July 6, 2012

  • Review: Holst Symphonic Music

     

    Holst: Cotswold’s Symphony; Music
    Ulster Orchestra/JoAnn Falletta
    Naxos 8.572914
    Total Time:  65:55
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    The present Naxos release comes from an October 2011 recording featuring JoAnn Falleta conducting the Ulster Orchestra.  Under Vernon Handley, the orchestra had a long history of recording oft-neglected British music along with important standards building a strong back catalogue of performances.  Here they take a look at some of Gustav Holst’s (1874 – 1934) least familiar works.  Earlier this year, a re-release of a 2002 Classico recording with the Munich Symphony Orchestra of Holst’s Cotswold’s Symphony appeared coupled with several lesser known works, one of which opens this disc, the Walt Whitman Overture, Op. 7.

    The Walt Whitman Overture, Op. 7 was written in 1899 and certainly sounds like such a work from the period.  The harmonic support certainly lends a bit to Wagner though comes closer to the style of Richard Strauss, or Mahler in places.  The fantastic brass writing are really amazing indicators of Holst’s ability for wind writing—he was a trombonist after all in the Scottish Orchestra and Cal Rosa Opera Company.  In this Ulster performance, one can hear more of the Elgar-ian style (a musical connection leading back to Brahms) especially in a central section that sounds quite British with a bit of 19th century style thrown in as well.  This performance is quite preferred to the earlier one with brass performing admirably.  Falletta seems to be quite committed to this music and her direction here is reminiscent of the many American early-century recordings she has made here in the states.  This piece incidentally, remained unperformed until 1982.  It proves to be a work worth discovering in Falletta’s hands.

    The “Cotswold” Symphony, Op. 8 from 1899-1900 was written while Holst was a member of the aforementioned ensembles.  The focus in the work is the moving second-movement “Elegy”in memoriam of the utopian socialist William Morris—the core of the work.  The briskness of the opening movement works very well in this performance.  Falletta’s tempo shaves over a minute and a half off the Munich recording reviewed here earlier in the year.  Her tempos make this a tighter piece overall.  The drama of the music though is perfectly captured.  The slow movement really soars in ways that felt turgid by comparison in the earlier recording.  The work received its only performance in 1902 and would seem but a curiosity in the annals of Holsts oeuvre except that in this performance one can really hear some of Holst’s style beginning to form.  There are still plenty of Wagner-ian (or perhaps Elgar-ian would be more appropriate) moments.  The music begins to have a rather parallel feel to that of American symphonists of the latter 19th and early 20th-centuryies.  At only two important early works to recommend this new Naxos disc, one could simply stop here, but there are three additionally interesting later works presented as well.

    After two such large works, the recording moves to one of Holst’s early student works, A Winter’s Idyll (1897).  Holst studied with Stanford and this early work perhaps bears that composer’s influence slightly.  The music gives an example of Holst’s narrative dramatic writing in this miniature tone poem of sorts.  Most interesting is hearing flashes of British-flavored music in the mix of Germanic styles.  The brief piece makes for a delightful surprising filler. 

    Though known almost exclusively for his monumental orchestral work, The Planets, and what have become repertoire wind band works, Holst wrote a number of other pieces in the first two decades of the 20th century.  The latest work on the release is a surprising Japanese Suite, Op. 33.  The suite was written for the Japanese dancer Michio Ito in 1915.  The six movements make good use of Orientalisms and letting listeners hear Holst’s approach to exotic music.  The musical approach is amazingly colorful with moments that will remind listeners of Holst’s brilliant orchestration from The Planets and in “Dance of the Marionette” he seems to have hit upon a Petrushka-like sound.  The music is at times almost cinematic in its depiction of these scenes.  The “Song of the Fisherman” has its own seascape that is only hinted at briefly in a couple swells. 

    The exoticism of the suite is simply a later incarnation of that found in some of the works Holst wrote influenced by Indian philosophy.  His setting of texts from the Rig Veda and the use of the Ramayana for his first opera, Sita, and the later Savitri would all exhibit this interest.  The symphonic poem Indra, Op. 13 (1903) takes its inspiration from a legend of this god of rain and storm who battles the demon Vritra.  Vritra’s conflict led to a drought  and Indra’s victory brings rain and cause for celebration.  It is interesting to hear this sort of narrative music which features some amazing colors and a reminder at Holst’s growing command of orchestral writing.  Listen closely and you will even hear motivic development and sounds that would reach their heights in The Planets.

    Falletta’s new release of Holst’s lesser known music is the sort of thing one has seen with her American Music series on the label.  These are well-conceived performances with obvious care taken to give them the sort of attention normally reserved for the “warhorse” classics of the 19th or 20th century.  The Ulster Orchestra appointed her their new Principal Conductor in May 2011 and one suspects there are many more amazing things yet to be heard from them in the coming years.  At any rate, this is one of those releases you will want to immediately return to and hear this music again which is quite an accomplishment given that some of these pieces have languished for years.