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Lyrita

Holst: Walt Whitman Overture, Ballet Suite / Braithwaite

$20.99

Details

Composer
GUSTAV HOLST
Artist
Nicholas Braithwaite
Format
CD
Label
Lyrita
Released
Jan 01, 2007
Catalog #
SRCD210
UPC
5020926021021

About

Braithwaite’s engaging Holst proves well worth the wait

Nicholas Braithwaite’s effervescent 1980 account of the winsome Suite de ballet sounded stunning on black disc and continues to do so on silver (Decca’s peerless Kenneth Wilkinson was the balance engineer; the sumptuous acoustic is that of Kingsway Hall). All else is new to the catalogue. The three suites were set down in Watford Town Hall during summer 1993, while the Walt Whitman Overture was taped in the same venue in January 1988. The mind boggles at how performances and recordings of such superior quality can have remained mothballed for so long.

Holst composed the Overture and Suite de ballet during 1899 while on tour as repetiteur and trombonist with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. In neither will you glimpse any vestige of the mature composer (the overture doffs its hat to Brahms) but both parade a host of felicities and are given with palpable dedication here. Gordon Jacob made these skilful and sympathetic orchestrations of Holst’s two military-band suites in 1940 and 1945 (with No 2 renamed the Hampshire Suite – the majority of the folksongs it quotes hail from that county). Under Boult, No 1’s March bowls along with the greater unbuttoned panache, but there’s not much in it.

Commissioned as a test piece for the 1928 National Brass Band Festival, A Moorside Suite has long been a personal favourite (don’t deprive yourself of hearing the Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s unforgettable 1977 Decca recording, 3/86 – nla). Jacob’s affectionate reworking followed in 1952, and Braithwaite and the LPO relish its many deft touches. (On two copies I’ve tried there’s a tiny electronic-sounding blip at 3'04" in the haunting central Nocturne.) Attractively presented (the lucid and detailed booklet-essay is, curiously, uncredited), this release makes consistently enjoyable listening.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone [5/2007]

Tracklist 15 tracks

  1. 1 Walt Whitman, Op. 7 07:14
    Track
    1
    Title
    Walt Whitman, Op. 7
    Duration
    07:14
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  2. 2 I. Danse rustique 02:13
    Track
    2
    Title
    I. Danse rustique
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  3. 3 II. Valse 03:56
    Track
    3
    Title
    II. Valse
    Duration
    03:56
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  4. 4 III. Scene de nuit 07:52
    Track
    4
    Title
    III. Scene de nuit
    Duration
    07:52
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  5. 5 IV. Carnival 05:42
    Track
    5
    Title
    IV. Carnival
    Duration
    05:42
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  6. 6 I. Chaconne 04:14
    Track
    6
    Title
    I. Chaconne
    Duration
    04:14
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  7. 7 II. Intermezzo 02:57
    Track
    7
    Title
    II. Intermezzo
    Duration
    02:57
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  8. 8 III. March 03:01
    Track
    8
    Title
    III. March
    Duration
    03:01
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  9. 9 I. March 04:19
    Track
    9
    Title
    I. March
    Duration
    04:19
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  10. 10 II. Song without Words, "I'll Love My Love" 01:59
    Track
    10
    Title
    II. Song without Words, "I'll Love My Love"
    Duration
    01:59
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  11. 11 III. Song of the Blacksmith 01:32
    Track
    11
    Title
    III. Song of the Blacksmith
    Duration
    01:32
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  12. 12 IV. Fantasia on the Dargason 03:28
    Track
    12
    Title
    IV. Fantasia on the Dargason
    Duration
    03:28
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  13. 13 I. Scherzo 02:54
    Track
    13
    Title
    I. Scherzo
    Duration
    02:54
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  14. 14 II. Nocturne 07:40
    Track
    14
    Title
    II. Nocturne
    Duration
    07:40
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite
  15. 15 III. March 04:27
    Track
    15
    Title
    III. March
    Duration
    04:27
    Composer
    Gustav Holst
    Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Conductor
    Nicholas Braithwaite