64 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk
THE MUSICIAN AND THE SCOREC
ontroversial is Andrew Litton’s own word for his
interpretation of Holst’s symphonic suite. Perhaps he’s
a Gramophone reader (I didn’t check). Back in December
1998, Andrew Achenbach observed certain ‘controversial
features’ about Litton’s previous recording, made for Delos
with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
We come to those during the course of our conversation,
but first I wonder what has changed in the intervening 20 years.
‘I’ve just turned 60,’ Litton says, ‘so “Saturn” [‘The Bringer of
Old Age’ in Holst’s subtitle] means a lot more to me than it did
when I was a young man.’ Experience also counts: Litton’s
score lists 35 occasions on which he has conducted the work.
In February 2017 he returned to Bergen – ‘a great place to
call the office for 12 years’ – and recorded The Planets
under studio conditions which he finds ideal and which
freed him up in movements such as the suite’s scherzo,
‘Mercury’. ‘We did it live in Dallas, so I guess I was a little
cautious: I was trying to get it clean! Especially for a recording
that I didn’t want people to say it wasn’t together. But such
caution wasn’t necessary in Bergen.’While recently composed music by figures as diverse as
d’Indy, Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Vaughan
Williams all made their mark on Holst’s score, what strikes
Litton – and countless listeners – is the originality of The
Planets. ‘Just as Copland invented the sound of the Wild West,
between 1914 and 1916 Holst single-handedly composed the
sound of outer space. He was 50 years ahead of his time, and
everyone helped themselves liberally to the sound he created.
And yet he didn’t set out to do that at all: what interested
him were the astrological meanings of the planets, not the
astronomy. But there are so many firsts about the piece.’MARS ‘It’s extraordinary to start a piece in 5/4 – though I’m
sure Holst knew Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, which ends with the
“Danse générale” in the same time signature; what it creates in
our psyche is a sense of deep unease. So does the quiet start and
the col legno texture in the strings. It’s a very abstract sound,
hardly like a symphony orchestra at all.’ The 5/4 time signature
requires ‘brain power’, says Litton, ‘but you get into the groove.
At six bars before fig 2 the emphasis begins to shift between
bars, and you have to think: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2; or 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.’
Holst cuts the metre in half to 5/2 for the movement’s
central section – ‘so theoretically it’s twice as slow, but I milk
it a little bit. And I like treating the four-bar phrases as
1–1–2-bar phrases, with a bit of give and take on the dynamicHolst’s The Planets
Conductor Andrew Litton talks to Peter Quantrill about his approach to this pioneering work
hairpins. I do that as well with the tempo to make it even
more eerie and evil, to stress the disquieting nature of the
tune.’ Regimenting the euphonium melody, as it barks orders
like a war-crazed general on the front, is a snare drum that
reminds Litton of a Gatling gun, ‘which Holst probably
never heard. And yet, here it is, perfectly conveyed.’VENUS ‘We think of Venus as the goddess of love, maybe
filtered through Wagner’s Tannhäuser. But Holst doesn’t
go there at all. There is no sense of passion or romance until
bar 26, when the cellos start emoting with this wonderfully
controlled passion. I didn’t realise that the winds are playing
off-beats until I got hold of the score. You think that they’re
the ones with the pulse. And this metrical uncertainty creates
an undulating sense of desire. He builds to a peak of passion
at bar 58, but it disappears as fast as it arises.’MERCURY ‘Holst wasn’t depicting the planets visually, and
yet here we have the smallest orchestra for the smallest planet,
and the textures are all quiet, spinning at great velocity.’
The movement inhabits the same world as Debussy’s ballet
La boîte à joujoux, but Holst’s replacement of the piano with
celesta and glockenspiel intensifies the air of capricious
miniaturism that’s ‘like a musical toybox’. The movement
whirls by in 6/8, but some parts are written in 2/4. ‘So there’s
a tension between whether it’s in 2 or in 3: the melody begins
in 3, then 2, then 3 again.’ And between figs 7 and 8 comes
the nastiest corner of the entire work for the conductor: ‘The
string writing is so fiddly, and then getting the winds together
with the strings in bars 201 and 227 is a big challenge. It’s the
rehearsal killer!’Andrew Litton irst heard The Planets conducted by Leonard Bernstein
‘Holst single-handedly composed thesound of outer space. He was 50 years
ahead of his time – everyone helped
themselves liberally to the sound he made’