Ethan Canin - Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)
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CD Details
Artist: Ethan CaninComposer: Gustav Holst
Conductor: Charles Dutoit
Orchestra: Montréal Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-09-29
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- Mars, The Bringer Of War
- Venus, The Bringer Of Peace
- Mercury, The Winged Messenger
- Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity
- Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age
- Uranus, The Magician
- Neptune, The Mystic
Music reviews of Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)
Music Review: Worth hearing this performance of "Saturn"
Rating: 5 Stars
The "hype" for Gustav Holst's "The Planets" is absolutely true: this is one of the great leaps of the musical imagination. Drawing upon the mythological origins of the names of the planets of the solar systems (excluding Earth and the as-yet-undiscovered Pluto), Holst created a seven-movement suite that is still today beloved for its compelling musical visions and thrilling orchestrations. "The Planets" is, to this day, an enchanting and completely memorable work...especially if it is given a well-played, sympathetic performance.
For the most part, that is what Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra provide in this CD (which only contains the suite). Sure, perhaps at times the playing could use a bit more savage bite---the strings sometimes sound a bit thin, at least compared to the string section of, say, the Berlin Philharmonic---but, when it counts, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra can deliver the goods. And Charles Dutoit's interpretation overall is splendid: sensitive to atmosphere and mood, but also attentive to the bigger picture, movement by movement and as a whole.
Now, for those of you may never have heard this work, you might be thinking, "as a whole? This sounds like simply like a collection of seven little tone poems. What do you mean by 'as a whole'?" Sure, "The Planets" is not exactly a symphony, per se. But, at least as Dutoit and his orchestra play it, there is a center of sorts to the whole work, and that center is "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age." In the previous four movements, Holst follows up the orchestral battle of "Mars, the Bringer of War" with three basically positive movements: the ethereal "Venus, the Bringer of Peace" (a little slow in this performance, but ravishing nevertheless); the quicksilver "Mercury, the Winged Messenger"; and the alternately joyous and yearning "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity," with its highly tuneful central theme.
But then "Saturn" comes creaking in, and suddenly the work goes into altogether darker waters. And this is where this performance really hits its stride. Not even Adrian Boult---who is often considered an authority in this work, and whose last EMI recording of the work (now a part of the "Great Recordings of the Century" series) should be heard as well---is as viscerally frightening as Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra are in rendering Holst's unforgettable depiction of the frailty and fear of death that comes in old age. I would almost say that what took Mahler four long movements to express in his Ninth Symphony, Holst takes in about 10 minutes to express in "Saturn"; a clamorous orchestra tutti with bells and brass prominent gives way to the soft-voiced acceptance of death that closes the movement. The final note---as does the final note of the concluding Adagio of Mahler's Ninth---seems to fade away into oblivion. All of this is fantastically interpreted by Dutoit and performed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; their performance of this movement alone makes this disc worth the purchase.
And so on, from the medium-speed "Sorcerer's Apprentice"-style happenings of "Uranus, the Magician", to "Neptune, the Mystic", a truly mystical finale that introduces a wordless female choir into the mix in its second half. This choir-dominated part of the movement has always struck me as something of a brilliant afterthought, a cool orchestral effect Holst simply couldn't resist putting in, even if the movement could conceivably have been effective without it. (The section is also, strangely, marked "Allegro", although Dutoit takes it at a much slower, arguably more effectively atmospheric tempo.) But the ending, in a way, is magical: as the choir repeats the same two notes and become softer and softer, it is as if we are slowly being transported out of Holst's musical solar system and into some sort of great beyond.
(Very minor) misgivings aside, Holst's "The Planets" is still one of the great glories of orchestral literature, one whose pleasures of the imagination will hopefully always remain fresh. And Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, for the most part, do the work justice. As mentioned before, Sir Adrian Boult's EMI recording of the work from the late 1970s is also worth hearing, a quite different but no less compelling interpretation powerfully played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (and more fiercely recorded than this more natural-sounding Decca disc). But Dutoit's reading is worthy of your attention nevertheless, especially for the fantastic and deeply moving "Saturn." Recommended.
More Holst: The Planets / Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series) free music reviews:
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