Page 265 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

06 July 2024

REVIEW: The Silent Planet

PUBLISHED ON July 6, 2024 by nickjkehoe
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

A new and reflective look at an older

classic

Attempting to modernise and make current a classic whilst also
paying homage on the 150th anniversary of its debut is always going
to be a challenge. It is a challenge, however, that this performance
rises to eagerly.

Orchestrator Ian Gardiner (along with musicians Will Pound and
Delia Stevens) has done a fantastic job of rearranging the works so
that, whilst different in many aspects, not least instrumentation,
these pieces still evoke the feelings of the original. Though it does
stray quite far from Holst’s original compositions in a lot of places this
is not necessarily a bad thing either. It allows for a new life to be
injected into the pieces through alterations in style, speed and even
the arrangement of certain movements. Venus, for example, is now a
lilting tune reminiscent of Latin Jazz; Jupiter is faster and seems
something close to an Irish reel, or bluegrass; Mercury is filled with
birdsong.

Not only is the arrangement impressive, but there is excellent
musicianship on display from all involved – Delia Stevens, in
particular, was truly impressive in her performance with such a wide
range of disparate and unusual instruments. The orchestra,
composed of musicians from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
and the Royal Northern College of Music, was not large by constraint
of the stage but managed to perform perfectly – rising through the
various movements and building softly on every piece. They are
never overstated and this is something which is important when
dealing with music with so many nuances and subtleties.