HOLST: The Planets; The Perfect Fool (ballet music) – Kansas City Symphony/ Kansas City Symphony Chorus/ Michael Stern – Reference Recordings multichannel SACD HDCD RR-146, 61:24 *****:
Gustav Holst is far from a “one hit wonder”, yet there is no doubt that The Planets vastly overshadows every work he created. Then again, there is reason for this, for the inspiration of this magnificent work is so high and profound, and the music so enormously engaging that it not only dominates the Holst catalog, but knocks off great works by more well-known composers! One thinks of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, another piece that plays spoiler in the pantheon of “great” pieces. Both are works that brought the respective composers out of themselves into realms they never quite equaled. It’s one of the mysteries of artistic creation, and we can only be grateful that Holst and Orff were paying close attention to the muse.
With this in mind, it is also important to note the many recordings of The Planets already on the market. There is certainly no loss of interpretative largesse, sonic splendor, and pointed presentation among the many recordings available. So, you might ask—isn’t it the height of arrogance for any orchestra to offer yet another recording? What is the reason? What could it possibly offer that adds to our knowledge and appreciation of this work?
It is with these questions in mind that I drew near to this new Reference issue with the Kansas City Symphony. I have been very satisfied with previous releases from this source—their Britten’s Orchestra disc is a marvel—but honestly, I would not have thought of them for a “sonic blockbuster”. But when listening to this disc, I realized that this is not what this release is all about. When Glenn Gould said that the only reason for recording anything more than once is to do something different, he was onto a very important concept. This is precisely what we have here.
If you couple this with a genuinely new and different interpretation, then the recording becomes notable. Mind you, I am not suggesting this as the greatest Planets ever—that sort of decision is quite impossible to come by. But hearing just the opening bars of “Mars” I could tell that the bringer of war was a slow, inexorable threat as opposed to a carpet-bombing exercise. There is a broadness, a spacious unveiling of this music that seems to emphasize the lyricism and color of the music as opposed to pure bombast. I didn’t compare the timings of several notable recordings, but this certainly feels like a more leisurely rendering than most, and all to the good. And what is most striking is the way Michael Stern brings out differing aspects of the orchestra in a way that you hear things you probably haven’t noticed before, some quite startling.
The Perfect Fool is a fine filler. A one-act opera, it spoofs operatic conventions of the time in a mélange of wizardry, magic, and enchantment. It has never caught on, but the ballet music, about ten minutes, is delightful and not overly-long, making for a pleasant repast after our journey through outer space.
–Steven Ritter
