EARTH AND OTHER PLANETS: BRITTEN SINFONIA WITH STEVENS & POUND AND ROBERT MACFARLANE
The Norwich date will open for General Booking on Wednesday 12 November at 10am. If you would like to book from the 6th, join us as a Member.
Performers
- Stevens & Pound
- folk duo (melodeon/harmonica and percussion)
- Robert Macfarlane
- writer / narrator
- Britten Sinfonia
- Sinfonia Smith Square*
- Clark Rundell
- conductor
Programme
- Britten
- English Folksong Suite: A Time There Was
- Stevens & Pound
- Medley: Britten & Grainger folk tunes
- Grainger
- Lincolnshire Posy*
- Holst/Stevens & Pound
- The Silent Planet (Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Earth)
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”.
In the first half, Britten Sinfonia perform two masterful arrangements of English folk tunes by Grainger and Britten, while Stevens & Pound create a bridging medley based on this folk material.
“The work of updating and completing Holst’s Planets suite feels both urgent and exciting. Earth’s vast, miraculous sound-world mustn’t dim to become a silent – or silenced – planet. In music, word and performance, we want to communicate the wonder, awe and fragility of the planet we inhabit.”
WATCH
Extracts of Stevens & Pound performing "Jupiter" with the RLPO at the Royal Northern College of Music
WATCH
Robert Macfarlane and Stevens & Pound perform an extract of the new movement "Earth" at Folk East 2025
The Norwich performance is dedicated to the memory of Richard Somerford.