Gustav Holst - First Choral Symphony, Op. 41 (1923 - 1924), Part. 3 - Ode on a Grecian Urn

for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra

- Prelude: Invocation to Pan . 03:28
- Song and Bacchanal . 10:27
- Ode on a Grecian Urn . 10:40
- Scherzo: Fancy . 05:29
- Folly's Song . 09:00
- Finale . 09:39

i don't prefer music form contains human voice ( Opera, choral, solo soprano, tenor etc...) but Holst has many pieces with these forms. Due to my Holst passion, he forced me to listen them and he help me to like them especially his First Choral Symphony. In this piece normally there is Holst original music feeling (evoking The Planets and his other orchestral pieces). This is the main reason to like this piece. İn this piece i like ''Song and Bacchanal'' and ''Scherzo'' parts more. I feel hope and jollity with energy for this parts of music.

According to texts about Holst, The Planets, his most famous work he never considered to be his best. He hated its populaity. His later works, such as the Choral Symphony (1923-4) and Egdon Heath (1927) for orchestra, which he believed to be his best, were found by critics and audiences alike to be bewildering and too 'cerebral' but Holst remained confident and unperturbed.

Sir Simon Rattle says ''I think the success of The Planets horrified Holst, because he though there was some wonderful in it, and he though there were things he could have done much better. What he would not notice, as a very self-critical man, was what an extraordinary master of the orchestra he was, and how little it sounded like anybody else's orchestra. There are all sorts of discoveries, all kinds of sounds that had not been heard before. It's not Holst's fault that every film composer took it as their toolbox, and stole shamelessly. Now that it's out of copyright they don't even bother change the notes.''

I think these are very interesting and important sayings about Holst

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gustav
• holst
• choral
• symphony
• planets
• orchestral
• rare
• romantic
• classical
• soprano
• solo