Gustav Holst: Gustav Holst - The Collector's Edition auf 2 CDs

Weit über die „Planeten“ hinaus:
Gustav Holst in der Collector’s Edition

Der Name Gustav Holst ist mit einem Werk verbunden – der Orchestersuite „The Planets“, einer mythologischen Charakterstudie von sieben Planeten unseres Sonnensystems voller schillernder Klangfarben, packender Dramatik und mitreißender Melodien (ohne die die Filmmusik eines John Williams z. B. nicht denkbar wäre). Doch Holst, ein Zeitgenosse der Spätromantik (1874-1934) war weit mehr als nur ein Ein-Werk-Komponist. Er prägte die Musikgeschichte mit einer Fülle von vielseitigen Kompositionen, wie die Holst Collector’s Edition beweist.

Eine Stärke dieser sechs CDs umfassenden Box ist nicht nur die Vielseitigkeit, die Holst als Orchesterkomponisten, als Meister der Chormusik und sogar als Schöpfer einer Kammeroper („The Wandering Scholar“) zeigen. Es ist auch die Authentizität der Einspielungen, an denen – passend für einen britischen Komponisten – vor allem englische Musiker beteiligt sind. „The Planets“ ist unter dem Dirigat des Mannes zu hören, der das Werk 1918 einst aus der Taufe hob: Sir Adrian Boult. Das English Chamber Orchestra, die Bournemouth Sinfonietta oder das BBC Symphony Orchestra (unter Malcolm Sargent) präsentieren weitere, exotisch-farbige oder klassizistisch geprägte Orchesterwerke wie die orientalische Suite „Beni Mora“ oder „A Fugal Concerto“. Eine große Rolle spielt in Holsts Schaffen die Chormusik. So prägen die Interpretationen britischer Chöre die Hymnen und von englischen Folk Tunes inspirierten Werke der Sammlung. Bei großbesetzten oratorischen Werken wie der grandiosen „Choral Symphony“ steht wieder Sir Adrian Boult am Pult.

Product Information

Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham on 21st September 1874. He learnt the piano from early age but, suffering from asthma and short sight, he found it hard. At the age of seven his mother died. He began to compose at Cheltenham Grammar School with Berlioz’s treatise on instrumentation as his guide and at seventeen he was conducting local village choirs. The neuritis in his right arm had convinced his father that he would never become a solo pianist so he was allowed a few months in Oxford to learn counterpoint before moving to London to study composition with Stanford.

He entered the Royal College of Music in 1893 but did not win a scholarship until two years later – Stanford found him hardworking rather than brilliant. His compositions tended to be saturated with imitations of Wagner. In 1895 he met Vaughan Williams and for the rest of his life they would play sketches of their latest compositions to each other.

He was invited to conduct the Hammersmith Socialist Choir in William Morris’s house where he met his future wife. He became fascinated by Hindu literature and philosophy to such an extent that he decided to learn Sanskrit – his Rig Veda settings are testament to this interest. He had also studied the trombone at college and it was this which brought him employment, with the Carl Rosa Opera and the Scottish Orchestra, if detracting him from his wish to compose.

Luckily he was appointed a teacher first in Dulwich and then at St. Paul’s in Hammersmith where he would be director of music, a position he held for the rest of his life. With security of income he was able to devote himself more to composition and a string of works by which he is best known, chief of which is The Planets, appeared. Their success made publishers want to revisit his earlier works and he found the extra work of correcting proofs time-consuming. His later works were more intense and the public found them harder to understand and it is only now, with a greater chance to listen to them, that we can fathom their genius.

His final years were blighted by illnesses which started after falling from the rostrum and hitting his head, he suffered from headaches and sleeplessness. In 1927 Cheltenham gave him his own festival and in 1930 he accepted the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1932 he went to Harvard University to lecture but a severe attack of haemorrhagic gastritis caused him to return home and spent the next eighteen months in and out of clinics and, although In frequent pain, he kept on composing. In May 1934 he had an operation in London died on the 25th.

Rezensionen

,,Ein Plädoyer für das Gesamtwerk von Gustav Holst: Diese Box liefert viele spannende Entdeckungen.​" (stereoplay, September 2012)