Holst, Copland, Chavez and Haydn

As I write this, it's really been something of a damp squid of a weekend with very heavy rain, power issues in parts of the country and no good for being out of doors which as I said the other week is really more my thing.

So apart from sorting out the Bookmarks on my computer removing any dead ones I've been listening to some music .

While there is no shortage of regular cd's with excellent accounts of Holsts's ever popular Planet Suite none had matched the heights of my Boston Symphony conducted by William Steinberg account of 1971 for playing and indeed technically very good being originally engineered for four channel quadraphonic sound

It was with some interest that recent this super audio cd came out by an orchestra whose reputation has grown over this century going beyond the works of Grieg and other Scandinavian composers.

This does match playing excellence with technical excellence offering an enjoyable performance that keeps you on your toes but free from wilful showmanship so we hear what Holst had to say rather than the ego of a conductor and his orchestra.  

This may well be the final word on digitally recorded multi channel discs which given the dirth of really good accounts on sacd at least puts an end to the search for the holy grail of this format.

Next up is a two album on one disc release that does work in that both works are North American and both were original recorded for the same label - Columbia Masterworks - in the same year

Starting with the first of three works, Carlos Chavez who was a Mexican composer who dead in 1978 conducts his Ballet Pirámide which has four acts  which in this recording has just acts Three (The Elements) and Four (General Dance) and Los Cuatro Soles (The Four Suns).

For this 1974 recording he uses the London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers which was taped at London's Abbey Road usually used by EMI/Angel in the UK.

The third work is Aaron Copland's masterpiece Appalachian Spring ballet with a difference being the original version of it conducted by the composer himself with the Columbia Chamber Orchestra which remains one of the finest recordings of this work with its Shaker inspired theme.

After all that Copland, I'm looking at a cd that came out on May 29th by the great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn

The Six String Quartets, Op. 76, form one of the most renowned of Haydn's sets of quartets, and carry the stamp of their maker: No other set of eighteenth-century string quartets is so diverse, or so unconcerned with the norms of the time.

 In the words of Haydn's friend and contemporary Charles Burney they are full of invention, fire, good taste and new effects. On the present disc, the first of two, we hear the first three quartets, including the Fifths quartet (No. 2) so named after the falling perfect fifths with which it begins. The most famous of the set - and possibly of all Haydn quartets is No. 3, however: the Emperor quartet with its second movement: a set of variations on the Kaiserlied which Haydn had recently composed to the greater glory of the Austrian Emperor Franz II. 

This is played on period instruments, usually a turn off for me but this performance by the Chiaroscuo Quartet is tuneful with body and is extremely well recorded on this stereo and surround sound Super Audio cd, playable on regular cd players too

In March of 2021 I added the follow up disc of the No. 4 to No.6 opus 76 quartets 

I did pick up both discs issued June 30th 2007 of his "Sun Quartets" Op.20 they recorded to considerable acclaim.

The playing is exquisite.

The Planet Suite

Seeing this years Proms season ended September 10th thoughts went back to composers of the WW1 era.

 I have a good number of cds by by the mystic Gustav Holst and spotted this 2008 recording by the late Richard Hickox in a series of his Orchestral works he started and whose baton has been picked up by Sir Andrew Davis

This Chandos Super Audio cd has the popular Ballet from "The Perfect Fool" conceived as a an opera but written to ballet form in 1922 plus the much less popular but worthy The Lure ballet and Golden Goose choral ballet together with The Morning of the Year ballet the last two being composed in 1926.

I found this recording most enjoyable. 

 

English classics

After a break from this mini series of entries within the blog I return with a couple of discs that fall under the heading of British classical music although they have their differences.

Gustav Holst is a composer whose work reflected his interest in the spiritual and mystical to whom one work alone his Planet Suite was started in 1913 and premiered in September 1918 in the last days of World War One. 

This work was played in this years First Night of The Proms on Friday, July 13th together with Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending on a WW1 themed concert. 

It is a matter of some regret however the popularity of this suite has caused many to overlook his may other works such as Beni Mora and on this arresting performance by Sir Andrew Davis  and the BBC Philharmonic orchestra it is coupled by the Japanese Suite.

Classical music has a great variety of genres within it such as Orchestral, Choral, Baroque but one  that has become established in the twentieth century is the orchestral movie soundtrack.

One favourite of mine is the soundtrack of Watership Down the 1978 animated movie based upon the Douglas Adams novel that I recall seeing on vacation that year which was originally issued on record and tape by CBS/Columbia.

It has a spoken word prologue and the whole of Angela Morley's score for it with the jazz syncopation in parts well performed  

This recording was remastered for Super Audio cd (playable on regular cd too) by Vocalion records here in Great Britain to a demonstration worthy style.

A spot of Boccherini plus Holst

I think I last mentioned Boccherini late in 2006 in connection with his Cello Concertos but recently I picked up this set of two cds of his String Quartets which Naxos put out in 2002.

I love chamber music but Boccherini tends to be somewhat neglected when it comes to commercial recordings so it's a delight to have these performances  which are excellent at budget price so well recorded. 

In addition I picked up a copy of the 1997 budget 'Duo' reissue of the classic 1967 Opus 12 Symphonies cycle originally issue as three lp box set by Raymond Leppard and the New Philharmonia Orchestra now slotted in two gorgeously filled cds very well digitally re-mastered.

 

Anyway, this cd from Japan arrived that combined two much loved performances of Holst's The Planet Suite and Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss by the Boston symphony Orchestra conducted by William Steinberg.

These well very well received on lp record in 1970 and 1971 and were issued on cd in 1987 and 1988 with me buying my copies in 1992 and 3 with the Strauss coming with two other Strauss recordings and the Holst with another short work.

Those cds were very good for the period but this newly mastered version with both main performances is truly exceptional with more depth, transparency and imaging than the original cd versions even though they are just regular but very well manufactured cds.