Gustav Holst - The Planets (Charles Dutoit)

Information

Composer: Gustav Holst

1. The Planets, Op. 32: 1. Mars, the Bringer of War
2. The Planets, Op. 32: 2. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
3. The Planets, Op. 32: 3. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
4. The Planets, Op. 32: 4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
5. The Planets, Op. 32: 5. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
6. The Planets, Op. 32: 6. Uranus, the Magician
7. The Planets, Op. 32: 7. Neptune, the Mystic

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal

Charles Dutoit, conductor

Date: 1987

Label: Decca

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Review

From those of its recordings which I have heard, I judge that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has become a world-class orchestra under Charles Dutoit's conductorship. It certainly sounds like one in this superlative recording of The Planets, which now seems to me to be the best available on both LP and CD, displacing Karajan's on DG. No one who enjoys the work should be without a Boult Planets for obvious reasons (PRT GSGC2060, 6/54 or EMI ESD7135, 4/82 or EMI ASD3649, 4/79—all LPs), but with it, and if you can afford it, you should try to acquire this stunning performance, recorded as finely as it is played. The LP easily absorbs the ferocious power of ''Mars'' without any distortion, but the end is even more impressive and conveys the full dynamic range of a most remarkable interpretation.

Recorded in St Eustache, Montreal, the acoustic lends just enough extra resonance and brilliance to the string tone. But the accuracy and understanding of the playing are outstanding in themselves—the surge of organ-tone in ''Mars'' and the strings' swirling crescendo at fig. 11 in the same movement, the exquisitely placed final note of ''Venus'' and the secure playing by the solo horn and oboe, the brilliant fleet-footedness of ''Mercury'' and the agile woodwind in ''Jupiter'', where the big tune flows broadly and unselfconsciously. In ''Saturn'', the best movement, the atmospheric start is chilling and continues throughout Holst's vision of old age in all its creaking terror. Last and emphatically not least, after a gloriously lively ''Uranus'', the problematical ''Neptune'' is played with Gallic refinement, the distant voices are perfectly balanced and maintain pitch as they fade from our hearing. Women's voices, too, I am glad to say, not children's, as in the rival Andrew Davis version on EMI from Toronto.'

-- Gramophone

More reviews:

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Nov/Holst-Planets-4761724.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/holst-the-planets-mw0001531034

https://www.amazon.com/Holst-Planets-Gustav/dp/B0000041S7

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Gustav Holst (21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer and teacher. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford. Holst served as musical director at Morley College from 1907 to 1924, and pioneered music education for women at St Paul's Girls' School from 1905 until his death in 1934. He was an important influence on younger English composers, including Edmund Rubbra, Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten. Apart from The Planets and a handful of other works, his music was generally neglected until the 1980s, when recordings of much of his output became available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst

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Charles Dutoit (born October 7, 1936) is a Swiss conductor. Born in Lausanne, he studied there, and graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Genève. Dutoit began his professional music career in 1957 as a viola player and made his debut as a professional conductor in 1959. He was chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra (1968–1978) and the Gothenburg Symphony (1976–1979). In 1977, Dutoit became the artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and hold this position until 2002. From 2009 to 2018, he was principal conductor and artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dutoit

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