A great addition to The Planets recorded history.
Woodland Poet | 10/29/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Did another version of the Planets really need to be recorded? Thankfully after my purchase I can happily say that the answer was yes. Maestro Jarvi has added something signifigant to the Holst Planets recorded lore. More than a symphony and not a symphony at all really, The Planets is a large scale work, for a large orchestra, with all the forces that a symphony orchestra can muster. Many have recorded the piece, few have completely fulfilled Holst vision. Paavo Jarvi does an excellent job of bringing freshness and energy to a work that has been recorded quite likely more than 100 times over the years.
Of note...(my impressions of the recording)
Jarvi's Mars is menacing, direct, unaffected, and precise and powerful. In fact I would even say that it drives along with a mechanical precision which is perfect for Holst's undying horrific vision of warfare.
Venus drifts from out of space, far slower than many versions at the outset. The playing of the Cincinnati Symphony is tender but restrained, intensifying only in the middle, but then drifting back into nothingness.
Mercury is something of an interlude between Venus and Jupiter, delicate and spinning about.
Jupiter is the big payoff. This is some of the best best brass playing I have heard in Jupiter in a while. It's not perfect, but it is certainly more revealing of some of the very complex writing that resides in Jupiter's beginning and end sections. Jarvi's Jupiter is big, jolly, grand and celebratory and yet not heavy handed. It really does soar into open space with abandon.
Saturn is beautiful and terrifying. It bears some resemblance to a requiem in the middle of an otherwise cosmological and astrological work ending not in only in peace, but reconcilliation. Harps, bells and solemn brass marking time, Yarvi handles with care Holst's own favorite movement.
Uranus is worth repeated listenings as well. The best playing and most magical playing by the orchestra on the disc. Like so much of Jarvi's vision of The Planets, it drives forward with great energy and enthusiasm.
Neptune I thought was particularly rewarding. The icy canvasse of endless space and time is painted upon with scope and intimacy at the same time. This is the beautiful interplay of lightness and darkness that eternity beholds and encompasses. Swirling, stationary, colored and nuanced, one can lose themself in this portrait of nothing. It's an unanswered question and one to behold with curiosity. If Venus is the vision of apparent spacial beauty, Neptune is a more awe inspired and daunting prospect of the infinite. The vision is complete with the fading wordless female chorus, spiritual and not entirely irreligious.
Telarc's engineering and balance, quality of recorded sound, 5 stars plus!"
Most satisfying "Planets" I've yet to encounter
B. Guerrero | 11/28/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Being a huge fan of orchestration, it would only be natural (no pun intended) that I take a fancy to Holst's "The Planets". I'm not going to give a detailed account here, as someone else has already done a very good job of doing just that. I'll only add that this is THE most satisfying rendition of "The Planets" I've yet to come across. As one of the other reviewers hinted at, the big pay-off comes in Neptune - music that was composed way ahead of its time. I've never heard all the myriad, small details of orchestration register so clearly. But there's also some real "feel" for work going on here. It's not just a glitzy run-through. Also, the balances between the wordless women's chorus and orchestra are perfectly gauged.
Sorry to sound like a parrot, but it's also the best overall recording I've yet to hear of the Britten "YPGO" as well. The sound quality is simply stunning, turning this into an orchestral tour de force. That said, I do wish that they would include the narration more often."
Superior sonics, good enough performances
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/24/2010
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Paavo Jarvi cannot be blamed for the fact that his every CD is unfairly praised by the American Record Guide, which happens to be based in Cincinnati and shamelessly boosts everything done by the hometown orchestra. It's hard to judge Jarvi's dozen or so CDs except to note that the sound provided by Telarc is refreshingly clear and natural, that the musicians always play well (at about the level of the San Francisco Sym.), and that Jarvi's touch in general is light, brisk, and unaffected. But after hearing him in a wide range of music, I can't say I've heard a single great performance; he's Michael Tilson Thomas light, and MTT was light enough.
So it doesn't come as a surprise that Jarvi's view of The Planets gives us a smaller, more modest solar system than the blockbuster accounts do from Karajan and many others. This has always been a hi-fi demo piece more than a serious work, although Holst's genius in composing a populist classic can't be shortchanged. Jarvi's Mars promises to be tight and menacing, but about halfway through it goes on automatic. His Venus and Mercury are humdrum when they should be atmospheric. His Jupiter needs to be far more jovial -- or Jovian. This is stirring, rolicking music that doesn't need the fat trimmed. The Britten is a splendid showcase for the orchestra's various sections, but Jarvi is only middling in supplying any verve and drive.
I realize that this is entry-level classical music, and there will be many listeners who might love this CD. But as an addition to the discography of The Planets, it's forgettable."
