BMW Classics

^{Gustav Holst}
Movements from ‘The Planets’
_{✒️ 1914–16 | ⏰ 35 minutes}

Gustav Holst’s The Planets has fascinated audiences – and inspired composers (most notably John Williams’ score for Star Wars) – since it was written. Made up of seven contrasting sections, Holst takes us on an imaginative journey through our solar system, inspired by astrology and Roman mythology.

During a much-needed holiday in Spain in 1913, Holst was chatting with his friend, Clifford Bax (brother of composer Arnold) who brought up the subject of astrology. His fellow travellers were not particularly interested, but Holst was enthused. ‘As a rule, I only study things that suggest music to me,’ he was later to announce. ‘Recently the character of each planet suggested lots to me.’ Enthusiasm had a lot of heavy lifting to do – it would take him two years to complete the seven movements – but it would go on to become his most celebrated work. The LSO were the first orchestra to perform the work, in 1920, under Chief Conductor Albert Coates. They also played on the first two recordings (both conducted by Holst himself), the second of these making use of the new electrical recording process which revolutionised sound quality for orchestral works.

The seven movements are named after Roman gods, and each explores a distinct character. The Suite doesn’t include Pluto, which had not been discovered at the time. It also doesn't include Earth, which makes sense astrologically – as meaning comes from the positions of the planets as seen from our own. Today we will hear five movements:

Mars, the Bringer of War
Written under the shadow of World War I, Holst demanded that Mars represented ‘violence, fierceness, but above all the stupidity … of men and animals who take pleasure in fighting.’

Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Bright bells signal the arrival of skittish Mercury. Complicated rhythms keep the momentum going in this short but lively movement.

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
King of the gods, benevolent and kind. The stirring central tune was later adopted for the hymn tune Thaxted (I Vow to Thee My Country), also used as the Rugby Union World Cup theme.

Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Venus symbolises harmony and reconciliation. Representing the stars are the heavenly harp, glockenspiel and the shimmering celeste.

Uranus, the Magician
The four mighty notes on brass that introduce Uranus spell out the musical equivalent of Holst’s name – he is the magician here. The four-note theme is heard throughout the movement against a contrasting, increasingly manic march.

Gustav Holst
_{1874 to 1934 (United Kingdom)}

Born into a long line of professional musicians, Holst was steeped in music from an early age. He learned several instruments as a child, including piano. He had hoped to become a concert pianist, but this dream was shattered by neuritis in his right arm, which he described as feeling like ‘jelly overcharged with electricity’. Instead, he turned to the trombone, which he initially started learning to help his asthma (he suffered from poor health throughout his life). To earn some much-needed pennies, he pursued a performance career, composing in his spare time.

This practical experience proved invaluable but, frustrated by time limitations, Holst became a teacher, and worked for many years at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. The school was delighted to have such a distinguished (if not, at the time, well-known) composer in their midst, even providing him with a soundproof room, and it was there that he wrote his most famous work ...

The Planets pushed Holst into the public eye at the age of 44, although fame was never his ambition, and he found the attention quite discomforting. He would protest that it was not his best work, and he left a catalogue of over 200 works that reveal an artist with more variety than he is perhaps credited. A polymath, Holst drew inspiration from English folk music (Suites for wind band and St Paul’s Suite), poetry (In the Bleak Midwinter), astrology, and ancient Hindu texts (Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda), even learning Sanskrit to further his understanding of the source material.

Holst took to heart his own advice: ‘never compose anything unless the not composing of it becomes a positive nuisance to you’ and continued to write all his life. He died after an operation for a stomach ulcer, aged 59.

^{Louise Drewett}
Four Dances
_{(world premiere)
✒️2026 | ⏰9 minutes}

LSO Discovery Young Musicians
Guildhall School Musicians

Composer Louise Drewett introduces her latest work ...

This piece – as its title suggests – is made up of four distinct dances. These dances celebrate the coming together of almost one hundred musicians to premiere the work in Trafalgar Square. The dances also celebrate London itself, and in particular, depict four striking public spaces along the Thames. The places are not far apart, yet, as so often in London, they evoke vastly different moods, from busy urban environments to tranquil, reflective landscapes. The dances flow seamlessly into one another, as if one was journeying from one place to the next.

The first dance conveys the busyness and excitement of walking along the Thames path by London Bridge. The river here is relatively narrow and is depicted through light, sparkling, folk-like melodies, while heavier brass chords imagine the large 1980s office buildings that border it. By the second dance we reach a much calmer, quieter landscape: Columbia Wharf in Rotherhithe. A long flowing string melody and accompanying bass line rise and fall like the motion of the river, which is the central feature of this space. The third dance – once again fast-paced – leads us to South Dock by Canary Wharf, a highly developed environment dominated by grand geometric structures. The final dance takes us further east again to Maritime Greenwich. Here, the river is noticeably wider, and the music reflects a more serene and expansive landscape. As we reach the Thames estuary, melodic lines in the strings, brass, and winds accumulate and expand in a final flourish.

