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CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer YELLOW Catalogue No. BLACK Job Title Page Nos. 8/1 Royal Philharmonic Conductor: Owain Arwel Hughes

Conductor 6' 01 7' 57 4' 11 8' 23 8' 49 8' 05 8' 44 10' 35 68' 41 5' 56

Owain Arwel Hughes Choir The Cambridge Singers

Producer Martin Compton Engineer Tony Faulkner Recorded at Watford Colosseum on 26th and 27th April, 2004

All rights in this recording are the property of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd. Front cover artwork: Graphic Impressions Notes: Brendan Beales 2004 p 2004 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. c 2016 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public MERCURY THE PLANETS HOLST VENUS THE PLANETS HOLST THE PLANETS HOLST

MARS THE PLANETS HOLST performance and broadcasting prohibited. 01 JUPITER THE PLANETS 04 HOLST SATURN THE PLANETS 05 HOLST THE PLANETS 06 HOLST 07 PLUTO 08 MATTHEWS A SOMERSET RHAPSODY 09 HOLST RUN TIME TOTAL 02 03 Manufactured in the EU CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYANCYAN MAGENTA Customer MAGENTA Customer YELLOW Catalogue No. BLACK Job Title Page Nos. 2/76/32/3

Colin Matthews (b.1946) PLUTO,PATRON: THE HRH RENEWER THE DUKE OF YORK Although the RPO embraces twenty-first century opportunities, including appearances ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & with pop stars and on video game, film soundtracks and on CD, its artistic priority remains Although the planet Pluto was discovered during Holst’s lifetime he was never tempted to add an eighth movement to his suite. ThisPRINCIPAL may have CONDUCTORbeen because he: CHARLESalready regretted DUTOIT that paramount: the making of great music at the highest level for the widest possible audience. the overwhelming popularity of The Planets had obscured his other work, but was more likely The RPO’s versatility and high standards mark it out as one of today’s most open-minded, because he felt that the work was already a satisfying whole. Indeed, the argument still rages over whether or not Pluto is actually a planet, and recently it has been reclassified as a forward-thinking symphony . Now it proudly looks forward to the future. Themember Royal Philharmonicof the new ‘dwarf Orchestra planet’ (RPO) category. has been at the forefront of music-making in the UK sinceWhen its theformation Halle Orchestrain 1946. Its asked home Colin base Matthewssince 2004 to at complete London’s theCadogan planetary Hall set,serves to beas a ‘The RPO do sensuousness uncommonly well. The end result was rich yet delicate, with springboardperformed for in thefourteen year 2000,residencies they madeacross the the perfect country. choice With ofmore composer. concerts Faced than any with other the wonderfully liquid woodwind solos and an exquisite sheen on the strings.’ seemingly impossible task of carrying on where Holst left off, Matthews conceived the idea UK large ensemble, the RPO has truly become Britain’s national orchestra. of beginning his ‘Pluto’ music as the chorus of ‘Neptune’ is dying away, and then allowing the chorus to bring the music to a close, as if they had been there all the time. The music for ‘The string and wind sections played off each other spectacularly, with careful attention to The‘Pluto’ regional writes programme, Matthews, is plus“very regular fast – faster performances even than ‘Mercury’;at Cadogan solar Hall, winds Southbank were my startingCentre’s point. The movement soon took on an identity of its own, following a path which I seemed to detail and tone. This was to be expected from the Royal Philharmonic, one of the best and Royalbe simply Festival allowing Hall andto proceed the Royal as it Albert would; Hall,in the are process conducted I came byperhaps a distinguished closer to Holst roster than of most prestigious symphonic orchestras in the world.’ The Daily Californian musicians:I had expected, Charles although Dutoit, Artistic at no pointDirector did and I think Principal to write Conductor; a pastiche”. Pinchas Zukerman, Principal GuestGustav Conductor; Holst Alexander (1874 – 1934)Shelley, PrincipalA SOMERSET Associate Conductor, RHAPSODY and Permanent Associate Conductor Grzegorz Nowak. International touring is also vital to the Orchestra’s work, taking Although he never became actively engaged in the collection of English folk song, Holst was it to many prestigious destinations worldwide. fascinated by the pioneering work being done at the beginning of the twentieth century by Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp and the inimitable Percy Grainger. Fired with an enthusiasm Forthat more was than typical twenty of them, years Holst RPO decided Resound, to write the Orchestra’ssomething based community on folk and song, education drawing his source material from collections of West Country songs published by Sharp and Baring programme,Gould. In the has event, taken he music produced into the two heart separate of the orchestral regions thatworks the in Orchestra 1906 – Songs serves. of the The West team hasand worked New Selection with a variety of Songs of fromparticipants Somerset in –a considerablywide range ofrevising settings both including pieces the working following with year. young people, the homeless and recovering stroke patients. In its revised version, the New Selection retained only three of the original ten folk tunes, and was renamed A Somerset Rhapsody. Dedicated to Ceil Sharp, the Rhapsody is based on three Thefolk RPO songs has collected its own onlineby the radiodedicatee station, in Somerset. The Sound The of first the Royalof these Philharmonic is ‘The Sheep Orchestra, Shearing whichSong’, broadcasts heard at the via outset its website, on the and RPO against TV, an an online atmospheric video channel background streaming of sustained fly-on- strings. The pastoral mood is threatened by the sound of distant and drums, which the-wallpave the shorts way for written, the marching directed song and ‘High filmed Germany’ by the (‘O musicians. Polly, love, The O Polly,Orchestra the rout has has become now increasinglybegun/ And active we muston social march media away platforms, at the beating inviting of audiences the drum’). to Thisengage is followed on Facebook, by the Twitter, third tune, ‘The Lovers’ Farewell’, a contrasting lyrical melody first heard on the . A brief YouTube,‘development’ Instagram section and presents the RPO these blog. tunes It also in offers various a digitalcombinations, booking and service the Rhapsody on its app, ends RPO Rewards.quietly with a reminiscence of ‘The Sheep Shearing Song’, underpinned by a version of ‘High Germany’. CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYCYANAN MAGENTA Customer YELLOW Catalogue No. BLACK Job Title Page Nos. 4/5

