Gustav Holst - St Paul's Suite (Complete version)
- Thread starter joeinid
- Start date
Joe, thanks. Not a coincidence that there are only young women in the orchestra. Gustav Holst was the music director of St. Paul's Girls School for almost 30 years until his death and wrote many pieces for his girl's orchestra. Note in the last movement Holst combines two folk tunes - one called The Dargason - a familiar dance tune, with Greensleeves, a much slower folk tune. One of the other pieces he wrote for St. Paul's was the Brook Green Suite, named for the area where the school was located in west London. I first was introduced to both pieces in Lyrita SRCS34, which had the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Holst, Holst's daughter, who had attended St. Paul's school and played in the orchestra. The album was recorded in 1966 by Decca for Lyrita (as all the Lyrita stereo albums were). The great Kenneth "Wilkie" Wilkinson was the engineer and the venue was Kingsway Hall. Harry Pearson chose the record for his The Absolute Sound Super Disc List.
Larry
Larry