Holst: Savitri; The Planets; The Perfect Fool Ballet Suite

$29.99
Label
SOMM Recordings
Release Date
August 16, 2024
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      Gustav Holst
    • PERFORMER
      Arda Mandikian, Peter Pears, Thomas Hemsley, English Opera Group Chorus, English Opera Group Orchest
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      August 16, 2024
    • UPC
      758871503020
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      ARIADNE 5030-2
    • LABEL
      SOMM Recordings
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
      Orchestral & Symphonic
    Works ⌄

    1. Sāvitri! Sāvitri! I am Death (Sāvitri, Death)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Thomas Hemsley

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    2. Greeting to thee, my loving Sāvitri! (Sāvitri, Satyavan)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Peter Pears

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    3. The forest is to me a mirror wherein I see another world (Sāvitri, Satyavan, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Peter Pears

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    4. Love to the lover (Satvayan, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Peter Pears

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    5. Once I knew maya (Satyavan, Sāvitri)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Peter Pears, Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    6. Sāvitri, Sāvitri! Mine arm is pow'rless (Sāvitri, Satyavan)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Peter Pears

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    7. I am with thee; my arms are round thee (Sāvitri)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    8. Savitri! Aah! All fades! Death is at my heart! (Sāvitri, Death, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Thomas Hemsley

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    9. Welcome, Lord! Thou art called the Just One (Sāvitri, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    10. Thine is the holiness (Death, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Thomas Hemsley

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    11. Then Enter, Lord; dwell with me! (Sāvitri, Death, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Thomas Hemsley

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    12. Stay! Grant me this boon! (Death, Sāvitri, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Thomas Hemsley, Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    13. Ah! Death, the Just One (Sāvitri, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    14. Loneliness and pain are ended (Sāvitri)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    15. Sāvitri! Is it thou? (Sāvitri, Satyavan, Chorus)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: English Opera Group Choir, The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian, Peter Pears

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    16. Unto his kingdom Death wendeth alone (Death)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Thomas Hemsley

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    17. I am with thee, my arms around thee (Sāvitri)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: The English Opera Group Orchestra

      Performer: Arda Mandikian

      Conductor: Charles Mackerras

    18. No. 1. Hymn to the Dawn

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Purcell Singers

      Performer: Michael Jeffries

      Conductor: Imogen Holst

    19. No. 2. Hymn to the Waters

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Purcell Singers

      Performer: Michael Jeffries

      Conductor: Imogen Holst

    20. No. 3. Hymn to Vena

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Purcell Singers

      Performer: Michael Jeffries

      Conductor: Imogen Holst

    21. No. 4. Hymn of the Travellers

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Purcell Singers

      Performer: Michael Jeffries

      Conductor: Imogen Holst

    22. No. 1. Jesu sweet

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Performer: Honor Sheppard, Nona Liddell

    23. No. 2. My soul has nought but fire and ice

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Performer: Honor Sheppard, Nona Liddell

    24. No. 3. I sing of a maiden

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Performer: Honor Sheppard, Nona Liddell

    25. No. 4. My Leman is so true

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Performer: Honor Sheppard, Nona Liddell

    26. The Evening-watch, Op. 43, No. 1

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Purcell Singers

      Performer: Pauline Stevens, Ian Partridge

      Conductor: Imogen Holst

    27. Hammersmith, Op. 52 (version for orchestra)

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: BBC Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Norman Del Mar

    28. The Perfect Fool, Op. 39

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: NBC Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent

    29. I. Mars, the Bringer of War

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    30. II. Venus, the Bringer of Peace

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    31. III. Mercury, the Winged Messenger

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    32. IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    33. V. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    34. VI. Uranus, the Magician

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult

    35. VII. Neptune, the Mystic

      Composer: Gustav Holst

      Ensemble: Boston Symphony Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra

      Conductor: Adrian Boult


SOMM Recordings is pleased to release this set of delightful never-before-released recordings of the music of Gustav Holst in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Here are works of grand and intimate scale, for orchestral and chamber forces, with and without singers, offering a vivid sampling of his oeuvre in meticulous restorations of recorded live performances given in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Chronologically, the earliest recordings are those on Disc 2, curated by Producer Lani Spahr. The live performances of The Perfect Fool suite and The Planets were recorded from New York's Radio City Studio in 1945 and Boston's Symphony Hall in 1946, respectively, with British conductors leading orchestras from "across the pond", where Holst had devoted much time in his later years conducting, lecturing and teaching. The recordings on Disc 1 are in various ways the result of Imogen Holst's championing of her father's music. A composer in her own right, arranger, conductor, teacher, musicologist and festival administrator, it was in the last capacity, especially, that she came to work at Benjamin Britten's side on his annual Aldeburgh Festival, becoming co-artistic director in the season of 1956. This recording of Gustav Holst's chamber opera Savitri dates from that summer and comes from the collection of Music Preserved. Nearly a decade later Imogen Holst, who by then was acclaimed for her founding and leadership of the Purcell Singers, a choir whose performances became a regular fixture at Aldeburgh, curated a series of broadcasts on BBC's Third Programme to feature works by her father and other composers. Some of the Gustav Holst pieces, like the Third Group of Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda and Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo for orchestra, were broadcast live from public performances at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July of 1965, Cheltenham incidentally being Gustav's birthplace. Others, like the 4 Songs for soprano and violin and The Evening-Watch for mixed chorus, must have been pre-recorded in closed sessions that summer for use later in Imogen's series of programmes. These two recordings were aired on 31 October 1965. All of the Cheltenham '65 recordings come from the collection of Stephen Crane of ARS Recorded Editions. Disc 1 has been fastidiously polished by Restoration Engineer Paul Baily. His restoration of the recent Sir Adrian Boult Conducts (ARIADNE 5024-2) was honoured with the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Records Critics' Award) in the Historical Recordings category. Restoration Engineer for Disc 2, Lani Spahr's previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018-20) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as two Gramophone Editor's Choice picks: Elgar from America Vol.3 (ARIADNE 5015-2) for "superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life" and Bruckner from the Archives Vol.1 (ARIADNE 5025-2) for the "high standards achieved here, where expert audio restoration and remastering is by Lani Spahr".