Composer: Gustav Theodore Holst
Performer: Janice Graham, Sarah Ewins, Andriy Viytovych, Anna Pyne, Philip Harmer
Orchestra: English Sinfonia
Conductor: Howard Griffiths
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naxos
Catalogue: 8570339
Release: 2007
Size: 281 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Brook Green Suite
01. I. Prelude
02. II. Air
03. III. Dance
04. A Song of the Night, Op. 19, No. 1, H. 74
St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29 No. 2
05. I. Jig
06. II. Ostinato
07. III. Intermezzo
08. IV. Finale, “the Dargason”
09. Lyric Movement, H. 191
A Fugal Concerto, Op. 40, No. 2
10. I. Moderato
11. II. Adagio
12. III. Allegro
Double Concerto for 2 Violins, Op. 49
13. I. Scherzo. Allegro
14. II. Lament: Andante
15. III. Variations on a Ground: Allegro
Prior to this disc, Howard Griffiths was best known as a conductor of the lesser-known late-Classical/early-Romantic Austro-Germanic symphonists: Ignace Pleyel, Franz Krommer, Paul Wranitzky, and their ilk. On this 2005 Naxos disc he turns in spirited and soulful performances with the English Sinfonia of the music of English modernist Gustav Holst. By programming the well-known St. Paul and Brook Green Suites along with the less-well-known A Song of the Night for violin and orchestra and A Fugal Concerto for flute, oboe, and strings, Griffiths grants the listener familiar only with the composer’s extremely well-known Planets Suite a much broader picture of Holst’s achievement. The soloists are all consistently marvelous, although violist Andriy Viytovych is particularly impressive in his ardent performance of the late Lyric Movement for viola and chamber orchestra. The English Sinfonia’s ensemble performances are powerfully cohesive, amazingly agile, strongly rhythmic, and, when it’s called for, wonderfully atmospheric. But best of all, after years spent in the Austro-Germanic wilderness, Griffiths seems wholly sympathetic to Holst’s richly intellectual, exquisitely colorful, austerely lyrical, and deeply if reservedly emotional music and his Holst performances are in the same league as Hickox, Hogwood, and perhaps even Boult. Recorded in lush sound at St. Clements Church, Islington, London, by producer Jakob Händel, these performances will gratify anyone who enjoys English modernist music in general and Holst in particular.