The Planets - Alberto Nosè, Valentina Fornari

The Planets (CVLD337)

Gustav Holst
arranged for two pianos by the composer

Available in: HD Files, CD 

01 - Mars, the Bringer of War  6:41
02 - Venus, the Bringer of Peace  7:47
03 - Mercury, the Winged Messenger  3:58
04 - Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity  7:30
05 - Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age  8:55
06 - Uranus, the Magician  5:38
07 - Neptune, the Mystic  8:01
 
Total Time: 48:37

Alberto Nosè, piano 1
Valentina Fornari, piano 2

A critic once defined THE PLANETS, probably not by chance, as "The British Rite Of Spring."
In reality, it is very descriptive music, yet not without considerable complexity of writing, which, however, never appears as such to the listener's ears. Within the seven small rhapsodies, which correspond to the name and presumed "mood" of the seven planets honored, themes and harmonies that are extremely effective and impressive chase each other, destined to be immediately fixed in the memory even of a distracted listener.
So many are these happy moments that this work would inspire more than one great film composer of our time, often directly quoting entire musical phrases, such as the very famous theme from the Star Trek saga in the finale of Jupiter. But John Williams, Bernard Hermann, Alan Silvestri, and James Horner also owe a great debt to Holst for some of their most celebrated themes.
In the last part of his life, "after" The Planets, Holst would create other valuable works, but none on the level of his masterpiece, which, consciously or not, all of Humanity has learned to love, directly or indirectly.
The version we propose today is a transcription of THE PLANETS for two pianos, made by Holst himself, shortly after the original for orchestra. It is an extremely rare work to find on record and also performed live. In fact, from a technical point of view, this version presents absolutely transcendental difficulties for interpreters who decide to try their hand: and this precisely because of the need to reduce the extreme complexity of the sound textures of a large symphony orchestra to only 4 hands and two keyboards of this reduced ensemble.
Only very great and well-rehearsed performers can rightly tackle this high mountain to climb, as is the case with our Alberto Nosè and Valentina Fornari, also partners in life, interpreters of great talent and long experience.
 
Finally, in my opinion, this album offers a last but not least reason for interest in the sound we managed to achieve, starting from the pianos and the recording location, which are two wonderful FAZIOLI F278 grand pianos recorded in the equally splendid acoustics of the FAZIOLI HALL in Sacile, home of the prestigious FAZIOLI company, universally known for building some of the best pianos on the Planet. The native high-resolution digital recording, the use of highly selected and absolute reference microphones and microphone preamplifiers (AUSTRIAN OC818, SCHOEPS MK2s and SENNHEISER MKH8020; and also MILLENNIA MEDIA HV3-B) complete the work.
Marco Lincetto

88.2 kHz / 24 bit original recording made at FAZIOLI HALL, Sacile (Italy) on September, 14, 15, 2021
 
Alberto and Valentina play on two wonderful FAZIOLI F278 Gran Coda da Concerto, tuned and prepared by Fazioli Staff.
 
Marco Lincetto choose a proprietary microphones set up, based upon SCHOEPS MK2s linear (stereo pair), SENNHEISER MKH8020 8stereo pair) and AUSTRIAN OC818 (stereo pair), all preamplified by three MILLENNIA MEDIA HV-3B.
ADC: LYNX AURORA "n"
 
Production: VELUT LUNA
Executive Producer: Marco Lincetto
Recording, mix and mastering engineer: Marco Lincetto
Musical producer and editing: Mattia Zanatta
Cover photo: Edoardo Brotto
Design and layout: L'Image