ASTROLOGER HOLST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 946, 27 September 1957, Page 6

ASTROLOGER HOLST

AT a concert in the Wellington Town Hall on Wednesday, October 2, the National Orchestra-with women of the Hutt Valley Orpheus Choir-will present for the first time in New Zealand Holst’s suite The Planets. On Thursday, October 17, the work will be presented again in a concert at Christchurch, with the substitution of local singers from the Christchurch Liederkranzchen. It was a meeting with Clifford Bax which originally set Holst off on the study of astrology and eventually led to the composition of, this work. In 1914 he wrote that the "character" of each planet was "beginning to suggest lots to me,". and during the next year ‘tthe seven tone poems that comprise the suite were completed. The Planets was first performed at a semi-private rehearsal by Adrian Boult in 1918, and. in public (minus the second and last movements) by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1919, All the planets that were known at that time are included in the suitethe exception being Pluto, which was not discovered, though its existence was

predicted beforehand, until February, 1930. Earth, too, is absent (being only passive in astrological calculations). Holst’s order of the planets is also not the astronomers’ one-not, at least, in the first three, where he reverses the order of Mercury, Venus and Marsperhaps because he was composing at a time when Mars was in the ascendant. ; The first movement, "Mars, the Bringer of War," has been called ‘the most ferocious piece of music in existence. Then come, in order, "Venus, the Bringer of Peace," "Mercury, the Winged Messenger," "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,’ "Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age" (the movement that Holst thought the best in the suite), "Uranus, the Magician," and finally, "Neptune, the Mystic." When The Listener saw James Robertson at researsals in St Paul’s Hall recently, he said that to cope with the score of The Planets they would have to add various instruments to the Orchestra. "Something like’ 10 extra instruments, including a grand organ, are re-

quired. There will be a great deal of noise," .

Two harps are used in The Planets, said Mr Robertson, but the orchestra was actually going to carry an extra harpist for a space of two months to cope, not only with that work, but with other music (including a certain amount of French music), that could not be done adequately with one. Mr Robertson turned over the pages of his score of The Planets which, The Listener noticed, was presented to him by the Governors of Sadler's Wells when he left there in 1954, "It is one of the really great orchestral works," he said, "and has something for everybody. War, peace; then there is Mercury-who isn’t interested in the postman? Jupiter gives jollitythat’s the pub-and lastly there is old age, magic and~ mysticism. What more could anyone want?" The Planets will be heard from all YCs at 9.0 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, in the second half of the Wellington concert. In the first half, broadcast by 2YC only (8.0 p.m.), the Orchestra will play Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 in E Flat, and Death and Transfiguration, by Richard Strauss. ‘