Gustav Holst (1874 -1934) THE PLANETS Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity once stated that, as a rule, he only studied things that suggested music to him. ‘Jupiter’ opens with a repeating three-note figure that forms the basis of two of this movement’s It was after the disappointing première of The Cloud Messenger in 1913 that Holst, declaring principal themes. The first is the rumbustious dance of Jupiter himself, announced bysix that he was ‘fed up with music, especially my own’, set off on a trip around Spain with Arnold horns with heavy oom-pah accompaniment from trombones and , and the second is the Bax and his brother Clifford. The latter was involved at the time on research into glorious theme of the celebrated Andante section. It was Vaughan Williams who suggested and Holst quickly became enthused with the subject, pursuing it to the extent that he could that the tune should be adapted for public singing, and when Holst was subsequently asked eventually cast horoscopes for his friends. It was not long before the character of each planet to write a setting of words by Cecil Spring Rice he was delighted to discover that Rice’s words began to suggest music to the composer, and by May of 1914 he had completed ‘Mars’, the fitted his ‘Jupiter’ tune perfectly. The tune subsequently appeared as a hymn in Songs of first of a projected series originally subtitledSeven Pieces for Large Orchestra. He completed Praise under the name ‘’, which is where Holst was living at the time of its composition. ‘Venus’ and ‘Jupiter’ the same year, and in 1915 added ‘Saturn’, ‘Uranus’ and ‘Neptune’ to his astrological suite, completing it a year later with the restless scherzo of ‘Mercury’. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age While he was still at work on The Planets, Holst composed a setting of words by Thomas The suite calls for a vast orchestra, so it is hardly surprising that performances in wartime Britain Lovell Beddoes that began ‘Woe, woe, this is death’s hour’. He soon discarded the piece, were few and far between. Holst’s friend Balfour Gardiner arranged a private performance at but the musical material was transferred to ‘Saturn’, which the composer once declared was the Queen’s Hall in , on which occasion it was conducted by , but his favourite movement in the entire suite. Much of the music of The Planets explores it was not until 1920 that the suite was heard with all seven movements performed in Holst’s the principle of repeated rhythms and phrases, most tellingly perhaps in the wearied chords preferred order. heard at the beginning of this movement on flutes and harps. The music takes on the character of a funeral march, building to an overwhelming climax that presents the opening chords now Mars, the Bringer of War clearly in a state of alarm. In a letter to Adrian Boult after the first performance, Holst Although it was completed some months before the outbreak of the war, the music of ‘Mars’ suggested that this passage ‘must begin from another world and gradually overwhelm this one’. has inevitably become associated with the mechanised brutality that was soon to tear Europe apart. The ominous 5/4 rhythm that pervades the movement is announced by two harps, Uranus, the Magician (played with a wooden stick) and strings using the wood of the bow to create a sinister rattle. Holst’s magician is clearly second cousin to Dukas’ sorcerer, and it is interesting to note that The music builds inexorably to a terrifying orchestral onslaught, at the climax of which the the four-note brass motto theme that opens the movement may present a kind of musical organ is heard playing a colossal discord. signature. The notes are G, E-flat, A and B, which, allowing for the customary continental translations – E-flat is Es in German, and therefore pronounced ‘S’, and H, confusingly, means Venus, the Bringer of Peace B in music – spells out the musical letters as they appear in Holst’s name (G – S – A – H). A solo horn announces a gentle rising figure, answered by a falling phrase from the flutes, Whatever his identity, Holst’s magician weaves his spell in music that is alternately mischievous and Holst’s vision of peace begins its calm progress. In contrast to the collective hammerings and menacing, both elements bearing marked similarities to Dukas’ Sorcerer. (One curious of ‘Mars’, this is music that celebrates the individual, and we hear brief but expressive solos effect at the movement’s climax is a massive glissando on the organ, which is supposed to be from , oboe and , set against a magical background of undulating harp chords and played by rolling the elbows over the keyboard!) tinkling . Neptune, the Mystic Mercury, the Winged Messenger Holst ends this magnificent suite with perhaps the most extraordinary music of all. Returning It has often been pointed out that if Holst were writing a Planets Symphony, this would be the to the 5/4 that opens the suite, he creates a remarkable musical soundscape place for a symphonic scherzo, and ‘Mercury’ does indeed present us with a dazzling example. that is all texture and colour and, seemingly, without pulse. Harps and celesta add their The fleet-footed messenger of the gods is suggested by rapid phrases on muted strings, distinctive timbres to shimmering strings, and out of nowhere a wordless female chorus coloured by quicksilver figures on harp, celesta and . A contrasting middle begins its ethereal song. Echoing a device he had previously used in his songs from Tennyson’s section introduces a syncopated theme played solo by violin, oboe, flute, celesta and The Princess, Holst asked the choir at the first performance to stand up during their closing in turn. The theme itself, as well as the delicate scoring, show an indebtedness to Stravinsky’s bars and slowly leave the hall, thereby achieving a gradual diminuendo that would have been early ballets, which Holst had recently seen during the London season of the Ballets Russes. otherwise impossible. CTPCTP Template:Template: CD_DPS1CD_DPS1 COLOURSCOLOURS CompactCompact DiscDisc Booklet:Booklet: DoubleDouble PagePage SpreadSpread CYANCYCYANAN MAGENTA Customer MAGENTA Customer YELLOWYELLOW CatalogueCatalogue No.No. BLACKBLACK JobJobJob TitleTitleTitle PagePage Nos.Nos. 2/76/76/3

