Search - Gustav Holst, Peter Sykes :: Holst: The Planets

A must for Planets fans

Mark Dirksen | Beverly Mass. United States | 10/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you enjoy Holst's vivid masterpiece, you owe it to yourself to hear Peter Sykes play the entirety of the score on the profound Girard chapel organ. Not only is this historically important instrument entirely capable of conveying the wide color and variety of Holst's music, Sykes is capable of playing it! So much of this music fits the noble swagger an organ can provide - Jupiter's big tune (starting out on a single, eloquent open diapason) frankly beats the orchestral version. And you haven't really lived until you've heard 32-foot Skinner pedal reeds roar out Mars battle cry. If you enjoy the Planets for their power, you'll find the climaxes here overwhelming.The sound quality is superb, capturing both the necessary grandeur and reverberation but also clear enough to present the softer felicities of timbre: check out the excerpt from Mercury above.Finally, though, it is the performance that matters, and here Peter Sykes shows his mastery of Holst's sometimes quirky writing. The necessary virtuosity to pull this score together at the keyboard is always at the ready, but never placed in the forefront. Instead there is an intense, clear, and playful musical intelligence which always knows what is of first importance in this complicated music, as well as a sophisticated registrational sense which finds dozens (hundreds?) of appropriate combinations to illuminate it. Kudos, also, to assistant Vickie Wagner who surely knows the score as well as he by now, and whose contribution must have been immense.Those of us lucky enough to live in the Boston area have long known just how good Peter Sykes is - in fact, he is perhaps better known as one of our most distinguished harpsichordists, playing and recording regularly with Boston Baroque among many other gigs. But manfestly he "plays it all" in every sense. Do yourself a favor and check this unique recording out - you will NOT be disappointed."