Sargent conducts Holst
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
The Planets Suite (1914-17)
Beni Mora (1912)
The Perfect Fool – three dances (1918-22)
BBC Symphony Orchestra and Women’s Chorus/Sir Malcolm Sargent
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent
rec. 1957, 1961, Kingsway Hall, London, (Planets; Beni Mora) EMI Abbey Road studio, London (Perfect Fool),
Pristine Audio PASC756 [75]

For many years, and in a rather simple minded way, I had difficulty coming to pleasurable terms with Sargent’s many recordings. His ram-rod sartorial style and de haut en bas attitude to orchestral musicians militated against him. Yet these aspects have nothing to do with the music. There’s even less of a reason to take against him with every year that passes. We are left with the music: that is what matters.

His recorded legacy is best encountered in quantity in his EMI Great Recordings box. If you are going to zero in on Sargent’s Holst then that box (CD12) and this CD will light the way. His Planets remains an adroit choice, if in dated sound. What we hear is a pleasing sense of depth but shaded back on the treble. There is a host of alternative versions. If you like a weightier languid approach then there is Bernard Herrmann on Phase Four Decca. I am perplexed that the budget version by George Hurst and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra never made it to CD. If you can find the Contour LP, and transfer it to digital, then you will be satisfied. Boult in his most modern version on EMI / Warner Classics is especially to the point.

Sargent gives us an inimical ‘muttered’ opening Mars – rather than the Hurst’s implacable rattle – and conveys a sense of hurtling remorseless motion. His Venus possesses depth and there is a telling sharp edge to the strings (e.g. at 2:58). Mercury is less a marathon and more of a steeplechase with the treble tone ringing out. Jupiter is caught in full sail and a pendulum-steady Saturn takes advantage of the acoustic. Uranus has sturdy piercing brass – this is the track to play if you wish to put the CD through its paces. What a shame that the Neptune, while mesmeric enough, has more of a baritonal emphasis even in the pages where we hear the lovingly-couched female choir. There’s a glint there but it lacks sidereal dazzle. Sargent does however encapsulate mystery as in the same composer’s Choral Symphony and the Hymn of Jesus; try Somm and their Holst 150 and Choral Symphony.

The Perfect Fool endures through its extracted showcase orchestral dances. In that sense it’s a bit like Massenet’s El Cid (CBSO/Frémaux, EMI/Warner). Holst cannot help deploying brilliance, just as he does with The Planets and Beni Mora. Do not forget that this one-act Holst opera is well worth hearing. You can slough off all the tired criticism about its pastiche Wagner and Verdi. The whole work is wonderful. It does not creak and has as much fairy-tale magic about it as Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto. The full opera can be heard on Lyrita in the Groves broadcast (mono); it’s a pity, though, that the 1995 ‘Fairest Isle’ version (Handley) could not be rescued from archival purgatory. 

As for Beni Mora, I am very familiar with Sargent’s version. It’s admirable; always has been. As a mid-1950s 10” vinyl (would you believe), it confides and bellows in the best analogue sound. Remember the bass drum in the Mercury Dorati / LSO Firebird finale? This is every bit as exciting and inspiring, and in its quietest pianissimo pages just as sinuously mesmerising (minimalism anticipated) as Kastchei’s Garden. It has much the same magic as Delius’s incidental score to Flecker’s Hassan: a display piece at many levels.

Very well done, Pristine for re-presenting recordings which approach seventy years old. Their lineage can be traced back across all the formats since the LP and across all price points. Sargent may have been lacking in the man-management region but his artistic side could impress. For future “hope value” I should mention his Martinů Epic of Gilgamesh and Bax Fourth Symphony. Surely more of his compositions should be unearthed. The Sargent orchestral piece, An Impression on a Windy Day, flecked as it is with impressionistic Bridge and Butterworth, is every bit to be admired and loved.

Rob Barnett