Gustav HOLST (1874-1934)
Beni Mora, Oriental Suite, Op. 29 No. 1, H 107 (1909/10) [16:50]
Japanese Suite, Op. 33, H 126 (1915) [11:33]
The Planets, Suite for Large Orchestra, Op. 32, H 125 (1914-16) [49:40]
Manchester Chamber Choir
BBC Philharmonic/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 24-25 June 2010. DSD
CHANDOS HYBRID SACD CHSA5086 [78:24]
Also available as CHAN5086: download from theclassicalshop.net
in mp3, lossless, 24-bit/96kHz and 24-bit surround sound. Pdf Booklet available
with download.
I listened to this recording as a CD-quality download and Dan Morgan chose
the 24/96 download, the latter at least equivalent to the stereo layer of
the SACD, both from Chandos’s own site, theclassicalshop.net.
I had very high expectations for this new recording of Holst, not least because
Andrew Davis had already made a distinguished recording of The Planets
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, coupled with Egdon Heath, now available
at super-budget price on Warner’s Apex label (8573 890872). He has also made
a number of other distinguished recordings of 20th-century British
music, including Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony (Apex 0927 495842, also
in box set of VW symphonies), Elgar’s Falstaff (Apex 2564 622002 –
see review
– and Lyrita SRCD-301 – see review
and review)
and Elgar’s Crown of India for Chandos (CHAN10570: Download of the
Month - see December 2009 Download
Roundup and review
by John France).
Then, too, Chandos already had a very decent pioneering recording of The
Planets from Sir Alexander Gibson, available on An Introduction to
Gustav Holst with the Brook Green and St Paul’s suites (CHAN2026)
at lower mid-price on CD or download or, without coupling, on Chandos Collect
CHAN6633 (download only at super-budget price). It’s also included in Chandos’s
30th-anniversary box – see review.
The fillers that I mentioned, Egdon Heath and the Brook Green
and St Paul’s suites, appear on other discs but Beni Mora and
the Japanese Suite, especially the latter, are much less readily available.
All in all, I sat down to listen all ears.
As the cover design reminds us, this recording had been scheduled as second
in a series intended for the late Richard Hickox. He recorded The Planets
very successfully for the budget Pickwick label in 1987, reissued and re-coupled
with the Moorside Suite on Regis RRC1200 at super-budget price. I was
however disappointed with the new CD. That disappointment began with Beni
Mora, a work which relies on insistent rhythm in order not to sound monotonous.
Davis is not exactly guilty of monotony, but the music doesn’t have the power
which it really needs – it’s just too slow to get underway.
For Beni Mora with Egdon Heath, Somerset Rhapsody, Hammersmith
and Invocation, you can’t do better than the inexpensive Naxos recording
which I recommended in the May 2009 Download
Roundup, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones (8.553696). Another very fine
recording of Beni Mora also includes the Japanese Suite under
the direction of Sir Adrian Boult on Lyrita (SRCD.222).
Unfortunately, I didn’t have this to hand for comparison – it’s disappeared
somewhere in my collection, no doubt to reappear as soon as I send this review
off. Both the Naxos and Lyrita versions capture the momentum of the music
without losing track of its mystery, and both sound very well without the
extreme dynamic range of the new Chandos, where quiet passages are almost
inaudible at normal listening levels throughout.
This is just the sort of music that many will wish to play in the car but
the Chandos sounds least well in the context of fighting road noise. I listened
to the CD-quality lossless version and thought it good, but really not much
better than the older Warner Apex recording or the early-digital Karajan,
now on DG Karajan Gold, though, sadly, with the gloriously tasteless organ
burst toned down in the new mix (439 0112).
I found the Japanese Suite the highlight of the programme – competitive
even with Boult on Lyrita – but The Planets only intermittently catch
fire on the new recording. There are places where the understatement is effective
– the unsentimental performance of the ‘big tune’ in Jupiter mitigates
unpleasant memories of the jingoistic words of the first verse of the hymn
which has become indelibly attached to it – but I found the overall effect
underwhelming.
Someone coming to The Planets for the first time in this version would
not be ill-served by it, though they might wonder if it was worth laying out
as much as £19.99 for the 24-bit surround version. They might also wonder
why the work had become so popular, a question which never arose from the
recordings by Boult and Sargent which were my introduction to the piece and
which pull out the stops a little further than Davis. There are several recordings
by Boult – many still swear by his first, 1945, version, which subscribers
can try on the Naxos Music Library. It’s also available on Beulah 2PD12 -
see review
by Christopher Howell. I haven’t heard the Beulah transfer but on the Radiex
version from the Naxos Music Library the sound is amazingly good for its age:
download from classicsonline.com for £4.99 (not available in the USA and several
other countries).
