Various Artists – Holst: Orchestral Works (2024) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Various Artists – Holst: Orchestral Works (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:08:08 minutes | 705 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © SOMM Recordings

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release this set of delightful never-before-released recordings of the music of Gustav Holst in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Here are works of grand and intimate scale, for orchestral and chamber forces, with and without singers, offering a vivid sampling of his oeuvre in meticulous restorations of recorded live performances given in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Chronologically, the earliest recordings are those on Disc 2, curated by Producer Lani Spahr. The live performances of The Perfect Fool suite and The Planets were recorded from New York’s Radio City Studio in 1945 and Boston’s Symphony Hall in 1946, respectively, with British conductors leading orchestras from “across the pond”, where Holst had devoted much time in his later years conducting, lecturing and teaching.The recordings on Disc 1 are in various ways the result of Imogen Holst’s championing of her father’s music. A composer in her own right, arranger, conductor, teacher, musicologist and festival administrator, it was in the last capacity, especially, that she came to work at Benjamin Britten’s side on his annual Aldeburgh Festival, becoming co-artistic director in the season of 1956. This recording of Gustav Holst’s chamber opera Sāvitri dates from that summer and comes from the collection of Music Preserved.

Nearly a decade later Imogen Holst, who by then was acclaimed for her founding and leadership of the Purcell Singers, a choir whose performances became a regular fixture at Aldeburgh, curated a series of broadcasts on BBC’s Third Programme to feature works by her father and other composers. Some of the Gustav Holst pieces, like the Third Group of Choral Hymns from the Rig Vedaand Hammersmith: Prelude and Scherzo for orchestra, were broadcast live from public performances at the Cheltenham Music Festival in July of 1965, Cheltenham incidentally being Gustav’s birthplace. Others, like the 4 Songs for soprano and violin and The Evening-Watch for mixed chorus, must have been pre-recorded in closed sessions that summer for use later in Imogen’s series of programmes. These two recordings were aired on 31 October 1965. All of the Cheltenham ’65 recordings come from the collection of Stephen Crane of ARS Recorded Editions.

Disc 1 has been fastidiously polished by Restoration Engineer Paul Baily. His restoration of the recent Sir Adrian Boult Conducts (ARIADNE 5024-2) was honoured with the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Records Critics’ Award) in the Historical Recordings category.

Restoration Engineer for Disc 2, Lani Spahr’s previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018, 5019, 5020) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as two Gramophone Editor’s Choice picks: Elgar from America Vol.3 (ARIADNE 5015-2) for “superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life” and Bruckner from the Archives Vol.1 (ARIADNE 5025-2) for the “high standards achieved here, where expert audio restoration and remastering is by Lani Spahr”.

Tracklist:

1-1. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Sāvitri! Sāvitri! I Am Death (Live) (05:55)
1-2. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Greeting to Thee, My Loving Sāvitri! (Live) (00:18)
1-3. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: The Forest Is to Me a Mirror (Live) (01:22)
1-4. Peter Pears – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Love to the Lover (Live) (00:44)
1-5. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Once I Knew Maya (Live) (01:22)
1-6. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Sāvitri, Sāvitri! Mine Arm Is Pow’rless (Live) (00:35)
1-7. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: I Am with Thee – My Arms Are Round Thee (Live) (02:19)
1-8. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Sāvitri! – Ah! All Fades! (Live) (00:55)
1-9. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Welcome, Lord! Thou Art Called the Just One (Live) (01:05)
1-10. Thomas Hemsley – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Thine Is the Holiness (Live) (01:31)
1-11. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Then Enter, Lord – Dwell with Me! (Live) (02:20)
1-12. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Stay! Grant Me This Boon! (Live) (03:01)
1-13. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Ah! Death, the Just One (Live) (02:29)
1-14. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Loneliness and Pain Are Ended (Live) (00:41)
1-15. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Sāvitri! Is It Thou? (Live) (02:44)
1-16. Thomas Hemsley – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: Unto His Kingdom Death Wendeth Alone (Live) (01:00)
1-17. Arda Mandikian – Sāvitri, Op. 25, H. 96: I Am with Thee, My Arms Around Thee (Live) (01:35)
1-18. Michael Jefferies – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op.26 No. 3, H. 99: No. 7, Hymn to the Dawn (Live) (02:20)
1-19. Michael Jefferies – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op.26 No. 3, H. 99: No. 8, Hymn to the Waters (Live) (02:01)
1-20. Michael Jefferies – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op.26 No. 3, H. 99: No. 9, Hymn to Vena (Live) (04:43)
1-21. Michael Jefferies – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op.26 No. 3, H. 99: No. 10, Hymn to the Travellers (Live) (02:40)
1-22. Honor Sheppard – 4 Songs, Op. 35, H. 132: No. 1, Jesu Sweet, Now Will I Sing (02:48)
1-23. Honor Sheppard – 4 Songs, Op. 35, H. 132: No. 2, My Soul Has Nought but Fire and Ice (01:09)
1-24. Honor Sheppard – 4 Songs, Op. 35, H. 132: No. 3, I Sing of a Maiden That Matchless Is (01:28)
1-25. Honor Sheppard – 4 Songs, Op. 35, H. 132: No. 4, My Leman Is So True (02:39)
1-26. Pauline Stevens – 2 Motets, Op. 43: No. 1, The Evening-Watch, H. 159 (Live) (04:54)
2-1. BBC Symphony Orchestra – Hammersmith, Op. 52, H. 178 (Version for Orchestra) (Live) (14:45)
2-2. NBC Symphony Orchestra – The Perfect Fool Suite, Op. 39, H. 150 (Live) (10:30)
2-3. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: I. Mars, the Bringer of War (Live) (06:54)
2-4. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: II. Venus, the Bringer of Peace (Live) (08:27)
2-5. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: III. Mercury, the Winged Messenger (Live) (03:28)
2-6. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (Live) (07:32)
2-7. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: V. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age (Live) (08:31)
2-8. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: VI. Uranus, the Magician (Live) (05:53)
2-9. Boston Symphony Orchestra – The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125: VII. Neptune, the Mystic (Live) (07:30)

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