The Planets: Reimagined

"The Planets, OP. 32' by the English composer Gustav Holst continues to inspire. Progrockers like Yes and King Crimson, for example, liked to quote from this work. The American composer Jeremy Levy has now made a big band version of it with the cream of studio musicians from Los Angeles.

Seven compositions for as many planets that were known when Holst wrote 'The Planets, OP. 32' between 1914 and 1916 (there was no question of Pluto yet). Each planet was subtitled: Mars (The Bringer Of War), Venus (The Bringer Of Peace), Mercury (The Winged Messenger), Jupiter (The Bringer Of Jollity), Saturn (The Bringer Of Old Age), Uranus (The Magician) and Neptune (The Mystic). Levy adheres strictly to this classification.

He has written a lot of music for film ('Ant-Man And The Wasp', 'Frozen II'), TV and video games ('Star Wars: Battlefront'), and has led the Budman-Levy Orchestra with saxophonist Alex Budman since 2007 , worked with the Metropole Orkest and even played the trombone with the Brian Setzer Orchestra (Holst was also a trombonist). A man of many musics. When he experienced a live performance of 'The Planets' in 2017, he was immediately sold. He came up with new arrangements for his own dream orchestra, with this recording as the final result.

Of course Levy knows the tricks of the trade to use the dynamics of a large line-up to your heart's content. The build-up and maintenance of tension curves are also masterfully worked out. It crackles everywhere and the listener is catapulted from one moment of action to the next in a heady wealth of sound. Two striking features: hardly any solos and the frequent appearance of Latin accents (a remnant from Levy's Miami period). In other words, it "reimagined" from the title.

Other surprising twists are the crooner swing annex romance in 'Venus' and the fierce guitar solo in the middle of 'Jupiter' (which boosts the rock 'n' roll content). Due to the sporadic interfaces with 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (Richard Strauss), everything deviates less far from the initial atmosphere, but the approach in 'Uranus (The Magician)' is more radical. Here it seems as if we are on our way to 'The Wizard Of Oz' along the "yellow brick road".

A renewed and fascinating introduction to this standard work. Then listen to the soundtrack of 'Star Wars' and you can clearly hear that John Williams was not only inspired by Wagner but also by Holst.