Vally Lasker and Nora Day were two of Holst’s assistants at
the school where he was Director of Music. Holst’s daughter, Imogen, was
present sitting ‘just behind VW (Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Gussy as we all
called him.’ The two pianists in this first performance later made a piano duet
arrangement in order to make the work available to a wider number of
performers.
Around the same time Holst found a country retreat two miles
from Thaxted, Essex where he spent his weekends in a three hundred year old
cottage surrounded by cornfields that much of the orchestration of The Planets
was done.
The orchestral premiere of The Planets was conducted at Holst's
request by Adrian Boult, in the Queen's Hall, London on 29th September
1918 before an invited audience.
Holst had taken up an offer from the Y.M.C.A. authorities
for a post as Musical Organiser of educational work among the troops in the
Near East. The Queen’s Hall performance on 29th September was funded
by Holst's friend and fellow composer Henry Balfour Gardiner as a parting gift.
It was Adrian Boult that gave the first public performance
of The Planets on 27th February 1919. Boult decided to play only
five of the movements, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter as he
believed that the public would find difficulty assimilating such a new work of
this length.
Holst himself conducted Venus, Mercury and Jupiter at a
Queen's Hall concert on 22nd November the same year and there was a
performance of Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter at concert in
Birmingham on 10th October 1920.
Imogen Holst said that ‘…he hated incomplete performances of
The Planets, though on several occasions he had to agree to conduct three or
four movements at Queen's Hall concerts…'
The first complete public performance of The Planets was not
until 15th November 1920 with the London Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Albert Coates.
It is this ‘original’
version for two pianos that Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow perform on a
re-issue on the Diversions label from Divine Art Recordings www.divine-art.co.uk .
 |
| DDV 24154 |
This
disc also includes the Elegy from Holst’s early Cotswold Symphony as well as a
piano duet performance of Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, Edgar Bainton’s
Miniature Suite for piano duet and Frank
Bury’s Prelude and Fugue in E flat for two pianos.
Holst
knew that only a large orchestra could do full justice to his Planets but this
recording by the brilliant duo Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow show
precisely what can be gained in a two piano performance. Mars is forceful but
never strident, building to a formidable climax. After some delicate playing in
the beautifully cool and peaceful Venus, Mercury is sparkling, really taking
flight in playing of astonishing accuracy.
In
Jupiter the two pianos sound, at times, like celebratory bells whilst the big
tune is played with simplicity and without undue pomp. The two piano version of
Saturn shows more than anywhere else the modernity of the writing and it is no
wonder that Boult was concerned about an audience assimilating the whole work
for the first time.
Uranus
is played with great swagger and superb precision whilst Neptune provides a
conclusion of beautifully delicate and fluent playing, again highlighting the
strangeness of the almost Debussian writing.
Elgar’s
duet version of his Serenade for String Orchestra provides a complete contrast,
lending itself well to the piano in a performance of intimacy, with the music
never forced.
In
my blog of 26th March 2012 I spoke of a performance by Anthony
Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow at Millichope Park in Shropshire of Frank Bury’s
Prelude and Fugue in Eb for two pianos, a really fine work written in the
1930’s. Millichope Park was the home of Frank Bury and is still in the same
family. The Prelude and Fugue gets a wonderful performance on this disc
bringing out a real depth of feeling in the prelude and providing a
scintillating fugue.
Edgar
Bainton has been well served by the record companies such as Dutton Vocalion www.duttonvocalion.co.uk who have recorded his third symphony and some
orchestral works and Chandos Records www.chandos.net who have recorded his
second symphony and some orchestral works. Of course Bainton lived to a good
age whereas Bury’s life was tragically cut short by the Second World War.
Bainton’s
short Miniature Suite for piano duet is something of a small gem, its three
movements lasting only just over four minutes. Goldstone and Clemmow bring just
the right amount of timeless feeling to the Minuet and Barcarolle and close with
a delightful performance of the English Dance.
Holst
ends the programme with the Elegy (In Memoriam William Morris). The Elegy is
from his early Cotwold Symphony once negelected but now recorded twice, by Classico
Records now licensed to Scandinavian Classics (available via Amazon www.amazon.co.uk ) and Naxos
Records www.naxos.com . Here the Elegy receives a sensitive performance in
Holst’s own two piano arrangement.
There
can be no doubt that Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow are one of the finest piano duos around and the recording
made in the church of St. John the Baptist, Alkborough, North Lincolnshire is
full, clear and detailed.
See also:
See also:
Playing of astonishing brilliance from Anthony Goldstone and
Caroline Clemmow in works by Mussorgsky, Alfven, Ibert, Lyadov, Britten and
Ireland
The music of Brian Chapple in mesmerising performances by
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow
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