HOLST: The Planets, An HD Odyssey, Blu-ray (2010)
Performers: The Houston Symphony/Women of the Houston Symphony Chorus/ Hans Graf
Studio: Houston Symphony
Producer: Duncan Copp
Video: 1.78:1 16:9 color 1080i HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio, DD 5.1, PCM 2.0
All regions
Extras: 2 Blu-ray discs: Complete performance with HD images from planetary spacecraft; A tour of the planets with planetary scientists plus Interview with conductor Hans Graf
Length: Feature disc: 63 min.; Bonus disc: 59 min.
Rating: *****
Chances are Holst’s The Planets is in the category of a real pot-boiler for most of our readers, but even if you don’t like the piece you will be completely captivated by this wonderful Houston Symphony performance in lossless surround, because it is illustrated from beginning to end with absolutely amazing actual footage (except for a couple computer-created portions) taken by the various unmanned spacecraft that have been launched to explore our solar system. Copp has married the latest planetary images with the perhaps overplayed music of Holst to produce a knockout of a total spectacle that cannot fail to move even those viewers not into either the music or star-gazing.
I would suggest viewing the second disc first, which is also Blu-ray rather than standard DVD as so many productions have done. It goes thru the planets one by one, with experts talking about their salient features and with some astonishing cinematography – especially of the gorgeous rings of Saturn, and the pans of the surface of Mars. I had forgotten that Uranus also has a few rings, though nothing like those of Saturn. One will more appreciate the visual material on each of the planets as provided in sync with Holst’s music after you have boned up on the special qualities of each planet. The bonus Blu-ray ends with a short interview with conductor Hans Graf.
The Houston Symphony first performed The Planets live in 2006, working with two astronauts from NASA and used some of the shots from the many unmanned space probes in addition to some pictures from the Hubble Telescope. Conductor Graf learned from the astronauts that there were thousands of new spectacular images available in high resolution, which hadn’t been seen publically. So retaining producer-director Copp – who had done other documentaries on astronomy and spaceflight – the Houston Symphony began to put it all together for a truly innovative HD visual tour of the planets to the accompaniment of their performance of Holst’s suite in lossless surround (at least on the Blu-ray version).
As one of the scientists says in the bonus portion, Holst was really wrong in his musical characterizations of the different planets. But after all he wasn’t trying to portray them as they really were in the heavens; his was not an astronomical but an astrological approach. His romantic tone-painting depicts the personalities of the various mythical figures after which the planets were named. For example, Mars being the god of war, this movement has an insistent, rather brutal marching theme thruout. This video is a wonderful example of music and science working hand in hand to give the viewer a deep emotional, sensual and intellectual experience. The sheer perfection and magnificence of most of the planet images brought to mind the Blu-ray version of a movie which still sets a standard for realistic HD images of space – Kubrick’s 2001. (Be careful – the slip-cover covers up all the Blu-ray identification on The Planets and looks just like the standard DVD cover, so be sure you get the Blu-ray if you have the proper playback for it.)
— John Sunier
