Holst's The Planets

[Peter Power Pop]

Tonight or tomorrow I can return to the source;  but in The Memoirs of an Amnesiac, Oscar Levant recounts the story of Albert Coates leading the Rochester Philharmonic in The Planets.  George Eastman (hereinafter "Sugar Daddy") was appalled by such a modern piece, and told Coates that if he conducted it again, he would be out of a job.  Coates defied Sugar Daddy, and paid the price.

Wow. I guess George really didn't like The Planets.

Thanks for defending The Planets, Albert.

https://www.youtube.com/v/Y8RgTk2ZiF8

[Peter Power Pop]

Yowser, folks.

I've just added another recording to the list at Peter's Planets:

Sir Andrew Davis, BBC Philharmonic, 2010

[amw]

I got that out from a library last week! It's a pretty subdued Planets, not as glitzy as the Rattle and Karajan recordings I already know, but well in keeping with the rest of the Chandos Holst recordings which play up his mysticism, understatement and general lack of bombast, and I was rather impressed. Definitely in my top 3 Planets.

The most recommendable disc of that series was without a doubt Richard Hickox's with Egdon Heath, Hammersmith and A Somerset Rhapsody. But generally if you see Holst and Chandos on the same cover it's a safe investment.

[Peter Power Pop]

I got that out from a library last week! It's a pretty subdued Planets, not as glitzy as the Rattle and Karajan recordings I already know, but well in keeping with the rest of the Chandos Holst recordings which play up his mysticism, understatement and general lack of bombast, and I was rather impressed. Definitely in my top 3 Planets.

It's in my top 34.

The most recommendable disc of that series was without a doubt Richard Hickox's with Egdon Heath, Hammersmith and A Somerset Rhapsody. But generally if you see Holst and Chandos on the same cover it's a safe investment.

Yep.

[André]

Peter, have you reviewed the David Lloyd-Jones recording (cum Pluto) on Naxos ?.

[Peter Power Pop]

Peter, have you reviewed the David Lloyd-Jones recording (cum Pluto) on Naxos ?.

Yes indeedy:

https://petersplanets.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/lloyd-jones-2001/

[Peter Power Pop]

Another review for Peter's Planets:

(Disclaimer: It's not much of a review.)

Thomas Kalb, Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg, 1999

[Maestro267]

I have a recording of Holst's The Planets, and in Neptune, the celesta plays an octave lower than usual. This recording (RSNO/Lloyd-Jones) has Colin Matthews' Pluto added to the end. Is the octave-lower celesta a "difference" of this version compared to the one without Pluto, in the way that Matthews keeps a violin note to segue into Pluto? Or is it just an oddity with this specific performance/recording?

[Maestro267]

74 views, and no answer?

[Que]

Well, we had kind of a Planets expert but I haven't seen him for a while now....

Q

[André]

Tha Planets blog was for a t9ime almost as exciting as a Star Wars movie (well, the first ones, not the prequels 

[Sergeant Rock]

74 views, and no answer?

I assume it's because no one has the answer...unfortunately.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

I have a recording of Holst's The Planets, and in Neptune, the celesta plays an octave lower than usual. This recording (RSNO/Lloyd-Jones) has Colin Matthews' Pluto added to the end. Is the octave-lower celesta a "difference" of this version compared to the one without Pluto, in the way that Matthews keeps a violin note to segue into Pluto? Or is it just an oddity with this specific performance/recording?

I don't know.

But I'll speculate ...

The celesta is a rarity, in that is a transposing keyboard instrument, i.e. it sounds an octave higher than notated.

So I do wonder if in that recording, the part was played by a pianist who thought it was notated at pitch.

[Peter Power Pop]

Well, we had kind of a Planets expert but I haven't seen him for a while now....

Q

In the absence of the expert, maybe I can help.

[Sergeant Rock]

//

In the absence of the expert, maybe I can help.

He's back! He's back in the saddle again... (sung to the Aerosmith tune  )

Sarge

[André]

The Power is back. Let there be light !

[kishnevi]

I don't know.

But I'll speculate ...

The celesta is a rarity, in that is a transposing keyboard instrument, i.e. it sounds an octave higher than notated.

So I do wonder if in that recording, the part was played by a pianist who thought it was notated at pitch.

You would think someone noticed if that were so.

The Power is back. Let there be light !

[North Star]

You would think someone noticed if that were so.

Yeah, unless it was a concert recording and the celestial replacement hadn't been in any rehearsals before the event, or it just slipped from their mind in the concert. Still, that does seem like the most plausible solution.

[EigenUser]

I don't know.

But I'll speculate ...

The celesta is a rarity, in that is a transposing keyboard instrument, i.e. it sounds an octave higher than notated.

So I do wonder if in that recording, the part was played by a pianist who thought it was notated at pitch.

Aren't performance parts always written transposed (i.e. so they don't have to do this in their head)? I play violin so that has never been a problem for me, but even though some scores are written in concert pitch I always thought that the parts were transposed accordingly.

[Karl Henning]

Aren't performance parts always written transposed (i.e. so they don't have to do this in their head)? I play violin so that has never been a problem for me, but even though some scores are written in concert pitch I always thought that the parts were transposed accordingly.

Yes . . . it would involve the pianist sort of "re-setting" his hands on the keys. Striking middle C, and hearing the octave above, and compensating.