Before you watch our video, here are a few facts about Gustav Holst:

Born: 21 September 1874  in Cheltenham, England.

Died: 25 May 1934 in London, England.

Gustav Holst is known for the excellence of his orchestration, his music combines an international flavour based on the styles of Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and others with a continuation of English Romanticism. The BSO’s founder, Sir Dan Godfrey, was an advocate of British music and often featured Holst’s works, consequently Holst got to conduct and listen to the orchestra on a number of occasions and got to work closely with Godfrey on works such as his Cotswold Symphony.

In this video, we explore Holst’s Planets Suite, which we performed at the BBC Proms 2019 and can also be seen at various concerts throughout the season, including on 21 November at Portsmouth Guildhall with David Hill and at Poole Lighthouse on 13 May 2020 led by Kirill Karabits.