Holst’s “The Planets” is one of those classics that is (if you love it) a banger every time. The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s powerhouse performance, conducted by Edward Gardner, at the Edinburgh International Festival was no different.
As I sat listening to the London Philharmonic Orchestra deftly make its way from Judith Weir’s leafy “Forest” (1995) to Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43” (1934), and then finally to the titular event of the evening, I wondered why I continue to be so drawn to this seven-movement orchestral suite about planets.
Indeed, whenever I see that Holst’s “The Planets” is playing somewhere near me, it’s enough to make me practically smack my hand down on tickets (and thank the gods for those under-30 discounts). A lot of my seat neighbors – almost universally older, wiser, and more smartly dressed than me – also wanted to know.
Like anyone’s favorite piece of art, though, is it possible to describe why? I guess it’s just something about the way it makes you feel. And your willingness to feel something different each time you hear it, depending on what new coordinate you’ve gotten to on the map of your life.
Gustav Holst wrote this seven-movement orchestral suite between 1914 and 1917 while he was working as a music teacher in London (his work as a composer wasn’t paying the bills). Around that time, a friend introduced him to astrology, and he’d become fascinated by it. He got the idea to write something that would explore the effects each of the planets had on the human psyche. And that he did.
I first heard “The Planets” live inside London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. I had just moved to London, far from home in California. The windows in the church filtered in the last of that day’s amber autumn light, and the air that hung just below the nave felt alive, perforated with some soft angelic quality only a church can bring into being. The whole piece was arranged for organ. I remember feeling so at peace that I thought Time must have vibrated to a restful standstill under the grand, gold-gilt dome to listen along with us.
So when I opened the programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, I knew where I would be the evening of Tuesday 5 August.
Unfortunately, this was a one-night-only performance. (And, as such, I fear this has become more of a think piece than a review.) But if there is anything of value to depart, it is perhaps a reminder, in the middle of two festivals overflowing with new art, to go back to the pieces that made you feel something at some point in your past. You might be surprised, as I was by the powerhouse performance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Edward Gardner, to find that hearing the same piece again returned something very special to my young creative cubbyhole. I’m already looking forward to the next one.
Holst’s The Planets is a part of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival. Check out the Festival’s upcoming performances here: http://www.eif.co.uk