Holst's The Planets

[Peter Power Pop]

Just to show that not all of my comments are unfeasibly long, I've added a shorter one:

https://petersplanets.wordpress.com/

[Peter Power Pop]

Awesome, Peter. I'm glad you went with a blog. I've just finished your review of Norrington's Planets. Good read. ...

Thanks.

... Keep up the good work.

Can do.

(I haven't read the Rozhdestvensky review yet)

Beware: That's probably the longest one I've written. You're under no obligation whatsoever to read all of it.

[Peter Power Pop]

As far as I can tell, I have only four more Planets to hear and I'll be done. This is all I'm missing:

• Adrian Leaper (Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, 1995)*
• James Loughran (Hallé Orchestra, 1975)*
• Seiji Ozawa (Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1979)
• Hilary Davan Wetton (London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1989)

(*Bought, but not yet arrived chez Peter.)

[Moonfish]

Very interesting PPP! I had a blast reading (while listening) your comments about Norrington's Planets!
You certainly chopped and sliced Mars into tiny cubes...   

[Peter Power Pop]

There is another way if you want to post it here. Start a thread - but then post 50-60 times to reserve those slots for future use. Just say 'Reserved for future use' or something like that. Then, people can post after the last one you reserve. You can then edit each one as you go. But better too many - you can't add more, but you can delete.

Actually, that's a great idea for the blog (i.e., the thing I ended up going with for the list). I'll create a swag of empty posts, number them sequentially, and fill them all in when I've finalised the list. Easy peasy.

[Karl Henning]

   
• Seiji Ozawa (Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1979)

I've not heard this one, but the year is encouraging.  Seiji was still on his game then.

[Peter Power Pop]

Very interesting PPP! I had a blast reading (while listening) your comments about Norrington's Planets!

Much obliged, Moony.

You certainly chopped and sliced Mars into tiny cubes...   

With my comments I tried to be as brief and succinct as possible. I soon discovered that I'm hopeless at such slippery concepts as "brief" and "succinct". I got carried away far too often, and ended up writing a whole heap o' stuff that I'd call "inconsequential".

(And I'll try not to not use quotation marks for words and phrases any more. Well, not any more than I "have to".)

[Peter Power Pop]

Seiji Ozawa (Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1979)

I've not heard this one, but the year is encouraging.  Seiji was still on his game then.

Going off-topic for a moment, Seiji's Romeo and Juliet (from 1987) is my favourite version.

[relm1]

Peter, I liked reading your play-by-play review of the  Norrington planets.  I felt like you were watching a football game at play. You should also add my edit to your exhaustive list. I would be curious to hear what you think of it.

[Christo]

Great job! Looking forward to your final verdict with eager anticipation. Me, too, have dozens of Planets on the shelf - hope to be able to do away with many of them in order to get room for, errr, other cd's. 

[Peter Power Pop]

Great job! Looking forward to your final verdict with eager anticipation. Me, too, have dozens of Planets on the shelf - hope to be able to do away with many of them ...

Feel free to send any of them my way. All CD donations* gratefully received.

... in order to get room for, errr, other cd's. 

I know where you're coming from.


(*Just to avoid accusations of freeloading, I'd also be happy to buy** if you wanted to sell.)

(**But free is much better.)

[Peter Power Pop]

Peter, I liked reading your play-by-play review of the  Norrington planets. ...

Thanks.

... I felt like you were watching a football game at play.

Although it wasn't planned that way (my original idea was to simply offer short summaries of each version), I ended up jotting down comments as I listened to the music. I had a heap o' fun doing it that way (instead of the standard "listen to the whole thing and then make portentous pronouncements" method), because it felt more informal and far less authoritative. One thing I didn't want to do was to make it appear that whatever I said was the final word in recommendations. It's simply what I thought of the music.

With me nattering on about the music as it was playing, I wanted to give you the sense that we were listening to the music together*, and I was simply letting you know what I thought of it.

In other words, I took on the role of the chatty listener sitting next to you as you try to listen. (You know the type... Me: "Did you hear the oboist there? Wow!" You: "Yes I did. Shut up.")

You should also add my edit to your exhaustive list. I would be curious to hear what you think of it.

Er, I don't quite know what you mean by "add my edit". What do you mean by that? Did you want to edit something? Or did something in that sentence fall prey to Autocorrect?


(*Spotify helps enormously there, offering playlists for a lot of the Planets recordings.)

[Peter Power Pop]

Seiji Ozawa (Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1979)

I've not heard this one, but the year is encouraging.  Seiji was still on his game then.

I only found out about the Ozawa recording recently (i.e., last week, when I was looking for more Planets recordings).

There's scant information about it on the Internets, although I did find a Spanish blog post that compared 31 versions of The Planets that included Seiji's version.

This is the translated (by Google) section on Seiji's effort:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------



14. Ozawa / Boston Symphony Orchestra (Philips-Newton, 1979) Using his enormous technical, very particularly its developed sense of color and his usual elegance, oriental teacher gives a lesson in plasticity in the orchestral treatment - seriously impressive string, building a fabulously planned and executed beautifully sounded alien to any excess and very focused on the expressive version. A higher dose of imagination, claw and commitment needed to reach the exceptional. A highlight in any case the slow introduction of Saturn and a very slow and mysterious Neptune. By contrast, the central melody paladeadísima "elgariana" Jupiter is like with Herrmann somewhat swollen, while the solo violin shows a sound in excess fragile Venus and Mercury. (8)

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[relm1]

Thanks.

