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Holst - The Collector’s Edition | EMI 4404712

Holst - The Collector’s Edition

Label: EMI

Cat No: 4404712

Barcode: 5099944047122

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 6

Release Date: 6th June 2012

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

About

Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham on 21st September 1874. He learnt the piano from an early age but, suffering from asthma and short sight, he found it hard. At the age of seven his mother died. He began to compose at Cheltenham Grammar School with Berlioz’s treatise on instrumentation as his guide and at seventeen he was conducting local village choirs. The neuritis in his right arm had convinced his father that he would never become a solo pianist so he was allowed a few months in Oxford to learn counterpoint before moving to London to study composition with Stanford.

He entered the Royal College of Music in 1893 but did not win a scholarship until two years later – Stanford found him hardworking rather than brilliant. His compositions tended to be saturated with imitations of Wagner. In 1895 he met Vaughan Williams and for the rest of his life they would play sketches of their latest compositions to each other.

He was invited to conduct the Hammersmith Socialist Choir in William Morris’s house where he met his future wife. He became fascinated by Hindu literature and philosophy to such an extent that he decided to learn Sanskrit – his Rig Veda settings are testament to this interest. He had also studied the trombone at college and it was this which brought him employment, with the Carl Rosa Opera and the Scottish Orchestra, if detracting him from his wish to compose.

Luckily he was appointed a teacher - first in Dulwich and then at St Paul’s in Hammersmith, where he became director of music, a position he held for the rest of his life. With security of income he was able to devote himself more to compositio,n and a string of works by which he is best known, chief of which is The Planets, appeared. Their success made publishers want to revisit his earlier works, and he found the extra work of correcting proofs time-consuming. His later works were more intense and the public found them harder to understand and it is only now, with a greater chance to listen to them, that we can fathom their genius.

His final years were blighted by illnesses, which started after falling from the rostrum and hitting his head. He suffered from headaches and sleeplessness. In 1927 Cheltenham gave him his own festival and in 1930 he accepted the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1932 he went to Harvard University to lecture but a severe attack of haemorrhagic gastritis caused him to return home and he spent the next eighteen months in and out of clinics. Despite being in frequent pain, he kept on composing. In May, 1934 he had an operation in London, and died on the 25th.

Contents:

CD 1
The Planets – Suite, Op.32/H125
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult
with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir

The Perfect Fool, Op.39/H150
Egdon Heath, Op.47/H172 (Homage to Hardy)
London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn

CD 2
A Somerset Rhapsody, Op.21 No.2/H87
Brook Green Suite, H190
Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Norman del Mar

A Fugal Concerto, Op.40 No.2/H152
Jonathan Snowden, flute / David Theodore, oboe
English Chamber Orchestra / Yehudi Menuhin

Beni Mora (Oriental Suite), Op.29 No.1/H114
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Malcolm Sargent

St. Paul’s Suite, Op.29 No.2/H118
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Malcolm Sargent

Hymns from the Rig Veda – 2nd Group, Op.26 No.2/H98
London Symphony Chorus

Ode to Death, Op.38/H144 (Whitman)
London Symphony Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Groves

CD 3
Psalm 86, H117 No.1
Ian Partridge, tenor / Ralph Downes, organ

A Choral Fantasia, Op.51/H177
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano / Ralph Downes, organ
The Purcell Singers
English Chamber Orchestra / Imogen Holst

First Suite in E flat, Op.28 No.1/H105
Second Suite in F, Op.28 No.2/H106
Central Band of the Royal Air Force / Imogen Holst

A Moorside Suite, H173
BMC (Oxford) Band / Imogen Holst

Hammersmith, Op.52/H178
Central Band of the Royal Air Force / Wing Commander J L Wallace

CD 4
Hymns from the Rig Veda – 4th Group, Op.26 No.4/H100
III. Hymn to Manas

The Homecoming, H120 (Hardy)
Baccholian Singers of London

A Dirge for Two Veterans, H121 (Whitman)
Baccholian Singers of London
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble / Ian Humphris

Six Choral Folk-Songs (arr.), H136
1. I sowed the seeds of love
3. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
4. The Song of the Blacksmith
5. I love my love
6. Swansea Town
Baccholian Singers of London

Six Choruses, Op.53/H186 (Medieval Latin, trans. Waddell)
1. Intercession
2. Good Friday
3. Drinking Song
4. A Love Song
6. Before Sleep
Baccholian Singers of London
English Chamber Orchestra / Ian Humphris

Eight Canons, H187 (Medieval Latin, trans. Waddell)
3. The Fields of Sorrow
4. David’s Lament for Jonathan
6. Truth of all Truth
Baccholian Singers of London

Bring us in good ale. Op.34 No.4/H131 (anon)
The King’s Singers

Vedic Hymns – 1st Group, Op.24/H90
II. Varuna
Frederick Harvey, baritone / Gerald Moore, piano

Three Festival Choruses, Op.36a/H134
II. Turn back O Man (C. Bax)
Choir of Chichester Cathedral / Richard Seal, organ / John Birch

Lullay my liking. Op.34 No. 2/H129 (anon)
Arranged for boys’ voices by Imogen Holst
London Boy Singers / Jonathan Steele

Three Carols/H133
II. Christmas Song: Personent Hodie (Piae Cantiones)
Bach Choir/Jacques Orchestra/Sir David Willcocks

Hymn: In the bleak mid-winter (English Hymnal, 1906)
Rodney Christian Fellowship Festival Choir
Edwin Bates, organ / Rodney Smith Bishton

CD 5
The Hymn of Jesus, Op.37/H140
Choristers of St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London Symphony Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Groves

Short Festival Te Deum, H145
London Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Charles Groves

Choral Symphony, Op.41/H155 (Keats)
Felicity Palmer, soprano
London Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult

CD 6
The Wandering Scholar, Op.50/H176
Chamber Opera in one act
- Louis (a farmer): Michael Rippon, baritone
- Alison (his wife: Norma Burrowes, soprano
- Father Philippe: Michael Langdon, bass
- Pierre (a wandering scholar): Robert Tear, tenor
English Opera Group, English Chamber Orchestra  Bedford

At the Boar’s Head, Op.42/H156
A musical interlude in one act.
- Prince Hal: Philip Langridge, tenor
- Falstaff: John Tomlinson, bass
- Hostess (Mistress Quickly): Elise Ross, soprano
- Doll Tearsheet: Felicity Palmer, mezzo-soprano
- Pistol: David Wilson-Johnson, baritone
- Peto: Peter Hall, tenor
- Bardolph: Richard Suart, baritone
- Poins: Michael George, bass
Men’s voices of the Liverpool Philharmonic Choir
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / David Atherton

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