Gustav Holst - St. Paul's Suite; Lyric Movement; etc. (Ross Pople)

Information

Composer: Gustav Holst

• St. Paul's Suite, Op. 29 No. 2
• Lyric Movement, for viola & chamber orchestra
• Brook Green Suite
• A Fugal Concerto, for flute, oboe & string orchestra, Op. 40 No. 2
• Scottish Airs, for piano & strings
• Morris Dance Tunes
• In the Bleak Midwinter, for chorus & organ (arr. Malcolm Messiter)

Edward Beckett, flute

Malcolm Messiter, oboe

Rachel Bolt, viola

Michael Freyhan, piano

London Festival Orchestra

Ross Pople, conductor

Date: 1995

Label: Arte Nova

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Review

If you've stumbled upon this disc hoping to find works similar to Holst's masterpiece The Planets, you may well be disappointed to discover that his mystical work from 1916 has virtually no parallels in his compositional output. His style, developed while teaching music at the James Allen's Girls' School in London, is a cheerful, simple, and expressive folk-based idiom that, in the same manner as Bartók's Mikrokosmos series for piano, was written to serve the purposes of pedagogy as well as art. The St. Paul's Suite, one of Holst's more popular works for string orchestra, is best known for its finale, which combines the folk song "the Dargason" with a later superimposition of Greensleeves. Ross Pople and the London Festival Orchestra give a crisp, breezy performance of this work, instilling a lightness and airiness that bring out a real sense of Scottish flavor in "the Jig." Continuing in the Gaelic tradition, pianist Michael Freyhan joins for a flavorful performance of the Seven Scottish Airs, a work with an inherently charming collection of melodies and one not often recorded. The Lyric Movement, composed just before Holst's death, is far more melancholic in mood and introspective in character. While violist Rachel Bolt's performance is enjoyable and communicative, it does lack a certain degree of focus. Nevertheless, this late work is certainly one of the most interesting selections on the album. The Fugal Concerto, written for flute, oboe, and string orchestra, embodies Holst's cheerful optimism and is given a sprightly performance with the help of oboist Malcolm Messiter and flutist Edward Beckett. Messiter's own arrangement of Holst's popular hymn In the Bleak Midwinter (originally for chorus and organ) is also featured. Sensitively pastoral performances of the Brook Green Suite and the rollicking Six Morris Dance Tunes round out the album. Unfortunately, Arte Nova's sound is somewhat dull and unfocused, but even so, the budget price and spirited performances may well make this album worth your while.

-- C. Ryan Hill, AllMusic

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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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Ross Pople (born 11 May 1945) is a New Zealand-born British conductor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, the Paris Conservatoire and the Chigiana Academia, Siena. After graduating, he became principal cellist of the Bath/Menuhin Festival Orchestra and then principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1980 Pople took up the helm of London Festival Orchestra and quickly made LFO a household name, touring throughout Europe, the Americas and the Far East. He has recorded some 80 discs for the Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, ASV and Sony BMG Arte Nova labels.

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

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