Historic Planets
Mon, Dec 5 2011, 3:01PM
Stuck at home with a bad case of man-flu, I have just finished listening to a fine recording of Holst's The PLanets (BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis).
I came over all nostalgic when I remembered that it was a recording of this very piece that was the first album I ever purchase as a teenage back in the late sixties. It was a Music for Pleasure (MfP) disc by Stokowski and the Los Angeles PO (on vinyl of course, and a mono recording).
I haven't heard it for ages as I have not had a turntable on which to play vinyl for some years. I looked it up on Amazon which has some old vinyl versions for sale, and one of them had the following review:
"This is the finest recording of The Planet Suite that has ever been released. Stokowski's visionof how the piece should be performed, and his treatment of the orchestral texture of the music, has never been surpassed".
Stokowski does seem to divide opinion though. Does anyone else know this recording? It might br available as a CD re-master, but I'm never convinced about those.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 1:14AM
#2
RE: Historic Planets
Like Chris I too bought the MFP LP when I was a student and for nostalgia bought the CD but haven't played it in years and have little recollection of the performance: time perhaps to dig it out again and pass my verdict on it (I usually play one of Boult's last two recordings, Solti/LPO or Mehta's Los Angeles version when I want to hear the work). According to the booklet it was recorded in Sam Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood in Sept 1956 using 3 microphones into a 3 channel recorder. On my CD it's coupled with Ravel's Alborado del Gracioso recorded with the ORTF in Paris and a suite from Petrushka recorded with the Berlin PO in that city.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 1:40AM
#3
RE: Historic Planets
The Stokowski Planets is indeed a fine version of which I am the lucky owner of the EMI stereo CD (coupled with Petroushka).
Danish Radio 2 broadcast this programme once a month where they invite 4 critics and musicians in to the studio to listen to excerpts from 6 recordings of a well-known work. After each round of listening they eliminate one recording and only at that point is the provenance/artist disclosed. They end up with one favourite recording which is then played in its entirety. (Imagine the fun when the well-known Karajan hater ends up picking...Karajan's recording.) When the Planets was given this treatment Boult 3 was eliminated in the first round but Stokowski made it through to the very end along with Gardiner's.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 1:53AM
#4
RE: Historic Planets RE: Historic Planets
I`ve got those four Planets also!The 1967 New Philharmonia Boult is very similar to the later LPO Boult in interpretation but is much more vivid sonically.The Solti LPO Decca is a wonderful performance and benefits from the magic of Kenneth Wilkinson`s engineering.The Mehta Decca has to be one of the most impressive audiophile recordings ever made!Mehta deserves a gold medal for his conducting.His Planets has personality and flair without being distorted.(Alas,one of the very few impressive recordings Maestro Mehta ever made).
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 3:50AM
#5
RE: Historic Planets Ho
I remember reading somewhere that Imogen Holst thought Karajan`s Decca recording with the Vienna Philharmonic was the best recording of her father`s classic.Check out Gramophone`s review of the Stokowski Planets in Archive(ouch)!For my money,the super-audio version(now deleted)of the DG recording conducted by Gardiner is the best of the whole batch.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 7:37AM
#6
RE: Historic Planets
From what I recall of hearing the Stokowski many years ago (I think I had it on cassette), it was a spectacular performance, but he took some liberties with the score. I distinctly remember that at the end of Mars, The Bringer of War, those percussive orchestral strikes that leading to the final fortissimo chord were accompanied by a long crescendo on the timpani. Exciting, of course, but I couldn't help feeling that if Holst had wanted a drum roll, he'd have put one in.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 8:03AM
#7
RE: Historic Planets
The Stokowski recording of The Planets is now included in EMI's "Icon" box devoted to Stokowski. This has ten discs, which give us a variety of his recordings from the fifties and sixties, including works by Bartok, Debussy, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Orff, Ravel and Sibelius, as well as some of his Bach transcriptions and a fair number of works by lesser composers which might be considered rarities. A very interesting set to dip into and good value for money.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 2:40PM
#8
RE: Historic Planets
Alan, as the timpani crescendo works I have no problem with it. I can't really see that it matters if Holst wrote it or not. What matters to me is that here is a conductor who has something to say about the music. This is all too rare.
