Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
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CD Details

Brand: STEINBERG,W/BOSTON
Composer: Gustav Holst
Conductor: Gustav Holst
Composer: Richard [1] Strauss
Performer: Richard [1] Strauss
Conductor: William Steinberg
Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-05-08
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
  1. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Introduction - Joseph Silverstein
  2. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Of The Backworldsmen - Joseph Silverstein
  3. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Of The Great Longing - Joseph Silverstein
  4. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Of Joys And Passions - Joseph Silverstein
  5. Thus Spake Zarathustra: The Song Of The Grave - Joseph Silverstein
  6. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Of Science And Learning - Joseph Silverstein
  7. Thus Spake Zarathustra: The Convalescent - Joseph Silverstein
  8. Thus Spake Zarathustra: The Dance-Song - Joseph Silverstein
  9. Thus Spake Zarathustra: Song Of The Night Wanderer - Joseph Silverstein
  10. The Planets Op. 32: Mars, The Bringer Of War - Allegro - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  11. The Planets Op. 32: Venus, The Bringer Of Peace - Adagio - Andante - Animato - Tempo I - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  12. The Planets Op. 32: Mercury, The Winged Messenger - Vivace - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  13. The Planets Op. 32: Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity - Allegro giocoso - Andante maestoso - Tempo I - Maestoso - Lento maestoso - Presto - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  14. The Planets Op. 32: Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age - Adagio - Andante - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  15. The Planets Op. 32: Uranus, The Magician - Allegro - Lento - Allegro - Largo - Boston Symphony Orchestra
  16. The Planets Op. 32: Neptune, The Mystic - Andante - Allegretto - Boston Symphony Orchestra

Music reviews of Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Music Review: A thirty-year-old treasure.
Rating: 5 Stars

If you've followed the fortunes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra only casually, then you'll probably be thinking that, over the last half-century, this orchestra has had only two music directors: Charles Munch, followed by Seiji Ozawa. (If you were to go back yet another quarter-century, you'd throw in the name of Serge Koussevitsky.) But there was a decade, from the early 60's to the early 70's, when the BSO was led first by Erich Leinsdorf, a fine opera conductor whose strengths did not translate particularly well to the concert stage, and then by William Steinberg, who led it all too briefly for a few years (1969 - 1972). Regrettably, Steinberg made only a handful of recordings with the BSO, and this was probably his finest.

For me, Steinberg will best be remembered for his traversal of the Brahms symphonies on Enoch Light's Command Classics label, and for this Boston recording of Gustav Holst's "The Planets." Long a favorite piece of British music for me, I believe I've owned (or at least heard) all of the recorded performances by Sir Adrian Boult (long considered the "owner" of this work), as well as critically-acclaimed recordings by Bernard Hermann, Andre Previn, Sir Malcom Sargent and Leopold Stokowski. But this Steinberg performance immediately went to the top of my list when it first came out on LP thirty years ago. It has also been critically acclaimed by that all-too-British publication, the Penguin Guide, which seldom holds American recordings of British music in such high esteem, particularly when every British conductor of any merit whatsoever has recorded this work.

Now, with its reissuance as part of DGG's "The Originals" series, Steinberg's performance is back up there, on the top of my list, getting its fair amount of playing time. I don't believe that any other conductor has provided a "Mars" with anywhere near the visceral excitement that Steinberg supplies here, or the heroic "swagger" of the Elgarian "nobilmente" theme in "Jupiter." In "Saturn" one can feel - if not hear - the organ underpinnings at the close of the movement, and again in the allegro section of "Uranus." The ethereal mysticism of "Neptune," with its wordless chorus, is gauged very well, with a satisfyinlgy realistic fadeout at the end. All-in-all, a true showpiece for the virtuosic work of the BSO soloists, sections and full ensemble, captured in vivid sound.

The Strauss companion piece, at first glance an odd partner for the Holst work, is not really a strange discmate at all. "Also Sprach Zarathustra" - like "The Planets" - requires virtuosic solo, section and ensemble work. Joseph Silverstein, long the BSO concertmaster, is about as fine a violin soloist in this work as you're bound to hear. And, lest one forget (and how can one?), the Strauss work begins with the famous Introduction for brass, organ and timpani, so that in a sense it is the use of the organ that provides a point of continuity, so to speak. Unlike far too many recordings of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," in which the organ is either "overplayed" for dramatic effect or is not appropriately in tune with the orchestra, the balance and intonation here are nigh-perfect.

Probably - no, make that definitely - the best archival record we'll have of the brief association of Steinberg and the Boston Symphony. At a time in the relatively recent past when it could easily be said that the BSO was one of "the big five."

Bob Zeidler
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Description of Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 8-MAY-2001

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