Holst: The Planets.

Holst: The Planets. Walter Susskind, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 4005.

Mobile Fidelity, having largely moved away from gold discs and on to Super Audio CDs, found some good source material in the performance of Walter Susskind conducting Gustav Holst's The Planets.

The first and only time other time I heard this recording was almost 30 years ago when it first appeared on a Vox/Turnabout LP in the mid seventies. It was during the quadraphonic era, and Vox had intended this production to be played back in four channels. But I heard it in ordinary two-channel stereo where the rear channels had apparently been folded into the front channels, blurring the sound considerably. Not being too impressed by the sonics at the time, I quickly forget about the performance. Now that I am able to hear it in cleaner stereo, I regret not giving the performance more credit.

Mo-Fi is producing hybrid two-channel/multi-channel discs, so a person can listen to The Planets with or without an SACD player or rear channels. The two-channel sound is better focused now, and I was delighted by Susskind's interpretation. "Mars" begins things with a zesty, saucy bravado; Holst is said to have wanted this "Bringer of War" to ridicule the stupidity of war, and surely Susskind's zippy rendition conveys this thought. But it's the slower movements that most impressed me, "Venus" and "Saturn" and, of course, the ethereal "Neptune," with their grace and refinement. Still, it's "Uranus" that always seems to me the centerpiece of the work, the movement that combines the strongest tensions, the biggest outbursts of emotion, and the softest moments of repose. Susskind handles it superbly, the pacing immaculate. This is quite a nice reading, actually.

The sound, as I've said, is a marked improvement over the old vinyl. But it must be played fairly loudly to be enjoyed in full. At a soft or even moderate playback level, there seems to be a degree of cloudiness left over from its quad origins. But at volume, the sound is firm and well delineated. On the minus side, there is a minor feeling of compartmentalization about it, an absence of ultimate depth, some softness about the dynamics, and a lack of truly deep bass that intrude upon one's complete surrender to a willing suspension of disbelief. But I'm sure it sounds real enough, overall, to please most folks. It's an enjoyable disc, and I'm nitpicking.