Tue, Dec 6 2011, 3:35PM
#9
RE: Historic Planets
Thanks GWP for comment on the Icon box, I must have missed that, seems worth looking in to (does Gramophone give sufficient space to reissues?). I have the gorgeous Bach transcriptions CD (dare one admit to liking those these days?) which also I seem to recall appeared on MfP LP.
Also Mr Wells has confirmed my view that Boult's New Philharmonia recording is much more sonically vivid than his last version, I had perhaps wondered if it was because I have the former on LP and the latter on CD! Mehta's Mars isn't perhaps quite as violent as Boult's but the LAPO do play superbly and the sound is very good on the Speakers Corner facsimile LP. I also like his LAPO Strauss and he did a good Enigma with them too. Back to the Planets though I haven't heard the Karajan.
Wed, Dec 7 2011, 4:52PM
#10
RE: Historic Planets RE: Historic Planets
I have found someone willing to let me use a turntable this weekend so I'm going to have a listen and see how the Stokowski sounds now some 40 or so years on. If I'm still impressed I will probably seek out a CD version.
Wed, Dec 7 2011, 7:09PM
#11
RE: Historic Planets RE: Historic Planets
I wonder if Neptune chorus really clipped at the ending?You will soon discover the answer when you listen to LP!(If so,don`t worry-the cd has the proper fade out restored).
Wed, Dec 7 2011, 7:44PM
#12
RE: Historic Planets RE: Historic Planets
If you do decide to obtain the cd version, I strongly recommend you get the Planets with the Transfigured Night coupling.That Schoenberg masterwork has never sounded so lush and beautiful as under the baton...er..fingers of Stokowski.
Thu, Dec 8 2011, 1:45PM
#13
RE: Historic Planets RE: Historic Planets
Well now I'm reminded why I never replayed the CD! I find the hard sounding climaxes in a dry acoustic difficult to accomodate, irrespective of the performance, when there are so many other better recorded versions. This was probably not so noticeable 45 years ago as the MfP LP was ploughed up by the heavy tracking crystal pick up in my Garrard autochanger with my self built amplifier and a single 8 inch loudspeaker drive unit salvaged from a defunct TV set mounted on an open baffle!
I played again Mehta's LAPO version the other day and that really is superb with, as Mr Wells says, stunning recorded sound. I do though wonder if there are different endings recorded by Stokowski as on my CD with the different couplings the last notes of the chorus are held and do not fade out as though the ending has been re-scored rather than being cut off by the engineers.
I await your verdict with interest, Chris.
Mon, Dec 19 2011, 11:47AM
#14
RE: Historic Planets
Based on GWP's comments I bought the Icon box set [only £13.99 when I bought it a couple of weeks ago but now up to £15.99 on the Amazon UK site]. Astonishing value for 10 CDs in a box with a booklet about the conductor.
The Planets has been tinkered with, though I think the reading holds up well. Late 1950s sound is pretty good. I think it all boils down to how you feel about Stokowski. Some excellent performances - Bach transcriptions of course, Debussy, Shostakovitch etc plus some rarities from composers of whom, in my ignorance, I hade never heard - Persichetti and Farberman, for example. Also some odd moevemnts from larger works. Single movements from V-W's 8th and Tchaikovsy's 4th symphonies are an oddity. Pretty well played throughout.
One disappointment for me was Carmina Burana which just seemed a bit tame and lacking in power - really surprising from this conductor.
However, if you want an example of Stokowski - vintage late 1950s with a variety of mainly USA orchestras [though the BPO, LSO and ORTF are represented also] in reasonable sound, then you could do much better than this.
Mon, Dec 19 2011, 11:49AM
#15
RE: Historic Planets
Apologies. The words in my last sentence above should have read "couldn't do much better than this".
Old age is catching up with me.
Yes,it was reissued in 2001 (stereo version) on EMI as part of their "Full Dimensional Sound"reissues from the 50s and early 60s on Capitol.It was coupled with a stunning sounding Verklarte Nacht(by Schoenberg).It has strange balances and is a quite willful interpretation even by Stokowski`s standards.One point of interest is that the fade out ending has been restored.That is,the women choirs' wordless chorus(Neptune) is no longer clipped off abruptly(with maybe another minute to go)as it was on SOME of the mono issues.Stoki wrote an angry letter to the Capitol staff complaining of this fact.If you ever find someone with a LP player you should play the last movement for fun to see if your copy is one from the batch of mono releases with this truncated ending that made it to the market.