
(for best sound quality, choose 480p in the 'quality settings') This is a powerful, but underrated performance of The Planets from a stalwart of British music, Sir Charles Groves, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I have many versions of The Planets, including the much lauded interpretation from Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. However, I keep going back to this version. It feels, well, like Holst :-) I could wax lyrical about the power of these seven mini tone poems, but I shall let a far more eloquent writer speak. The following is taken from the CD notes of a special Penguin Classics release of 'The Planets', performed by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The essay was written by Karen Armstrong, author of 'A History of God', 'Through the Narrow Gate' and 'A History of Jerusalem'.... "On 20 July 1969, glued to my television set, I watched the historic moon-landing with awe and a certain disquiet. As my namesake, Neil Armstrong, made that "great leap for mankind", I marvelled at the technology that had got him there but also wondered what this would do for human consciousness. The moon, symbol of love, transience and rebirth, was now revealed as a dull, sterile place. While the astronauts loped and gambolled on its dusty surface, I reflected uneasily that we had just turned mythology into fact and found the reality to be banal. Would we be permanently impoverished? But the moon-landing also reflected my own recent <b>...</b>
The Planets
Gustav Holst
classical
music
holst
planets
suite
neptune
mystic
magician
royal
philharmonic
charles groves
charles
groves