It’s to Boult’s final stereo recording on HMV that most listeners will turn,
most recently and least expensively reissued on EMI Masters 6317832 with Elgar’s
Enigma Variations for around six pounds or even less – see review
by Michael Cookson.
Of recording many Planets there is no end, as the MusicWeb International
index demonstrates. Very few of the available versions are less than competent
but Boult’s final version must be my ultimate recommendation. Three very inexpensive
versions also possess real virtues: the Apex reissue of Andrew Davis’s earlier
recording mentioned above, Vernon Handley on Alto – ALC1013, Bargain of the
Month: see review
– and, for those wishing to hear Colin Matthews’ extension of the work with
Pluto – alas, now downgraded to a mere planetoid – Mark Elder, reissued
on Hyperion’s super-budget label Helios CDH55350 – see review.
All these are less expensive than the new Chandos and are more amenable to
my view of The Planets, though none is available on SACD or as a 24-bit
download – on which subject I must refer you back to Dan Morgan, who tried
the 24-bit version.
Brian Wilson
Holst’s Beni Mora, the result of a trip to Algeria
in 1908, certainly does have an Oriental flavour, as the composer’s original
title suggests. Those shimmering harp figures in the first dance are beautifully
recorded, as are the bass drum and cymbals. So, this high-res download is
very promising technically – just listen to those ear-pricking timp taps in
the second dance. Chandos have recorded this music at a fairly low level,
but cranking up the volume does bring the orchestra into sharper focus. This
uplift also brings with it a better sense of the ‘air’ around the notes. In
other words, it all sounds a bit more dynamic.
Beni Mora is a deftly scored little piece that really does benefit
from a detailed, high-res recording, so it’s all the more disappointing that
Davis’s version burns with such a low flame. Which is also true of that other
piece of orchestral exoticism, the Japanese Suite. Written in the midst
of The Planets, its six short movements display the same transparency
of texture that we hear in Beni Mora, albeit with a bit more heft.
The Prelude – Song of the Fisherman doesn’t sound particularly Japanese,
nor indeed does the rest of the piece; still, it’s attractive enough, and
the BBC Philharmonic play very well indeed. The upper strings sound especially
silky in the Interlude, but The Dance under the Cherry Tree is almost inaudible
at normal listening levels. As for the Finale – Dance of the Wolves, this
adds much-needed meat to an otherwise undernourished performance.
Worthy fillers, but I suspect most audiophiles will gravitate towards The
Planets, which is surprisingly well-served on SACD. Davis takes Mars at
a fairly deliberate pace, and while the sound is both vivid and detailed I
longed for a bit more momentum and menace here. Surely one’s enemies wouldn’t
bat an eyelid at this very subdued snare drum? To be fair, matters improve
as the movement progresses, but by then the battle is already lost. Sonically
Mars isn’t as overwhelming as it should be, either. Venus fares a little better
– those rocking figures as alluring as ever – but that’s not saying a great
deal.
This is turning out to be a very strange performance indeed. Compared with
Boult’s last EMI version – or, for that matter, John Eliot Gardiner’s for
DG – this new Planets sounds too much like a run-through. Just listen
to the start of Mercury – The Winged Messenger; not a lot of lift there. And
that’s the nub of it; Davis persistently under-characterises these planetary
portraits, robbing them of their distinctive personalities. Jupiter doesn’t
seem particularly jovial – certainly not at this ponderous pace – and how
I miss the mystery, the sheer frisson, that Boult brings to the start
of Saturn and Uranus respectively. Even that thundering organ chord doesn’t
efface memories of Sir Adrian’s last Planets; as for Davis’s Neptune,
it’s surprisingly clear-eyed, the wordless chorus not nearly as other-worldly
as it should be.
It’s a fittingly prosaic finale to a very dull set of readings. Sonically
this is not a bad recording, but it doesn’t even come close to the dynamism
and flair of Chandos’ 24-bit/96kHz download of Casella’s Second Symphony (review).
In any case, good sound doesn’t count for much if the performances aren’t
up to scratch. And that, regrettably, is the case here. Very disappointing
indeed.
Dan Morgan
Much better versions of The Planets are available, some at budget price,
like Davis’s own earlier recording.