REVIEW: The Silent Planet

Trying to modernize and make a classic relevant while paying homage to the 150th anniversary of its debut is always a challenge. It’s a challenge that this performance embraces with enthusiasm.

Orchestrator Ian Gardiner (with the help of musicians Will Pound and Delia Stevens) has done a fantastic job of rearranging the works so that, although different in many respects, including instrumentation, these pieces still evoke the feelings of the original. Although the pieces stray quite far from Holst’s original compositions in many places, this is not necessarily a bad thing either. It helps to inject new life into the pieces through changes in style, speed and even the arrangement of some movements. Venus, for example, is now a lilting melody reminiscent of Latin jazz; Jupiter is faster and seems closer to an Irish reel or bluegrass; Mercury is full of birdsong.

Not only is the arrangement impressive, but all the participants demonstrate excellent musicianship – Delia Stevens, in particular, was truly impressive in her performance with such a wide range of disparate and unusual instruments. The orchestra, made up of players from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Northern College of Music, was not too large due to the constraints of the stage, but managed to play perfectly – rising through the different movements and building gently on each piece. They are never overstated and that is something that is important when dealing with music with so many nuances and subtleties.

Throughout the 90-minute performance, visual effects were used in extremely interesting ways to complement the musical foreground, with the colours of each planet being used to light up the upper areas of the auditorium as their piece was played. While incredibly minimalist, this nonetheless helped to subtly enhance the atmosphere created by the small orchestra.

The last piece in the suite is a new work: Terre, The silent planet. This is a dynamic piece, speeding up and building to a crescendo before slowing down to a crawl and whisper for another build-up. The variety of instruments used is also at its peak here: from harmonicas to rotating percussion instruments that I had never seen before. The music is accompanied by Phoebe Hanson’s spoken word for much of this piece, as we are asked to reflect on our planet. At times it felt a little drawn out and strayed a little from rhythmic poetry, but it nevertheless did a great job of increasing the atmosphere.

It is entirely appropriate that a subject dealing so intimately with our own planet should address some of its problems and this is another feature that is at the heart of The Silent Planet The entire suite. Phoebe Hanson’s spoken introductions connect each piece to the planets and their representations of themes such as war and the climate crisis. The order of the works is also symbolic, to some extent: from war to peace, from nature to joy.

It is certainly an experiment for such a short suite, and a fresh and stimulating arrangement of Holst classics for a new audience.