Holst/Wagner

Sony’s enhanced digital sound certainly reaches out to you with thrilling amplitude and resonance to brass and bass. ‘Uranus’, very genial but equally terrible, has tremendous impact. Although not a top-rank reading, Maazel sheds fresh light on these familiar worlds; his ‘Mercury’ is revealed as something more than a mere messenger boy, ‘Venus’ is radiant, shimmering and sensuous and you can feel the bones of ‘Saturn’ creaking against the remorseless pressing of time. The French orchestra plays with refinement and subtlety.

Our rating

4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:16 pm

COMPOSERS: Holst/Wagner
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: The Planets; Siegfried Idyll
PERFORMER: Orchestre National de France/Lorin Maazel; Bavarian RSO/Rafael Kubelík
CATALOGUE NO: SMK 66930 DDD (1981)

Sony’s enhanced digital sound certainly reaches out to you with thrilling amplitude and resonance to brass and bass. ‘Uranus’, very genial but equally terrible, has tremendous impact. Although not a top-rank reading, Maazel sheds fresh light on these familiar worlds; his ‘Mercury’ is revealed as something more than a mere messenger boy, ‘Venus’ is radiant, shimmering and sensuous and you can feel the bones of ‘Saturn’ creaking against the remorseless pressing of time. The French orchestra plays with refinement and subtlety. Kubelík’s Siegfried Idyll is delicate and gentle but with plenty of strength and nobility in the central climax. Ian Lace

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