This coupling
is natural but not unique. Koch International Classics released
it on 37018-2, though without the little Holst filler. Pearl
has released the 1926 Planets on GEMM CD9417. Dutton has done
the honours for the VW-conducted Fourth on CDBP 9731, where
it’s coupled with Barbirolli’s first recording of VW’s Fifth.
Both the Planets and the VW Four are linked through the advocacy
of Adrian Boult who famously premiered them both. And so now
at budget price comes this new Naxos.
Most people who
have an objective view on the subject and who have listened
to the two performances either on 78 (preferable) or on a
number of transfers over the years come down firmly on the
side of Holst’s earlier, acoustic 1923 recording of the Planets.
Its rhythmic profile is that much more persuasive and Holst
was nothing if not implacable in his promotion of rhythm in
his performances. Despite the limitations of the late acoustic
set-up I’ve also much preferred it as a major statement from
a relatively inexperienced composer-conductor on his own work.
The later early electric is not at all poor but is subject
to some of the kind of exaggerations in tempo and balance
that are not present three years earlier, certainly not to
the same extent. Over a decade ago Pearl issued all Holst’s
acoustic recordings so the Holst devotee should without fail
seek out that earlier disc and contrast it with the 1926 electric.
VW’s blistering
performance of the Fourth Symphony is deservedly famous and
no amount of revisionist thinking alters its implacable importance
in the scheme of things. It’s one of the few recordings of
him as conductor. There are some acoustic Vocalions of the
Wasps and Old King Cole ballet, now quite hard to pick up
in their original form, and in 1929 he recorded some trifling
folk pieces for Columbia – one was broadcast on Radio 3 not
so long ago. His St Matthew Passion, in English, has
miraculously survived and has been issued by Pearl. But the
Symphony is his legacy as a composer-conductor. The BBC orchestra
copes manfully with VW’s exceptionally fast tempi, though
even Paul Beard and his string playing colleagues can’t quite
keep up and ensemble does come adrift at times.
I’m not very happy
with these transfers. I’m not sure whether it’s the fault
of the American Columbias used for the Holst but the transfer
sounds dead. It’s transferred at a higher level than A.C.
Griffith’s EMI work and has somewhat less surface noise as
well, which is fine. But it’s more constricted than the EMI.
I’m aware that at least one previous transfer has used artificial
reverb to attempt to compensate for the Petty France studio’s
lack of bloom but there seems to be too here much lost in
higher frequencies. I also can’t believe that the US Victor
Golds used for the VW were so dull. Past EMI work on this
has veered from good-ish to downright peculiar, with a torrid
swishy quality to the original, which was, it’s true, not
the last word (perhaps appropriately) in finesse. Here this
Naxos VW transfer sounds computerised half to death. Disappointing.
Jonathan
Woolf
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London Symphony Orchestra/Gustav
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