Holst: Phantastes Suite (1911)

[kolaboy]

No idea if this has been mentioned before, but this intriguing bit from Holst's largely forgotten suite makes me want to hear the rest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LB-Du-9Kw&ab_channel=BrunoLima

[eschiss1]

Phantastes as in, inspired by George MacDonald's novel (pub.1858)? (I've been reading it, but didn't know there was any music based on it.)

[kolaboy]

Not sure of the inspiration behind the piece. I don't even recall it being mentioned in Imogen's biography...

[eschiss1]

A quick check reveals it was written in response to Dukas... and a book about Imogen Holst says "But nothing would have persuaded her to allow the disastrous Phantastes suite of 1911 to see the light of day (apart from its slow movement, of which she was rather fond.)" (Foreword, p.xv, "Imogen Holst: A Life in Music".) (1912 reviews of performances of the suite do not seem to agree with the editor about the adjective "disastrous".)

[Alan Howe]

There's another Dukas-Holst link. Anyone know what it is (no prizes)?

[Gareth Vaughan]

This slim PDF may be of interest: https://www.snc.edu/northwind/documents/By_work/Phantastes/Gustav_Holst_and_George_MacDonald_-_R.B._Shaberman.pdf

Also this superficial and rather "undergraduate" posting: https://doublebassing.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/think-youre-a-failure-we-call-that-pulling-a-holst/

Colin Matthews, writing in The Musical Times, Vol. 125, No. 1695 (May, 1984), pp. 269+271-272 'Some Unknown Holst', makes a passing and dismissive reference to the suite: "In spite of the achievement of Savitri, Holst was still capable of misjudgements, notably the disastrous orchestral suite Phantastes (1911)..." but says no more about it.  The article can be read on JSTOR.