Mimi Ezust ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Would someone tell me about this work, please.  How long is it? What are
>some good recordings? Is it scored for full orchestra? What does it sound
>like? If it is on a cd with other pieces, what are they?

Hmm, if I'd paid you to be my straight-person you couldn't have done it
better.

I thoroughly recommend the version on Naxos, on the disc conducted by David
Lloyd-Jones (and not, as I thought, Paul Daniels).

Holst himself considered EH his finest work.  It's inspired by Thomas
Hardy's Return of the Native (or one particular passage) and Holst
dedicated the work to hardy.

It's around 12-13 minutes long and is scored for full orchestra.  What does
it sound like.  Well, it's an atmospheric piece evidently from the same pen
that created Jupiter and Saturn, without sounding like either...:-)

The Naxos disc - 8.553696 - also contains the Somerset Rhapsody, Beni Mora,
Invocation for Cello and Orchestra, the Fugal Overture and Hammersmith.
It's a terrific CD.

Deryk Barker
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