EARTH AND OTHER PLANETS: BRITTEN SINFONIA WITH STEVENS & POUND AND ROBERT MACFARLANE
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, orch. Ian Gardiner
- 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 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 unmistakable 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, Britten Sinfonia's winds and brass are augmented by those of Sinfonia Smith Square.
“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.