HOLST:The Planets - Others fans out here?

My favorite Classical Composition. And Saturn my favorite part due to the great use of so few main notes, repeated so effectively. The images this symphony leaves with you are like few others. The Eugene Ormandy Performance is soon coming out on DVD.. Can't wait!

HOLST:The Planets - Others fans out here?opera.com

I agree it's a great piece. I also think Saturn is masterful. As you say, the minimum of material imaginatively and impressively used along with a scary build-up of tension and that magical ending (especially when the organ enters). I happen the think Holst's symphonic poem 'Egdon Heath' is his real masterpiece, however. If you have never heard it, it's a must. Don't allow yourself to think Holst can only be represented by 'The Planets'; he wrote a great deal of other really excellent music which is well worth seeking out.

As for the Ormandy performance, I never liked it much. I suppose it's worth having if there is not a better DVD version (and I don't know) but the best audio versions in my humble opinion are:

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/George Hurst

Royal Scottish national Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones

Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Charles Dutoit

HOLST:The Planets - Others fans out here?amc theatre opera theater

one of my favorites also. Mars, the Bringer of War is my theme song.
i really like it! i like Mars: the bringer of war, venus and the bringer of peace one. i don't remember what it was, though.
Yes, it's a marvelous composition, Michael, but it isn't a symphony, Effectively it is seven symphonic poems. In the same way as Smetana's Ma Vlast is a single work comprising six symphonic poems. Worth a listen by the way.

I think my favourite recording of The Planets is Sir Simon Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker. I would remind you, however ... as someone else already has ... that there is more to Holst than The Planets.
I loved Jupiter! I got to play it in orchestra! Totally awesome. Though, we were missing the timpani...
There's something about the way Jupiter begins that makes me feel excited. I remember when the USM Symphony was performing it last year, and I was part of the women's chorus for Neptune, I had to be behind the sound shields when the symphony was playing Jupiter...or at least be where I could hear it.

Neptune commands a sort of mystique. I find it very relaxing, and it always reminds me of how vast this universe is. I find my last statement somewhat humorous because Holst wasn't writing this piece with the actual planets in mind, but rather the Roman gods.

Mars just scares me. It has since I was little. I get bored with Venus and Saturn, no offense (moreso with the former). Uranus is weird on many levels, but I love it anyway.
I have to admit that Mars does have that intense appeal, especially for me as a cellist. Really gets into the nitty gritty.

And sort of off topic, did you ever think that now Holst's Planets are now complete because Pluto is no longer considered a real planet? Just a little music nerd humor!

~Lisa
i love that work, my favourite its Neptune, its like listening to the universe and the solar system.. its beautiful..!!