KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * * *
Verdict: Choral curiosities at their glorious best on disc.
Back in 1925, English composer Josef Holbrooke expressed the hope that Holst's The Planets would survive what he saw as the work's unhealthy popularity. Survive it has but this Solar System Suite has somewhat eclipsed the composer's many other works.
Too few know scores like the exquisite sets of Choral Hymns from the Rig-Veda, which grew out of Holst's scholarly and philosophical interest in Sanskrit; the clear-air tang of the Fugal Concerto; or Egdon Heath, Holst's brooding symphonic journey into Thomas Hardy country.
A new Chandos release has the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox with a selection of the composer's ballet music, headed by the fairly familiar The Perfect Fool.
The 1921 score for The Lure proves a revelation - and a test, passed with flying sonics - for the Chandos sound team. As for the music itself, imagine Petrushka against a Northumbrian landscape.
The Golden Goose and The Morning of the Year date from later in the decade and are brilliantly scored choral ballets.
A Grimm fairy tale lies behind The Golden Goose and the Joyful Company of Singers responds with some glee to imitating an organ, a cappella or surging forth in a theme uncannily similar to the Shaker hymn that would eventually crown Copland's Appalachian Spring. Around the singers, Hickox and his orchestra have all the fun of the fable.
Hickox skilfully shifts from the contemplative to the robust in a fine performance only slightly let down by a few bouts of shaky ensemble playing.
- William Dart
