In a recent radio interview Colin Matthews said he considered withdrawing his composition Pluto, the Renewer in light of the space body’s planetary demotion. But, as Simon Rattle has been performing the work separately, Matthews now feels it may have a viable life on its own. This is as it probably should be, for as Pluto is a moderately interesting modernist piece that would find an easy home in many a science fiction film, as a completion to Holst’s The Planets (which it follows on the first CD of this double-set) it’s painfully inadequate. Also inadequate is Rattle’s reading of The Planets itself.
Throughout the performance there’s a pervasive lack of vitality–this is one of the least-threatening visions of Mars on disc. It begins as a dull, inhibited drone, playing that increasingly takes on a bizarrely light character, so much so that the middle section sounds more like Debussy’s Fêtes. Compare this to Adrian Boult’s 1978 recording and immediately you feel the ominous portent of battle, replete with the sinister tam-tam and baleful brass so fatally subdued in Rattle’s rendition. Rattle’s Venus offers dreamy playing by the Berlin strings, but his slow tempo belabors the piece. The supposedly fleet Mercury sounds lazy here, which is embarrassing when you consider Boult was nearing age 90 when he led his vigorous, stimulating performance. EMI’s previous, decades-old recording also has more clarity, depth, and impact than its modern-day effort.
And so it goes for the rest. Rattle does muster up more energy for Saturn and Uranus, but the Berlin Philharmonic’s players prove once again how self-impressed they are, with every gesture (the strings especially) calculated to draw attention to the players rather than the music. It’s technically good in a generic sense–but it’s bad, unidiomatic Holst.
Matthews himself admits that Holst never would have considered adding another movement, even after he heard news of Pluto’s discovery. It’s more appropriate, then, to place Pluto in the context of the other works on the second CD. The best of the bunch is Kaija Saariaho’s Asteroid 4179: Toutatis, which in its singular ethereal style creates a genuine sense of outer-space mystery. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Ceres is not as interesting or characterful as his other music might lead us to expect, while Matthias Pintscher’s Toward Osiris and Brett Dean’s Kamarov’s Fall remain pretty much exercises in run-of-the-mill modernism.
Since there’s no astrological, and certainly no musical justification to append these works to Holst’s masterpiece, EMI should repackage this set with The Planets on its own disc, titling the other one “assorted rocks and other space debris”. Collectors, however, would be better off just buying either of Boult’s remastered recordings, Steinberg with Boston, or Levi with the Atlanta Symphony for an excellent modern version.
