In my 22 March post, I featured Charles Mackerras' recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic of Holst's orchestral spectacular and mentioned three other favourite recordings - Zubin Mehta with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Adrian Boult with the London Philharmonic and Vernon Handley with the Royal Philharmonic. I then realised that those three appeared to now be difficult to find in the blogosphere so I decided to re-post them here. I also managed to omit another favourite from my list, Roy Goodman's HIP performance with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra.
There are four major features that I look for in recordings of The Planets:
- In Mars, the Bringer of War it is vital that the war machine is given full force and menace and when the bomb finally drops it needs to be cataclysmic - not a damp squib. (Okay, I know I am being anachronistic with Mars being written in 1913 but I think that Holst was a visionary.)
- It is important that Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age isn't dragged out to 10 minutes or more.
- The percussion in Uranus, the Magician must be given their head and it is particularly important that the timpani carry the rythmn of the central march tune right through.
- The organ glissando in Uranus needs to sound like a real organ, not a toy one.
Another ideal is that in Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity the "big tune" should really dance along at a tempo similar to the preceding and following sections - not be slowed down to resemble its later use as a hymn tune.
Although there are many other fine recordings of the work, these are the five that now please me the most from the many that I have heard and all pass my four tests (although sometimes by the skin of their teeth). Two are analogue and the other three are digital recordings
Gustav Holst - St Paul's Suite, op.29 no.2 [12'38]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Ambrosian Chorus conducted by Vernon Handley
Tring/RPO TRP007 (recorded at St Augustine's Church, Kilburn in October 1993; Engineer: Mike Hatch; Producer: Alan Peters)
(16bit/44.1kHz flac and scans)
The late master of British music, Vernon Handley, offers what might be considered "middle of the road" in terms of tempi but they are all finely judged. Many recordings in the Tring/RPO series were ham-strung by the studio-bound acoustic but that is not the case here with the St Augustine's Church in Kilburn giving real depth. The Royal Philharmonic play superbly for Handley.
John Williams - Star Wars Suite [29'55]
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by Zubin Mehta
Decca Japan SACD 480 6703 (recorded at Royce Hall, Los Angeles in April 1971 and December 1977 (Williams); Engineers: James Lock & Colin Moorfoot; Producer: John Mordler)
(ISO down-sampled to 24bit/96kHz flac and scans in Japanese - Classic Sound remaster 2012 - digital download)
Mehta has probably the finest timpanist on any of these five recordings. Although he comes very close to being disqualified on the Saturn test, it doesn't feel overly slow and drawn out (probably showing that timing isn't everything). This is one of Mehta's very finest recorded performances and Decca's recording is spectacular - emphasising the rather raw quality of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's brass section at the time. This issue includes a very generous coupling (in terms of timing) although it is not one that I return to very often.
London Philharmonic Orchestra and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir conducted by Adrian Boult
EMI no catalog number (recorded at Abbey Road Studios & Kingsway Hall in June/July 1978 and May 1979; Engineer: Christopher Parker; Producer: Christopher Bishop)
(24bit/96kHz flac and scans - remaster 2011 - digital download from HDTracks)
Since preparing this post, this recording has reappeared in another blog but I have kept it here, as the MEGA download should be considerably faster.
Adrian Boult is often criticised for slow tempi in The Planets but, apart from Mars, his tempi in this recording are all reasonable and the overall timing is the second fastest in this collection. Although Mars is one of the slowest on record, Boult ramps up the tension and menace as much as anybody and I can easily forgive the slow tempo.
Some express a preference for Boult's earlier 1966 stereo recording with the New Philharmonia Orchestra but that one fails my Uranus test. Both recordings are beautifully engineered and the soft chimes either side of the Magician finally going up in a puff of smoke in both recordings are the best pointed that I have heard.
This recording deserves to be heard in the best possible sound (it was originally sponsored by KEF Loudspeakers) and this HDTracks download is very fine. Unfortunately, they only provide the original LP cover so I have included the booklet from EMI's first CD issue. [Anybody interested in Sir Adrian's 1966 recording can find it on Thang Nguyen's blog at https://classicalpippo9.com/2016/09/18/sacd-holst-the-planets-adrian-boult/. This is an ISO rip from the Esoteric SACD and the sound is very fine. If enough people report that they have difficulty playing ISOs, I can upload a 24bit/96kHz down-sample to MEGA.]
