Search - Vienna State Opera Orchestra :: Holst: The Planets

My astrologer says Mars is a Bad Planet!

Wayne A. | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 01/21/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Synchronization is the hallmark of a great conductor...or orchestra. If everything isn't synchronized it all sounds, well, unsynchronized. Great composers often mark on the title sheet, in big print, PLEASE SYNCHRONIZE PROPERLY. It's an instruction one ignores at considerable risk.



Things screwed up a bit in the first movement. If you follow the melody rather than the rhythm it isn't so noticeable. But it's there. The reason it's there--probably--was a matter of rehearsal time and budget and a few other dumb things. This is a Westminster recording, after all--one of the really small indie labels from a half century ago. People who can't grasp the merits of Westminster recordings, their new slants on old warhorses or hyper-exuberant performances of same, harp on the problems--odd performances and scrappy playing from a not first rank orchestra. Those of us who were happy to see these one-of-a-kind performances back in print for a few minutes wish those of you who were just after a mainstream performance had stayed far away. If you want a great Planets that offers no trouble there're about 15 or so that fit the bill out there. Why even look at this one, especially since Boult did others? Basically, if you don't like the Westminster label, just ignore it and leave us alone please!



The reason certain collectors like this one, despite the synchronization problems in the Mars movement and some other less-than-perfect details elsewhere is that it's probably the most spirited and sublime Planets Boult (who kind of owned this piece for a while) ever conducted. Away from London, with its Elgarian grayness, this conductor was able to produce a less English and more cosmopolitan performance. It's not for nothing that another favorite recording of this work comes from Vienna--von Karajan's from the early Sixties. This is a very different and perfectly viable version of this work; one I wish had been used as a pattern for later recordings. Instead we have 75 blockbuster stereo demonstrator class versions (that tend to make only the loud movements worthwhile) and this frequently-spat-upon one that contains some magic and sublimities not found elsewhere. One wishes the Mars didn't have a flaw (it's only a few bars out of an otherwise exceptional Mars) but unless you have a time machine that's just the way it is.



It would be foolish to call this a first recommendation, but if you love Holst's Planets you really should own two imperfect ones in addition to one blockbuster: this one and the ancient one Holst himself conducted (and boyo Holst was no great conductor!) back in the 1920s that's available on CD now and then. They'll both give you a good clue as to how the piece is actually supposed to be played.



Oh, the two pieces by Vaughn Williams are eerily beautiful, easily my favorites, and alone worth purchasing the disc for. They have no synchronization problems.



PS Yes, this does have some background tape hiss. Older recordings often have problems like that since digital recording technology wasn't introduced until the 1980s. Digital recording technology made everything sound like grease on teflon... but perfectly...which suited the times well. Oh, and the automobile wasn't invented till the 1890s and man didn't fly until about 1904 or so, so be careful about flying in planes built before then as they don't work. Who's buying these recordings blind anyway? I feel like I'm reading something akin to automotive magazine reviews of a 1916 Stanley Steamer that gives the car low grades because it doesn't accelerate and take corners like a Porsche."

This does not disappoint!

T14 | Florida | 11/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own numerous recordings of Holst's "The Planets" and this rendering ranks right up there with my favorites and now is included among my favorites. It easy to see why Maestro Sir Adrian Boult considered this to be his best!"

A rare delight

Graham Perrin | Brighton & Hove, UK | 05/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a very young child in the 1960s I delighted in this recording on vinyl (World Record Club, T254). At the age of five I was no musician but I could hear that something wasn't quite right in places ... still, it fascinated me. Through over-playing I fairly ruined the vinyl on a selection of Hi-Fi and lo-fi players, then in my teens the record was sadly lost.



Since then I have listened to (and loved) many alternative recordings-in which I can recognise precision, quality and detail that may have been lacking from the one with which I was most familiar-but as Anthony Pille suggests, there's something "spirited and sublime" about this one that, for me, is missing from all others. Elsewhere this Westminster recording is [...] but for me it's the only one that stops me in my tracks, makes me tingle, makes me wonder what it would have been like to hear it for the first time in September 1918.



(I'm intrigued by Anthony's reference to a 1920s recording that's occasionally available on CD, can anyone offer any additional detail?)



After twenty-odd years of random searching, I eventually rediscovered the Westminster recording in a charity shop, on 11 August 1999-an hour before the last total solar eclipse of the century-weird coincidence! I don't have a player that does justice to the vinyl, so that copy has remained safely in its dust sleeve for the best part of seven years. It's a delight now to find this on CD and enjoy it as often as I used to.



If you're accustomed to the detail and precision that's present in some other recordings, you may be disappointed by this one. But if you're willing to drop your preconceptions, you'll find rare delights."