Holst: The Planets / Elgar: Enigma Variations
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Artist: London Symphony Orchestra List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £5.99 You Save: £3.00 (33%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Release Date: 04 March 2002 Record Label: Great Recordings of the Century Rating:   Sales Rank: 1166 | | Look for similar items by category: | | Customers who bought this item also bought:
| | Customer Reviews: Very nice recording. (12 May 2010)This is an excellent recording. My only grump is that I think Holst's work should come before Elgar's on the playlist. Deacon Mike (03 April 2010)The London Philharmonic excel themselves in this production. When you have this, make time to listen to it all the way through and enjoy the experience. Digital remaster? - No thanks! (29 March 2010)I ordered this CD recently but before delivery I had reason to go through my father's extensive CD collection. In there I found the identical compilation CD from 1993. When my order arrived I did some A/B testing... First, let me say that the performances are in a class of their own, transcending any ratings system, and the general recording standard is typically 70's - excellent and very slightly warm. Having long been aware of the digital vs. analogue debate I expected some slight differences, perhaps a "cleaner" sound to the re-master. Instead this experiment confirmed what I have long suspected, that those in the 21st century music industry are often not fit for purpose. The remastering is a travesty - the sound has been manipulated so that it is a caricature of the original. Instead of gaining detail, it has lost it (for example, the string "col legno" passage at the beginning of the Planets has lost all its sonic attack). I shudder to think what Sir Adrian would have made of this souless-sounding interpretation. It certainly lacks the ambience and immediacy which characterised the original. (Ironically, I bought this recording because I wasn't happy with my DG "Planets" under Karajan. He is reported as having been happy at the very end of his life with a digitally-enhanced version, but I wasn't!) In summary, I will not only be digging out some of my father's unmodified CDs but giving his LP deck and records a good run. Between the pops and crackles from dust or scratches I fully anticipate rediscovering some aural gems. Excellent, but..... (04 March 2010)I bought this purely to use up my free mp3 bonus. I didn't have a decent recording of the Enigma Variations so I thought I'd go for it. It's excellent but is it REALLY beyond your expertise to organise the thing so that the movements arrive in the correct order? I had to go online to research this. That should not be necessary. A little more care please. Thank you. Crisp, bright recording of The Planets - just what I was looking for & the Enigma variations are a bonus! (22 January 2010)Holst's Planet Suite was amongst the classical music I was introduced to as a child and had to be included now I am expanding my own music collection. I am not the type of person who owns/compares different recordings of the same music - but to me this recording of the Planets seems crisp and bright and I couldn't have wished for a better recording. Holst's Planet Suite is a fabulous suite and the characteristics of each planet results in some interesting contrasts. Fantastic brass for Mars The Bringer of War (I have a soft spot for brass!) then immediately after Mars comes Venus the Bringer of Peace and after being blasted with brass we lulled and soothed. Saturn 'The Bringer of Old Age' I find almost scarey as the music expresses the inevitable and unstoppable advance of death and demise - it can give me goose-bumps listening to this piece! Why are reed instruments (is it an oboe?) perfect for a giving a slightly creepy feel to the music - for example for Uranus, The Magician (also for the trolls in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite: "In the Hall of the Mountain King")? Surely 'The Planets' is one piece of music everyone should have in their collection even people who don't generally listen to classical music? It's music which can be enjoyed and understood without requiring an in-depth or intellectual understanding of the piece. Having bought this CD for 'The Planets' I was pleased to be reaquainted with Elgar's Enigma Variations which I was introduced to during school music lessons. I'd forgotten how enjoyable the variations are to listen to! |
