Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Happy Birthday, Gustav Holst!

Holst songs with Christopher Maltman: A must for any collection
 
The English composer Gustav Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst) was born on this day in 1874. Most people know him from his extremely popular orchestral suite The Planets

Early in his career Holst was influenced by the works of Grieg, Wagner, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Richard Strauss. Later he was influenced by Maurice Ravel, Hindu spiritualism and English folk tunes. We’re going to highlight this period of his life with the Vedic Songs, which are a wonderful work that is not performed enough. The songs were translated from the Sanskrit text of the Rigveda by Holst himself. There is a wonderful CD with English barihunk Christopher Maltman, which we highly recommend. We found a sampling of a live performance of the songs from Thomas Allen on YouTube, which we hope you'll enjoy.




Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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