Watch with us: Salonen conducts Holst’s The Planets
Trailer
Keep the Philharmonia Playing
Access to the arts is a fundamental right, so we’ve made this content free and for everyone. We can only continue to do so with the help of our Friends and supporters. Please give what you can to Keep the Philharmonia Playing for you, wherever you are in the world.
The Planets is a hugely enjoyable musical journey through the solar system. Along the way composer Gustav Holst gives us a masterclass in orchestral writing. The merciless rhythm of ‘Mars’ gives way to the serenity of ‘Venus’, ebullient brass heralds the expansive song of ‘Jupiter’, and ethereal voices float upwards as ‘Neptune’ fades into darkness.
In 2012 Watford Colosseum was transformed into a huge studio where we filmed The Planets, with our Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Each section, and in many cases each individual player, was captured on separate cameras and microphones, to create a multi-room installation introducing the instruments of the orchestra. In Universe of Sound, a partnership with the Science Museum, and more recently in The Virtual Orchestra, around half a million people on three continents have had the chance to experience Holst’s masterpiece in larger-than-life detail.
We would like to invite you to join us in this film tour of The Planets, with an extra final movement composed specially for our installation by Joby Talbot. We can’t play for you live at the moment, but we will be there: players who took part in the original recording introduce the music, share their insights, and answer questions in the live chat.