A Holst Christmas

About the composer:

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was an English composer, most renowned for his monumental orchestral suite, The Planets. Born into a musical family, he studied at the Royal College of Music, where a lifelong friendship with fellow composer Ralph Vaughan Williams began. Plagued by neuritis in his right hand, he turned from a career as a pianist to focus on composition and teaching, holding influential posts at St. Paul's Girls' School and Morley College.

While The Planets (1914-1916) brought him international fame, its success somewhat overshadowed his diverse and substantial output. Deeply influenced by English folk song, Hindu spirituality, and the poetry of Thomas Hardy, he produced evocative works such as The Hymn of Jesus, the Brook Green Suite, and the serene Egdon Heath. A modest and introspective man, Holst was a dedicated educator who crafted a uniquely personal musical language, blending mystical wonder with a distinctly English sensibility.

Portrait of Holst

Artistic Director's Notes

Holst's more famous pieces, and very especially The Planets have somewhat overshadowed the general audience's knowledge of his choral and song writing.

For many English composers of the time - and here we should mention Ralph Vaughn Williams, Edwin Elgar, Federick Delius and others, writing music for choirs made good business, and musical sense. There were many opportunites for composers to write for church choirs, community choirs, and very especially choral festivals - a perhaps unique English tradition of the time. This was also the period where the English musical community started to pay attention to the historical Folksongs that were being collected around the country at the time. The influence of folk song is most apparent of all the composers mentioned, in Holst's work. This arrangement consists of In The Bleak Midwinter (1906. There are also a version by Harold Darke written in 1909, and later, the first verse is set in the ground breaking A Boy Was Born by Benjamin Britten), Lullay My Liking (1916. A carol, originally written in the 15th Century, that has been reset by many composers in the 19th Century), and arrangements of traditional carols combined in his choral fantasy Christmas Day.