Although it wasn't planned that way (my original idea was to simply offer short summaries of each version), I ended up jotting down comments as I listened to the music. I had a heap o' fun doing it that way (instead of the standard "listen to the whole thing and then make portentous pronouncements" method), because it felt more informal and far less authoritative. One thing I didn't want to do was to make it appear that whatever I said was the final word in recommendations. It's simply what I thought of the music.

With me nattering on about the music as it was playing, I wanted to give you the sense that we were listening to the music together*, and I was simply letting you know what I thought of it.

In other words, I took on the role of the chatty listener sitting next to you as you try to listen. (You know the type... Me: "Did you hear the oboist there? Wow!" You: "Yes I did. Shut up.")

Er, I don't quite know what you mean by "add my edit". What do you mean by that? Did you want to edit something? Or did something in that sentence fall prey to Autocorrect?


(*Spotify helps enormously there, offering playlists for a lot of the Planets recordings.)

With my edit, what I mean is that I edited a few versions to create a sort of desert island edition.  For example, this Mars is mostly Dutoit/Montreal but a few places that had errors, I edited a different though comparable version.  Saturn I use my favorite version - Mehta.  Neptune I slowed the tempo down and added some more low end to the strings (just a tough).  So this is a unique edition that mixes several versions.  Part of what qualifies me to do this is I have performed the work in its entirety (bass trombone) and am a professional composer so these edits are pro level edits of someone very closely acquainted with the music inside and out.  But these are personal interpretive ideas so someone like you might not agree and I'm curious about that.

[Peter Power Pop]

With my edit, what I mean is that I edited a few versions to create a sort of desert island edition. For example, this Mars is mostly Dutoit/Montreal but a few places that had errors, I edited a different though comparable version.  Saturn I use my favorite version - Mehta.  Neptune I slowed the tempo down and added some more low end to the strings (just a tough).  So this is a unique edition that mixes several versions.  Part of what qualifies me to do this is I have performed the work in its entirety (bass trombone) and am a professional composer so these edits are pro level edits of someone very closely acquainted with the music inside and out.  But these are personal interpretive ideas so someone like you might not agree and I'm curious about that.

Thanks for clarifying, relm1.

Well, that's one way of listening to The Planets. It's not for me, I'm afraid. The thought of a Frankenstein version is, in my head anyway, fraught with a load of undesirable variables, and would make a frustrating and unsatisfying listening experience. There would be variables such as differing recording quality, hall acoustics, choice of tempo, volume levels etc. For example, I don't see how bits of Sir Neville Marriner's mellow version could co-exist with, say, William Steinberg's raw version, no matter how good they both are.

As for adding your dream version of The Planets to the list, I won't. I wanted to restrict the list to commercially-available CDs. And that list is plenty long enough as it is.

[relm1]

Thanks for clarifying, relm1.

Well, that's one way of listening to The Planets. It's not for me, I'm afraid. The thought of a Frankenstein version is, in my head anyway, fraught with a load of undesirable variables, and would make a frustrating and unsatisfying listening experience. There would be variables such as differing recording quality, hall acoustics, choice of tempo, volume levels etc. For example, I don't see how bits of Sir Neville Marriner's mellow version could co-exist with, say, William Steinberg's raw version, no matter how good they both are.

As for adding your dream version of The Planets to the list, I won't. I wanted to restrict the list to commercially-available CDs. And that list is plenty long enough as it is.

Valid points.  Cheers.  I will say it is interesting that Holst's work is so good that no single recording captures it perfectly.  It demands multiple versions to capture the soul of the work.

[Peter Power Pop]

I've added six more reviews to the still-in-draft-mode Recommend Planets list for your perusal:

Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1970
Walter Susskind, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, 1975
Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic Orchestra, 2010
Sir Charles Mackerras, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, 1989
Geoffrey Simon, London Symphony Orchestra, 1987
Sir Simon Rattle, Berliner Philharmoniker, 2006

[amw]

I've only got one Planets, feat. Simon Rattle and some asteroids. I've had it for yonks so have probably imprinted, but it would be interesting to see where it ranks.

[Peter Power Pop]

I've only got one Planets, feat. Simon Rattle and some asteroids. I've had it for yonks so have probably imprinted, but it would be interesting to see where it ranks.

Not terribly high.

I'll post that one shortly.

Update: Posted.

Sir Simon Rattle, Berliner Philharmoniker, 2006

[Peter Power Pop]

I've only got one Planets, feat. Simon Rattle and some asteroids. I've had it for yonks so have probably imprinted, but it would be interesting to see where it ranks.

Not terribly high.

I'll post that one shortly.

Update: Posted.

Sir Simon Rattle, Berliner Philharmoniker, 2006

However, I'm pleased to say that The Rattler's 1981 version (with the Philharmonia Orchestra) is rated higher. (Well, by me anyway.) I preferred its freshness. To me, the 2006 Berlin version is a big lumbering beast.