Search - Alan Opie, Gustav Holst, Richard Hickox :: Holst: The Wandering Scholar, etc.

Chandos's ongoing Holst series hits another bright spot with this release of works that happen, on this disc, to span the composer's entire musical career. The Suite de Ballet (of 1899) is an unabashed array of "light music," typical of fin-de-siècle England. Its youthfulness nearly risks comparison to the music of Eric Coates and Gilbert and Sullivan, but this robust reading by Richard Hickox and the Northern Sinfonia allows the composer-to-come to peek through now and again, especially in the second movement, Valse. The main work here is the comic operetta The Wandering Scholar. It's based on a Clifford Bax (brother to Arnold) libretto and has the more familiar Holstian flourishes based on an original use of orchestral color and remnants of English folk melodies. Top job. --Paul Cook