On 15 Nov. 1920, the official full premiere of Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was given by the London Symphony Orchestra. For the final section - ‘Neptune, the Mystic’ - Holst stipulates that the womens choruses are to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed, and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance. Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound. Holst’s daughter described the piece’s ending as unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of womens voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 21:00:00 +0000
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