Gustav Holst’s passion for folk music and his omission of Earth from his blockbuster orchestral suite are the starting points for this special collaboration.
Macfarlane’s poetic narrative overlays the recomposed movements “Mars”, “Venus”, “Jupiter” and “Mercury” and rises to a peak of love and concern in the newly-written “Earth”.
In the first half, Britten Sinfonia perform two orchestral works inspired by and derived from folk melodies. Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, subtitled “A Time There Was”, presents a range of tunes, ranging from rollicking fiddle dances to exquisite, valedictory melancholy, with his unmistakable brilliance. The suite is dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger, whose own characterful suite, A Lincolnshire Posy, is based on folk songs he collected in the county more than a century ago. In this extravagantly scored tour de force, Britten Sinfonia’s winds and brass are augmented by those of Sinfonia Smith Square.
