Released: 1994
Tracks: Mars; Venus; Mercury; Jupiter; Saturn; Uranus; Neptune
Best track: Mars
Track to skip: it’s a suite, don’t skip anything
I don’t listen to a lot of classical music, so anything I say about it is coming from my limited point of view. This disc is another contribution by my wife to our collection. This is a 1994 release on the Infinity Digital label (a Sony offshoot) with Jahni Mardjani conducting the Georgian Festival Orchestra. I don’t know when the music was actually recorded, but the front cover says “all new recordings” so I assume it was recorded around 1994. Infinity Digital releases are usually really inexpensive, but I was surprised that the quality of this recording is very good.
Of course the track I’m most familiar with is Mars, which was covered by King Crimson in 1969. I still think it’s the best one of the bunch, really driving and dramatic. The rest aren’t slouches either, I really like Saturn and Uranus as well. The music goes through a lot of different moods and emotions and that makes The Planets a very well rounded suite. The ending is especially good; near the end of Neptune (Pluto hadn’t been discovered when Holst wrote this) a chorus of female voices appears and leads us out of the suite in a beautiful, but slightly eerie fashion.
Since this is Holst’s most famous work, there are MANY versions of this out there so you might have to do some further research. As a composed work, I enjoy listening to it and think it’s got something for most everyone to enjoy. All CD collections should have some classical anyway, might as well make this one of them.
Rating: 85
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