When investigating the music of Gustav Holst, you ought to hear The Planets before the symphonic poem Indra, the "St. Paul's Suite" before the ballet music from The Lure, and "Edgon Heath" before the Interlude from Act Three of the opera Sita. But if you are already familiar with Holst's best-known works and most of his lesser-known works as well -- and you liked what you've heard -- you should by all means try this disc of Holst rarities with
David Atherton leading either the
London Philharmonic or the
London Symphony. There is much early Holst here, music full of oriental excess -- Indra and Sita -- and of Wagnerian rhetoric -- A Winter Idyll and Elegy (In Memoriam William Morris). There is some later Holst here, music full of nervous vigor and robust brilliance -- The Lure ballet music and particularly the dances from The Morning of the Year. And while not all of the music is top-drawer Holst -- "the later the date, the better the music" holds true -- most of it is at least interesting and some of it is flat-out terrific. Indra has its moments of poetic grandeur; A Song of the Night for violin and orchestra has its own special dark lyricism; the Invocation for cello and orchestra has its tone of solemn intensity. There are no undiscovered masterpieces here, it's true, but fans of the early twentieth century English composer will surely want to hear these piece, particularly in these first-rate performances by either the
LPO or the
LSO led by the deeply dedicated
David Atherton -- so dedicated that you can occasionally hear him groan at climaxes. Lyrita's lush stereo sound from 1982 and lucid digital sound from 1993 are in their different ways equally fine.