An exhilarating re-imagining of Holst’s The Planets for folk duo and orchestra, accompanied by text written and narrated by internationally acclaimed writer Robert Macfarlane (Is a River Alive?, The Lost Words)

Gustav Holst’s passion for folk music and his omission of Earth from his blockbuster orchestral suite are the starting points for this special collaboration.

Macfarlane’s poetic narrative overlays the recomposed movements “Mars”, “Venus”, “Jupiter” and “Mercury” and rises to a peak of love and concern in the newly-written “Earth”. 

“Peace is pax, shalom, salaam," says Ursa Major, the Big Bear. 

“Peace is a million tiny ideas inching towards one another across deep space, all yearning to make a new world," says the Archer.  

 And then Venus –– who spins in retrograde, who is Earth’s twin, Earth’s brother, Earth’s other, but with acid for weather –– says to Earth: “You’re very quiet tonight” 

– Text by Robert Macfarlane from Stevens & Pound’s The Silent Planet 

In the first half, Britten Sinfonia perform two orchestral works inspired by and derived from folk melodies. Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, subtitled “A Time There Was”, presents a range of tunes, ranging from rollicking fiddle dances to exquisite, valedictory melancholy, with his unmistakeable brilliance. The suite is dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger, whose own characterful suite, A Lincolnshire Posy, is based on folk songs he collected in the county more than a century ago. In this extravagantly scored tour de force, our winds and brass are augmented by those of Sinfonia Smith Square.