What with #Holst150, #A-Haydn-A-Day and an intense end of year, I'm so behind on my #NewRelease listening, but this is so good that I'm gonna have to find time over the weekend to squeeze in the other big Brett Dean release of the year.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) Playlist · The Symphonist · 416 items · 55 saves

My #Holst150 journey is now complete, and what a wonderful voyage of discovery it's been! 153 pieces (*), 416 tracks, almost 28 hours of music in the order he composed it, all on my #GustavHolst150 playlist.

Thank you for the music, Gus ❤️💙💚

#Holst150 #153: The Vision of Dame Christian, H 101 Op. 27a (1909)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. St Paul's Girls' School opened in 1904 and hired Holst in 1905. He composed this masque for them to mark the 400th anniversary of the Boys' School nearby.

#Holst150 #152: Scherzo for orchestra, H 192 (1933-4)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them.

Holst's final piece. This forceful, fierce and fiery movement was meant to be part of a symphony. What might the whole work have been like, had he lived to finish it?

It's time. How does it sound after 99 others?
#Holst150 #NowListening

#Holst150 #151: Lyric Movement, H 191 (1933)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. This "melancholy but restrained ... masterpiece" (Stephen Barber) sounds like the start of a new path that, sadly, he didn't live long enough to explore further 🖤💔

Gavotte Gustav Holst, BBC Concert Orchestra, Leigh O’Hara · Fide et Literis · Song · 2024

#Holst150 #150: Gavotte, H 190a (1933)

The suite originally had a fourth movement, which Holst decided to remove after hearing the first performance at the final concert he attended before his death. It's had to wait 90 years for its first recording, which was released only last week.

#Holst150 #149: Brook Green Suite, H 190 (1933)

1. Prelude
2. Air
3. Dance

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Written in hospital the year before he dies, this was Holst's last piece for the musicians of his beloved St Paul's Girls' School.

#Holst150 #148: O Spiritual Pilgrim, H 188 (1933)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. The last choral work by a man who'd been immersed in choirs and choral music since childhood, when the schoolboy Holst helped his father with music for church services.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

My #Holst150 anniversary playlist now has over 400 tracks of his music. Not bad for a guy who apparently only wrote one piece, a seven-movement suite whose name temporarily escapes me ...

#Holst150 #147: 8 Canons, H 187 (1932)

3. The Fields of Sorrow

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Sadly, only three of these canons for equal voices (1-6 a cappella, 7-8 with piano) are available on record.

#Holst150 #146: 6 Choruses, H 186 Op. 53 (1931-2)

1. Good Friday

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. This set of pieces for male voices and string orchestra is the last work to which Holst awarded an opus number.

#Holst150 #145: Capriccio (Revised Imogen Holst after Gustav's H 185) (1932/1967)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Imogen salvaged her father's unfinished (?) untitled "jazz-band piece" and turned it into this lovely orchestral work ❤️

#Holst150 #144: 12 Welsh Folk Songs, H 183 (1930-31)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. When original ideas dried up, Holst arranged these traditional songs for mixed chorus. Here are nine of them: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11.

Theoretically I'm still posting about them, but there are now 57 tracks on my playlist from new releases I've listened to, but not had time to write up, what with #A-Haydn-A-Day, #Holst150 etc. #SoMuchMusicSoLittleTime

But these ⬇️ are all fabulous and you should check them out ASAP!

#Holst150 #143: Wassail Song, H 182 (1931)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. I've reached the last of Holst's 17 carols, and it's still three weeks to Christmas! Gus adds lively countermelodies to his folk song source for extra festive fun.

Two musicians play two pianos next to each other, text overlay reads: UPBEAT / Holst 'Mars' from The Planets / Ayane Nakajima & Louis-Victor Bak

Mid-week mood boost! Be energised by the power of The Planets in our exhilarating full-length video of Gustav Holst’s ‘Mars’ in its rarely heard two-piano version, performed by RCM rising stars Louis-Victor Bak and Ayane Nakajima.

Watch now: bit.ly/RCM_Mars

#UpbeatOnline

#Holst150

#Holst150 #142: A Choral Fantasia, H 177 Op. 51 (1930)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Oops! I blame #A-Haydn-A-Day for me missing out this weird and wonderful work a few days ago, but I think Gus, a fellow Haydn fan, would have forgiven me.

#Holst150 #141: 2 Pieces for piano H. 179

1. Nocturne (1930)
2. Jig (1932)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Neuritis dashed the young composer's dreams of being a concert pianist, but he wrote some cracking little pieces for an instrument he loved ❤️

#Holst150 #140: Hammersmith, H 178 Op. 52 (1931)

A year later he made a version for orchestra and this was the first version to be performed, premiered alongside the first performance of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. A work of eerie, spine-tingling power whichever way you hear it.

#Holst150 #139: Hammersmith, H 178 Op. 52 (1930)

1. Prelude
2. Scherzo

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. Holst's moody, misty and mysterious masterpiece for wind band remains a cornerstone of every ensemble's repertoire to this day.

A memorable & touching portrait of an oft-misunderstood composer: words & music by Gustav Holst at the London Song Festival A memorable & touching portrait of an oft-misunderstood composer - concert review: words & music by Gustav Holst at the London Song Festival

A memorable & touching portrait of an oft-misunderstood composer: words & music by Gustav Holst at the London Song Festival, with Nigel Foster, Katie Bray, Ruairi Bowen and Martin Handley. My concert review:
www.planethugill.com/2024/11/a-me...
#holst150 #concert #review #concertreview

#Holst150 #138: The Wandering Scholar, H 176 Op. 50 (1929-30)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. His last opera, a chamber work to a libretto by Arnold Bax's brother Clifford is 25 minutes of bawdy fun, with not a note wasted.
youtu.be/Do9hZcHSg7E?...

#Holst150 #137: Double Concerto for 2 violins, H 175 Op. 49 (1929)

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. First performed by its dedicatees, sisters Adila Fachiri and Jelly d'Arányi. So much bitonal mystery, fugal counterpoint and folksy joy in just 15 minutes!

#Holst150 #136: Epilogue H 174a (1929)

This song was originally intended to be part of Op. 48. I don't know why Holst decided not to include it. It would have meant the cycle contained 13 songs. Superstition?

youtu.be/i_n9OmXIgbM?...

#Holst150 #135: 12 Songs, H 174 Op. 48 (1929)

1. Persephone

I'm listening to every Holst piece I can find in the order he composed them. I can't believe I'd never heard this amazing song cycle on words by Humbert Wolfe (1885-1940) before ❤️❤️❤️
youtu.be/HGfSb8oMmhU?...

My latest #Holst150 arrival!

Upbeat Magazine News and updates from the Royal College of Music

The RCM's termly Upbeat magazine is out now: www.rcm.ac.uk/upbeat/
#Holst150, alumni composers and lots more. Particularly happy we were able to record two students performing the two-piano version of Holst's 'Mars', the manuscript of which is in the College Library: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZmU...

#Holst150 Fact of the Day

It's Hammer(smith) time!
#NowListening #Holst150