Louise Drewett

Louise Drewett (b 1989) is a British composer based in London. ‘Clearly a talent with a very distinct sensibility’ (The Telegraph), Drewett writes concert music that draws on her formative experience working with community choirs.

Her music has been performed at venues including the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and Cafe OTO. She has received commissions from organisations including the London Sinfonietta and the International Guitar Foundation, and written for soloists including Lotte Betts-Dean, Andrew Watts, Joseph Havlat, Cristian Sandrin, Amy Jolly and Lucy Humphris. Her community opera, Daylighting, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for their 200th Anniversary, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award at the Ivors Composer Awards 2022. Her educational music is published by ABRSM.

Drewett holds a PhD in Composition from the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied on a scholarship with Philip Cashian, Hans Abrahamsen and Oliver Knussen. At the Academy, she was Manson Fellow in 2021–22, and was awarded the 2018 and 2019 Charles Lucas Composition Prizes. Her study was supported by a Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award, a Vaughan Williams Bursary from the RVW Trust and the Charles Lucas Memorial Fund.

Drewett is a composition professor and lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was recently awarded an Associateship in recognition of her services to music. She works regularly with the New London Chamber Choir and Folkestone New Music, curating occasional concerts for each organisation.

^{Edward Elgar}
Movements from ‘Enigma’ Variations
_{✒️1898–99 | ⏰15 minutes}

The 'Enigma' Variations are a celebration of friendship – a rare subject in classical music. The melody originated as a noodle Elgar was tinkling around with on the piano. It could have been so easily missed, had his wife’s ears not pricked up at this enchanting tune. On her encouragement, he developed it into 13 ‘musical sketches of my friends’ that would propel him, at last, into the public limelight.  

Elgar loved a good puzzle. The piece wasn't originally entitled ‘Enigma’, but he added it to the score to create intrigue, claiming ‘the Enigma I will not explain – ‘its dark saying’ must be left unguessed’. He also said that, over all the variations, ‘another larger theme ‘goes’ but is never played.’ The mystery has never fully been solved, although many have tried (with some suggested answers such as a reference to Auld Lang Syne denied by Elgar himself). The piece was performed as part of the first-ever LSO concert, at the Queen's Hall in June 1904.

Each of the Variations are also given encrypted titles, although they weren’t too hard to decipher and the music gives lots of clues. Elgar explained that he wrote the Variations  ‘in a spirit of humour … each Variation contains a distinct idea founded on some particular personality,’ so the main theme is adapted to his friends’ characteristics in musical form. See if you can hear them in the Variations being performed today:

Hew David Steuart-Powell (HDS-P) was an amateur pianist and liked to warm up with scales.

Richard Baxter Townshend (RBT) had a penchant for hammy acting.

William Meath Baker (WMB) would often let doors slam behind him.

Architect Arthur Troyte Griffith (Troyte) was another amateur pianist, but very frustrated by his efforts.

Nimrod is the most famous of the variations, often performed as a standalone piece, and favoured at ceremonies and funerals. It is a warm and moving portrait of Elgar’s closest friend and editor, August Jaeger, whose surname means ‘hunter’ in German. ‘Nimrod’ is a hunter in the Bible.  

George Sinclair (GRS) was a fellow organist. This lively variation depicts Sinclair’s bulldog, Dan, tumbling into a river and scrambling out again with a triumphant bark.

EDU is Elgar’s own Variation – ‘Edu’ was his wife’s nickname for him – and gathers all the musical threads into an energetic conclusion.

Edward Elgar
_{1857 to 1934 (United Kingdom)}

Distinguished by repute and looks, dashing in his Edwardian attire and signature handlebar moustache, Edward Elgar’s most famous works are still performed internationally today. His popularity waxed and waned during his lifetime, but the young boy who helped out in his father’s music shop would, eventually, live to see his successes.

Born in a village in Worcestershire, he grew up surrounded by music. Apart from a miserable office job after leaving school, he worked as a professional musician, developing his craft through practical experience and generally getting involved in as many musical activities as possible.

His first love, however, was always composition. From his earliest tunes, written aged ten, he plugged away without creating much of a stir. With the ever-present support of his wife, Alice, and his close friend and editor, Jaeger, Elgar composed his first real triumph, the 'Enigma' Variations, in 1898.

'Variations' heralded an era of rich creativity, with popular works including the Pomp and Circumstance marches, of which No 1 is most famous. It is played every year at the Last Night of the BBC Proms, and was the first work to be recorded at Abbey Road. Other key works include violin and cello concertos, two symphonies and the monumental choral work The Dream of Gerontius.

Devastated at Alice’s death in 1920, his output slowed in favour of other distractions: he was a keen cyclist, devoted to his dogs and an amateur chemist. Many of his works are still regularly performed and, following a resurgence of British music in the mid-20th century, his place is secured as one of England’s most enduring and beloved composers.