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.

Throughout the ninety minute performance there was an extremely interesting use of visual effects to complement the musical foreground, with the colours of each respective planet being used to light the upper areas of the auditorium as their piece was played. Although incredibly minimalist, this nonetheless helped to subtly build on the atmosphere being created by the small orchestra.

The last piece in the suite is a new work: Earth, The Silent Planet. It is fittingly dynamic, speeding up and crescendoing before slowing to a crawl and a whisper for yet another build up. The variety of instruments used is here at its peak as well: everything from mouth organs to rotating percussion instruments I’ve never seen before. The music is accompanied by the spoken word of Phoebe Hanson throughout a great deal of this as we are asked to reflect on our planet. At times this did feel somewhat drawn out and strayed a little close to beat poetry, but it did an excellent job of augmenting the atmosphere nonetheless.

It is only appropriate for something dealing so intimately with our own planet to approach some of its issues and this is another feature that is at the core of The Silent Planet suite as a whole. With the spoken word introductions to each piece by Phoebe Hanson the planets and their representations are linked to issues such as war and the climate crisis. The order of the works is also symbolic, to an extent: through war to peace, through nature, joy.

Definitely an experience for such a short suite, and a novel and thought-provoking arrangement of Holst’s classics for a new audience.