Gustav Holst - St Paul's Suite, op.29 no.2 [11'49]
New Queen's Hall Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Roy Goodman
Carlton Classics 30366 00432 (recorded at Abbey Road No.1 Studio, London in May 1996; Engineer: Michael Sheady; Producer: John Boyden)
(16bit/44.1kHz flac and scans - not my rip. Kindly provided by Duckjammy from a now uncertain source - many thanks to the original uploader)
Roy Goodman's recording set out to emulate Gustav Holst's 1926 recorded performance with the London Symphony Orchestra and, although not quite as fast as Holst, it turns out to be a great success. The timbre of the instruments from Holst's time used by the orchestra (very HIP) only add to the pleasure of this recording. He certainly gets as close to Holst's intentions as anybody and his is the only one of these five recordings where Jupiter's "big tune" really dances along. The only slight disappointment is the organ glissando in Uranus. The sleeve notes give information about most of the period instruments played but no mention of the organ - sounds rather electronic to me.
Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool, op.39 [10'57]
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Charles Mackerras
Virgin Virgo 7596452 or VJ7914572 (recorded at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool in June 1988; Engineer: Mike 'Mr Bear' Clements; Producer: Andrew Keener)
(16bit/44.1kHz flac and scans)
Charles Mackerras has the most spectacular organ glissando and his bomb dropping in Mars is overwhelming. His "big tune" in Jupiter comes close to Goodman in dancing along. More details of this recording can be found at http://meetinginmusic.blogspot.com/2017/03/charles-mackerras-holst-planets.html.
Although I would hate to be without all five of these recordings (nor the honorable mentions below), if forced to select only one, it would have to be Adrian Boult with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1978/9.
Honorable mentions: I have previously extolled the virtues of Andrew Davis' recording of The Planets from 1993 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (see http://meetinginmusic.blogspot.com/2016/04/andrew-davis-holst-planets-egdon-heath.html). Despite its fine Tony Faulkner recording and there being nothing basically wrong, I now find that, for me, it doesn't quite have the spark of my first five; nor does Walter Susskind's 1975 Vox recording with the St Louis Symphony, as remastered by Mobile Fidelity. The only recent recording that I have heard that gives my first five a run for their money is Ed Gardner's recent outing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for Chandos. The playing by the young musicians is outstanding and their percussionists are set fair for top recommendation. The Uranus, unfortunately feels too rushed (timing at 5'18) and the Mars feels a little under-powered (luckily, the bomb drop is not quite a damp-squib). Fortunately the egregious pseudo-Planet Pluto (played by them at last-year's Proms) is omitted from the recording.
The following chart compares the timings of these five recordings, plus Adrian Boult's 1966 recording, with Gustav Holst's own 1926 recording - probably the fastest on record.
| Holst 1926 | Mehta 1971 | Boult 1966 | Boult 1978/9 | Mackerras 1988 | Handley 1993 | Goodman 1996 | |
| Mars | 6'07 | 7'13 | 7'18 | 7'58 | 7'00 | 7'27 | 6'18 |
| Venus | 7'13 | 8'07 | 8'53 | 7'21 | 8'04 | 8'38 | 7'33 |
| Mercury | 3'29 | 3'49 | 4'06 | 3'43 | 3'58 | 3'54 | 3'33 |
| Jupiter | 6'55 | 7'50 | 8'03 | 7'54 | 7'34 | 8'00 | 7'28 |
| Saturn | 6'51 | 9'55 | 9'11 | 8'18 | 9'27 | 8'44 | 7'19 |
| Uranus | 5'51 | 5'38 | 6'28 | 6'22 | 6'12 | 5'44 | 5'50 |
| Neptune | 5'29 | 7'10 | 7'09 | 6'21 | 6'49 | 6'40 | 6'14 |
| Total | 41'55 | 49'42 | 51'08 | 47'57 | 49'04 | 49'07 | 44'15 |