Holst's The Planets

[brunumb]

Perhaps because Bernstein has perfectly expressed the idea that Neptune is a very long way from the Sun ...?

Or perhaps he just made a very ordinary recording of The Planets.

Grrrr.

[Elgarian]

Beating my little joke to death: I would expect the 'updated' versions of The Planets - those which add Pluto at the end - to leave you even colder. (Pluto being even further from the Sun....)

[Karl Henning]

Pluto, the Knitter of Mittens

[Elgarian]

Pluto, the Knitter of Mittens

Which just goes to show that Colin Matthews was guilty of woolly thinking.

[Lisztianwagner]

I have just listened to this recording a couple of times and enjoyed it immensely.  Mars opens a little tentatively, but Karajan racks up the tension pretty quickly and it just gets better and better.  Everything sounds right, the VPO is great, and this now goes to near the top of the list.

I've got the same version, but in the disc with Strauss' Don Juan. I agree anyway, Karajan's performance is gorgeous, absolutely expressive and powerful; excellent orchestral playing by the WP, with a marvelous, crystalline sound. Maybe just in some sections of Jupiter, Karajan took better, more involving tempi in the BP recording.

[brunumb]

Beating my little joke to death: I would expect the 'updated' versions of The Planets - those which add Pluto at the end - to leave you even colder. (Pluto being even further from the Sun....)

It's funny that Pluto only gained astrological significance after it was discovered (1930).

I have only heard Colin Matthews'  'Pluto' once, and hope never to hear it again.

[Karl Henning]

How long is a Pluto year?...

[TheGSMoeller]

I composed a fifth movement to Respighi's Fountains of Rome, only to find out my inspiration was actually just a water fountain at my local swimming pool, not even in the same country as Rome...bummer.

[Mirror Image]

I composed a fifth movement to Respighi's Fountains of Rome, only to find out my inspiration was actually just a water fountain at my local swimming pool, not even in the same country as Rome...bummer.

I composed a fifth movement to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade called Sailor Ends Up In Giant Orgy or by it's better known Russian title Моряк заканчивается в гигантские оргия.

[Elgarian]

How long is a Pluto year?...

About the same length as a piece of string, but in years instead of miles, and a lot colder.

[Karl Henning]

String cheese, perhaps, which needs to be kept refrigerated.

[Karl Henning]

I've often felt that the book Madeleine L'Engle meant to write was A Wrinkle in Cheese.

The variety of responses to recordings is most interesting, nor does it greatly surprise me.  Here, I still await the arrival of some Planets new to me . . . .

[Elgarian]

The variety of responses to recordings is most interesting, nor does it greatly surprise me.

Nor should it surprise any of us, I guess. It's that old thing (or the musical equivalent of it) that Gombrich called 'the beholder's share', with regard to the visual arts. The artist creates his art, and we each bring our individually different motivations, temperaments, backgrounds, and perceptions into play when we complete our part of the contract. There are as many outcomes as there are beholders (or listeners). The amazing thing is that we manage to get any agreement at all!

Meanwhile, on Pluto, ice cream sales are in decline.

[bwv 1080]

FWIW the riff to Black Sabbath's title song was lifted from Mars

[DavidRoss]

Meanwhile, on Pluto, ice cream sales are in decline.

Tourism is down following demotion from planethood.

[Karl Henning]

My back-of-the-envelope notes on a survey of Mercury, the Wingèd Messenger:

Boult/New Philharmonia: Beautifully done, all the grace and unforced energy one expects for the movement.  Something one wouldn't know from simply listening to this recording, though, is that (recording limitations of the time? 1966 isn't that long ago) I don't hear all the voices of the various textures with the clarity which (a) I prefer and (b) Holst's exquisite scoring deserves, I think.

Steinberg/Boston: No less beautiful than the Boult, and with the benefit of a much clearer profile.  The violin solo is especially sweet in this one, setting it apart from this 'pack' of four.  At the climax, the brass are notably rougher and more forward than the others, as well; I don't think that either a plus or minus, just an interesting characteristic of this recording.  I am especially grateful to hear the harps so well here.

Levine/Chicago: My observation on the Boston brass surprised me (a little), especially since Chicago was in this sampling.  Here, Levine has the brass mellower as a choir (Bayreuthified?)  Again, neither praise nor censure, just an interesting aspect.  Jimmy does take the wings seriously:  this is easily (both by the clock and to the ear) the most rapid among the four Messengers here.  At times, I wonder if it be not troppo rapido, but it basically works, and as Jimmy once remarked here in Boston, you necessarily get the odd wrinkle "if you 'go for it'."  As with the Boston account, nice to hear the harps so clearly, particularly in the last system.

Rattle/Philharmonia: The quietest and subtlest of the lot . . . I probably ought not to have left it until last, then!  Still, I shouldn't call this at all a bad account (the orchestra sounds lovely).  It may well be only in the afore-listened-to company that it appears a bit less characterful.

[Sergeant Rock]

Steinberg/BostonAt the climax, the brass are notably rougher and more forward than the others, as well;

Off-topic comment: I would say that about some of the brass entries in Davis' Boston Sibelius cycle. I wonder if that was a characteristic of the orchestra in those days...or merely a coincidence?

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

You're certainly right, Sarge; I do remember that from a few symphonies I listened to from that set.

[Elgarian]

My back-of-the-envelope notes on a survey of Mercury, the Wingèd Messenger:

I wish, with hindsight, that I'd adopted a similar approach to yours - that is, discussing single movements across a series of interpretations. Admittedly one then loses all sense of the piece as a coherent whole, but I think when I tried to convey my responses to those different wholes, I ended up with some weird kind of average impression of each - that is, something that doesn't really exist.

I wish you'd listen to Boult's 'Uranus', Karl and say what you think. I found that particularly memorable.

[Karl Henning]

In fairness, that approach would be something of a chore with CDs (let alone LPs), where with Media Player, it's an easy drag-&-drop operation.  Which I shall happily perform with The Magician, as well.

Given time, I shall emulate your approach, for there is certainly the matter of Grand Architecture which, too, is an interesting comparison.