Colin Matthews (b.1946) PLUTO,PATRON: THE HRH RENEWER THE DUKE OF YORK Although the RPO embraces twenty-first century opportunities, including appearances ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & with pop stars and on video game, film soundtracks and on CD, its artistic priority remains Although the planet Pluto was discovered during Holst’s lifetime he was never tempted to add an eighth movement to his suite. ThisPRINCIPAL may have CONDUCTORbeen because he: CHARLES already regretted DUTOIT that paramount: the making of great music at the highest level for the widest possible audience. the overwhelming popularity of The Planets had obscured his other work, but was more likely The RPO’s versatility and high standards mark it out as one of today’s most open-minded, because he felt that the work was already a satisfying whole. Indeed, the argument still rages over whether or not Pluto is actually a planet, and recently it has been reclassified as a forward-thinking symphony orchestras. Now it proudly looks forward to the future. Themember Royal Philharmonic of the new ‘dwarf Orchestra planet’ (RPO) category. has been at the forefront of music-making in the UK sinceWhen its formation the Halle Orchestrain 1946. Its asked home Colinbase Matthewssince 2004 to at complete London’s theCadogan planetary Hall set,serves to as be a ‘The RPO do sensuousness uncommonly well. The end result was rich yet delicate, with springboardperformed for in thefourteen year 2000,residencies they madeacross thethe perfectcountry. choice With more of composer. concerts Faced than any with other the wonderfully liquid woodwind solos and an exquisite sheen on the strings.’ seemingly impossible task of carrying on where Holst left off, Matthews conceived the idea The Guardian UK large ensemble, the RPO has truly become Britain’s national orchestra. of beginning his ‘Pluto’ music as the chorus of ‘Neptune’ is dying away, and then allowing the chorus to bring the music to a close, as if they had been there all the time. The music for ‘The string and wind sections played off each other spectacularly, with careful attention to The‘Pluto’ regional writes programme, Matthews, is plus “very regular fast – faster performances even than ‘Mercury’;at Cadogan solar Hall, winds Southbank were my Centre’sstarting point. The movement soon took on an identity of its own, following a path which I seemed to detail and tone. This was to be expected from the Royal Philharmonic, one of the best and Royalbe simply Festival allowing Hall and to proceed the Royal as it Albert would; Hall, in the are process conducted I came by perhaps a distinguished closer to Holst roster than of most prestigious symphonic orchestras in the world.’ The Daily Californian musicians:I had expected, Charles althoughDutoit, Artistic at no Directorpoint did and I think Principal to write Conductor; a pastiche”. Pinchas Zukerman, Principal GuestGustav Conductor; Holst Alexander (1874 – Shelley,1934) PrincipalA SOMERSET Associate Conductor, RHAPSODY and Permanent Associate Conductor Grzegorz Nowak. International touring is also vital to the Orchestra’s work, taking Although he never became actively engaged in the collection of English folk song, Holst was it to many prestigious destinations worldwide. fascinated by the pioneering work being done at the beginning of the twentieth century by Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp and the inimitable Percy Grainger. Fired with an enthusiasm Forthat more was than typical twenty of them, years Holst RPO decided Resound, to write the Orchestra’s something based community on folk and song, education drawing his source material from collections of West Country songs published by Sharp and Baring programme,Gould. In the has event, taken he music produced into the two heart separate of the orchestral regions that works the in Orchestra 1906 – Songs serves. of theThe West team hasand worked New Selection with a variety of Songs of fromparticipants Somerset in –a considerablywide range of revising settings both including pieces theworking following with year. young people, the homeless and recovering stroke patients. In its revised version, the New Selection retained only three of the original ten folk tunes, and was renamed A Somerset Rhapsody. Dedicated to Ceil Sharp, the Rhapsody is based on three Thefolk RPO songs has collected its own onlineby the radiodedicatee station, in Somerset. The Sound The of firstthe Royalof these Philharmonic is ‘The Sheep Orchestra, Shearing whichSong’, broadcasts heard at the via outsetits website, on the and oboe RPO against TV, an an online atmospheric video channel background streaming of sustained fly-on- strings. The pastoral mood is threatened by the sound of distant trumpets and drums, which the-wallpave the shorts way forwritten, the marching directed song and ‘High filmed Germany’ by the (‘O musicians. Polly, love, The O Polly,Orchestra the rout has has become now increasinglybegun/ And active we muston social march media away platforms, at the beating inviting of audiences the drum’). to engageThis is followed on Facebook, by the Twitter, third tune, ‘The Lovers’ Farewell’, a contrasting lyrical melody first heard on the cellos. A brief YouTube,‘development’ Instagram section and presentsthe RPO theseblog. tunesIt also in offers various a digital combinations, booking andservice the Rhapsodyon its app, ends RPO Rewards.quietly with a reminiscence of ‘The Sheep Shearing Song’, underpinned by a version of ‘High Germany’.