Tír Na HiFi

humble pie duly devoured, Mr Fergus!

Try to get over the fact that some of the movements have become lollipops Jared and listen to the music for what it is.

^^ the 2nd of my three 'new' versions is on as we speak... BBC Music Mag have issued a Proms Special, with Adrian Boult's live version from Sept 1973 with the BBC Symph and the London Choral Society... of course, he's an assured, experienced hand at this material, so it is predictably fine.

incidentally, it's coupled (unusually) with Paul Lewis playing a very good Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 from 2010 with the BBC Symph and Jiri Belohlavek, making a disk of 82 mins 35 seconds... arguably the longest I own!

Jared wrote:^^ the 2nd of my three 'new' versions is on as we speak... BBC Music Mag have issued a Proms Special, with Adrian Boult's live version from Sept 1973 with the BBC Symph and the London Choral Society... of course, he's an assured, experienced hand at this material, so it is predictably fine.

I hope that continued listening does not lead to further contempt and that in this case familiarity will lead to content!

fergus wrote:I hope that continued listening does not lead to further contempt and that in this case familiarity will lead to content!

My problem isn't with the Suite itself Fergus, which is fine enough in it's own right. My problem is with the appalling level of it's over -exposure by way of comparison with any of his other works. Maybe living in England doesn't help, but this has been recorded by literally everyone at some time, and as you have found, there are SO many versions which are played so regularly on our airwaves, that it smacks of poverty of imagination. I can only think of Vivaldi's Four Seasons as being a comparable example of how one work has become so dominant, but at least with Vivaldi, his other works do get exposure.

The BBC Music Mag started with the laudable aim of building a comprehensive library of work for their readers, month by month, mostly with recordings from the BBC Orchestras... which is fine. They have now issued another 'Planets' suite, when none of his other works (save from a few part-songs saw the light of day about 8 years ago, on a mainly Delius disk) have ever seen the light of day, when he wrote some very appealing music, as this disk would testify:



this of course was the reason why Holst refused to write a piece for Pluto, which was 'discovered' in 1931, 3 years before his death, because he felt that even during his lifetime, that the suite had completely masked all of his other creations from the public eye...

... it continues to do so, and I for one, really feel for him.

Jared wrote:
My problem isn't with the Suite itself Fergus, which is fine enough in it's own right. My problem is with the appalling level of it's over -exposure by way of comparison with any of his other works. Maybe living in England doesn't help, but this has been recorded by literally everyone at some time, and as you have found, there are SO many versions which are played so regularly on our airwaves, that it smacks of poverty of imagination. I can only think of Vivaldi's Four Seasons as being a comparable example of how one work has become so dominant, but at least with Vivaldi, his other works do get exposure.

The MEDIA = Please the masses at the lowest common denominator!

Wouldn't you know it, my favourite radio programme of the week and I am going to miss tomorrow morning's BAL. This item should please Fergus:

Saturday 27 September 2014.
9.30am Building a Library
David Owen-Norris compares recordings of Holst’s Planets and makes a recommendation.

Seán wrote:Wouldn't you know it, my favourite radio programme of the week and I am going to miss tomorrow morning's BAL. This item should please Fergus:

Saturday 27 September 2014.
9.30am Building a Library
David Owen-Norris compares recordings of Holst’s Planets and makes a recommendation.

Many thanks for the heads up Seán. I will not get to hear it live but I will certainly listen to the playback version.