The Planets - Alberto Nosè, Valentina Fornari

The Planets (CVLD337)

Gustav Holst
arranged for two pianos by the composer
 
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 defined THE PLANETS, probably not coincidentally, as "The British Rite Of Springs".
In reality it is very descriptive music, not separated, however, by a remarkable complexity of writing, which, however, never appears as such to the ears of the listener. Inside the seven little rhapsodies, which answer to the name and to the presumed "mood" of the seven homage planets, extremely effective and impressive themes and harmonies 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 will be a source of inspiration for more than one great film music composer of our time, often coming to quote entire musical phrases, see for example the famous theme of the Star Trek saga, in the final of Jupiter. But also John Williams, Bernard Hermann, Alan Silvestri and James Horner are great debtors to Holst for some of their most famous themes.
In the last part of his life "after" THE PLANETS, Holst would perform other valuable works, but none at the level of his masterpiece, which consciously or unconsciously, all Humanity has learned to love, directly or indirectly.
The version we are proposing today is a transcription of THE PLANETS for two pianos, made by Holst himself, a short time after the original for orchestra. It is a very 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 the performers who decide to undertake it: this is due to the fact that they have to reduce the extreme complexity of the sound plots of a large symphony orchestra to only 4 hands and two keyboards of this reduced ensemble.
Only very great and close-knit interpreters can rightly compete with this high mountain to climb, as is the case of our Alberto Nosè and Valentina Fornari, also companions in life, interpreters of great talent and long experience.
 
Finally, in my opinion this record offers a last but not least reason of interest in the sound that we were able to propose, starting from the pianos and the recording location, which are two wonderful FAZIOLI F278 recorded in the equally splendid acoustics of FAZIOLI HALL in Sacile, home of the prestigious FAZIOLI company, universally known for designing some of the best pianos on the planet. The recording in high native digital resolution, the use of microphones, and microphone preamplifiers selected and absolute reference (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