Soloists
Liverpool Philharmonic Choir
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
David Atherton
This is a curious piece. It is largely based on melodies from English hill tunes - mainly Playford’s English Dancing Master. Only three of the tunes are by Holst, although all of them are adapted into the musical texture - this is not just a series of popular songs like the Beggar’s opera. I found it an unsatisfactory piece and I never really found my way into it. It is actually quite congested - there is a lot going on, almost as if Holst wanted to draw attention away from the folk melodies and show that there was more to the piece that those tunes. There were, as you would expect from a composer of Holst’s distinction, some attractive passages but in the main I felt that the work just rather meandered along.
Not one for me I think.
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