The precise moment that Holst's career hit its apogee can be fixed in history as October 7, 1925, the day his Choral Symphony, setting texts by Keats, was premiered in Leeds. Since the public premiere of The Planets in 1920, Holst had been England's most popular living composer. He was mobbed by his fans at the premiere, but its repeat in London with the same performers three weeks later bored critics and put the audience to sleep. From that moment, Holst's career started to slide and he was soon eclipsed by William Walton ...
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The precise moment that Holst's career hit its apogee can be fixed in history as October 7, 1925, the day his Choral Symphony, setting texts by Keats, was premiered in Leeds. Since the public premiere of The Planets in 1920, Holst had been England's most popular living composer. He was mobbed by his fans at the premiere, but its repeat in London with the same performers three weeks later bored critics and put the audience to sleep. From that moment, Holst's career started to slide and he was soon eclipsed by William Walton as England's most popular living composer. So how is Holst's Choral Symphony? As this 1993 recording by Hilary Dawn Wetton leading the Guilford Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra amply demonstrates, it's long. There are moments of wonder, passages of great beauty, pages of sublime and awe-inspiring splendor, but there are also pages of folk songs and pages and pages of serene stillness and quiet. And there were perhaps too many pages of quiet for an audience or...
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Add this copy of Holst: Choral Music to cart. $49.34, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1993 by Hyperion.