Holst, Gustav - The Planets; Enigma Variations - Litton, Andrew

It is striking that two true classics of English orchestral music were composed within a short period of time, approximately fifteen years, at the turn of the last century. Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations have both charmed and intrigued listeners since their premiere in 1899. In fourteen remarkably diverse variations, Elgar demonstrates his compositional skill by creating miniature portraits of his closest friends, his wife, and himself. Alternately gentle, idyllic, stormy, and boisterous, the pieces—which often blend seamlessly into one another—form a coherent whole, like a group portrait taken in the countryside on a weekend. Regarding the mystery of the name, Elgar – who loved riddles – claimed that another melody was "associated" with the theme, and musicologists have been searching for the answer ever since, without success. In 1916, Gustav Holst completed another series of musical character sketches – the seven-part suite The Planets. These have little to do with astronomy and even less to do with the Roman deities whose names they bear. Holst was inspired by astrology, and the suite actually deals with human character as influenced by the planets. The concept – as in Elgar's variations – offers a variety of moods and expressions, and Holst took full advantage of these possibilities in his score.