Edward Gardner - Holst: The Planets / R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra (2017)

For its very first album on Chandos, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain devotes its characteristic energy and musical mastery to an explosive programme that transcends daily life and earthly experience. It is helped by the enthusiastic, encouraging, and experienced baton of Edward Gardner as well as by the sumptuous yet detailed acoustic of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, all fully revealed in this surround-sound recording.

Their performance of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and Holst’s The Planets is already a point of reference in the UK after the immensely successful Prom concert that preceded the recording. The concert’s five-star review in The Daily Telegraph praised in particular the orchestra’s ‘great attack and complete absence of anything routine’, while The Guardian emphasised the great performance of the orchestra in this ‘graceful and evocative programme’, especially the ‘depth and richness of sound that belied their youth’.

This unique album is a first milestone in what promises to be a superb discography for the NYO.

TRACKLIST
01. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Sehr breit - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
02. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Von den Hinterweltlern - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
03. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Von der grossen Sehnsucht - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
04. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Von den Freuden-und Leidenschaften - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
05. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Das Grablied - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
06. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Von der Wissenschaft - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
07. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Der Genesende - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
08. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Das Tanzlied - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
09. Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, TrV 176: Nachtwandlerlied - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
10. The Planets, Op. 32: I. Mars, the Bringer of War - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
11. The Planets, Op. 32: II. Venus, the Bringer of Peace - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
12. The Planets, Op. 32: III. Mercury, the Winged Messenger - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
13. The Planets, Op. 32: IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
14. The Planets, Op. 32: V. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
15. The Planets, Op. 32: VI. Uranus, the Magician - The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
16. The Planets, Op. 32: VII. Neptune, the Mystic - City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus