Gustav Holst 150th anniversary celebrated at Festival
Holst 150
Music lovers around the world are preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cheltenham-born composer, Gustav Holst, whose suite The Planets is one of the best-known pieces of classical music ever written. Here at Lichfield Festival, we’re marking Holst’s incredible legacy through orchestral, choral and folk music concerts.
Be transported into Holst’s ethereal, atmospheric, mystical world of voices and harp as the superb Carice Singers explore a host of choral works by the great composer whose influences spanned Hindu spiritualism to the collecting of English folk songs. Among the gems are the evocative Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, gorgeous Evening Watch and uplifting Nunc Dimittis.
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If you’ve never heard Holst’s The Planets played by a harmonica and melodeon player and percussionist, head to The Hub at St Mary’s where folk musician Will Pound and classical percussionist Delia Stevens will enlighten you with their extraordinary arrangements. As well as selections from The Planets they’ll play several of his folk songs, plus Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, reversing a tradition by giving classical composers the folk music treatment.
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Rounding off a wonderful three-year tenure as Lichfield Festival’s Associate Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Ryan Bancroft begin their final concert with Holst’s tone poem Egdon Heath. Holst paints a vivid musical picture of the desolate landscape that features in Thomas Hardy’s novels. While he was writing the work, Holst visited Hardy in Dorset and they went out for a walk on the heath, providing inspiration for Holst’s composition. Elgar’s glorious Cello Concerto (with Senja Rummukainen, who later plays it at the BBC Proms) and Brahms’s majestic 3rd Symphony also feature in this superb concert.
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