RSNO: The Planets
Usher Hall - 19/04/24
John Wilson, conductor | Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Gustav Holst wrote his suite, ‘The Planets’, during the course of the First World War. He was declared unfit for active service and his frustration at seeing friends serve and die was poured into this extraordinary work. Although it is the work for which he will be remembered, and is rightly famous, it is not played so often these days, and I was quite excited to hear it live again.
This was the first RSNO concert for a few weeks, and the Usher Hall was full, with many young people attending, clearly for the first time. The celebrated conductor, John Wilson, was on the podium, and this, as well as the fame of ‘The Planets’, was presumably the reason for the full house. Mr Wilson has made a name for himself as a conductor of film music, initially with the John Wilson Orchestra, and more recently with the reformed Sinfonia of London, but has branched out into the wider concert repertoire with some success. He is by no means a flamboyant figure as he walks on to the stage, in a sober suit and with neat short hair, but once in front of the orchestra, there is no doubt who is in charge, and he becomes a charismatic figure.
This was not needed much for the first piece, a tranquil ‘prelude for orchestra’, ‘The Forgotten Rite’, by John Ireland, a somewhat neglected composer of mainly small-scale pieces. First performed at a Promenade Concert in 1917 in London, its dreamy lyricism evoked memories of Debussy and Ravel, with lovely solos for flute and horn, and with good use made of the celeste (Lynda Cochrane, of whom more would be heard later). It sort of meandered to a conclusion without making much of a showing, but it was a pleasant introduction to the concert.
The main work in the first half of this programme of English music was Elgar’s orchestral song cycle, ‘Sea Pictures’, written in 1899 and premiered in Norwich by the esteemed contralto Dame Clara Butt, apparently dressed as a mermaid! This cycle of five sea songs, set to poems by five different poets, has no story line but is evocative of all things maritime, and has been sung by numerous contraltos and mezzos in the intervening 125 years.
Our soloist tonight was the English mezzo-soprano, Alice Coote, radiant in a sea-blue dress. Ms Coote has had a fine career in concert and opera but seemed ill at ease tonight. Whether the songs lie a little low for her I am not sure, but she seemed underpowered in much of the music, with unclear diction and little tonal variety. Perhaps it was just an off night?
After the interval, and a slightly shaky opening, Mr Wilson and the RSNO hit us with a pulsating Mars, the Bringer of War, the terrifying opening movement of the Planets. Although Holst was never on the front line, this relentless depiction of total war must have brought on nightmares among veterans, and still has the power, especially in a dramatic live performance like this, to chill the blood. The brass, percussion and double timpani were given full rein by John Wilson, and gosh, it was loud!
Holst’s take on the other planets is fortunately less dramatic, although vividly evocative of each astrological character. The solo horn in Venus, the Bringer of Peace, was beautifully played by guest principal, Lauren Reeve-Rawlings, and in other movements, there were standout solos from Pei-Jee Ng (Cello), Adrian Wilson (Oboe) and Rebecca Chan, the Australian Guest Leader, moonlighting superbly from her post as Associate Leader of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Holst gave a major role to the celeste throughout ‘The Planets’, and it was good to hear more from Lynda Cochrane on that unique instrument. In the last movement, Neptune the Mystic, Holst called for a wordless women’s choir as he depicted that mysterious and far distant planet, and the Ladies of the RSNO Chorus, singing from afar, beyond the auditorium, were excellent. They were the last sounds we heard, as the final movement drifted away into nothing.
Holst held the post of Second Trombone in the original Scottish Orchestra (the precursor of the RSNO) from 1900-1904, playing under such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Henry Wood, and it is very likely that his gift for orchestration was nurtured here in Scotland. The first time I heard the Planets was with the SNO and Sir Alexander Gibson in the 1970s, and their recording is still one of the best. John Wilson certainly kept up the tradition in this memorable performance.
