Rustique' uses colour and rhythm to recreate a boisterous country dance, while the final movement 'Carnival' more than lives up to its title."