Holst: Beni Mora; Invocation for Cello and Orchestra; Somerset Rhapsody; Egdon Heath; Hammersmith; A Fugal Overture

COMPOSERS: Holst
LABELS: Naxos
WORKS: Beni Mora; Invocation for Cello and Orchestra; Somerset Rhapsody; Egdon Heath; Hammersmith; A Fugal Overture
PERFORMER: Tim Hugh (cello)Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ David Lloyd-Jones
CATALOGUE NO: 8.553696

Any CD that offers a wider picture of Gustav Holst than The Planets is welcome, especially when as successful as this one, which provides a useful conspectus of Holst’s preoccupations in the years either side of his astrological suite (1918), from the folksong world of the Somerset Rhapsody (1907), through the orientalism of Beni Mora (1910) to the evocation of Hardy’s Wessex in Egdon Heath (1927). All are played with finesse and character by the RSNO, and Lloyd-Jones directs with attention to textural detail and emotional shape. Beni Mora emerges in all its opulent colouring and casts a nagging rhythmic and melodic spell; Lloyd-Jones aptly conjures up the atmosphere and orchestral beauty of Egdon Heath; the Fugal Overture has plenty of spirit; and Hammersmith shows off the RSNO’s fine wind and brass. One particular highlight of the disc is the intense Invocation (1911), rediscovered only in the Seventies, and eloquently played here by cellist Tim Hugh. All these works are already available elsewhere, but this disc is valuable for giving us such a range of Holst’s art in a single collection. In short, another Naxos winner. Matthew Rye