Given the quality of the music here, it seems astonishing that the music of
Imogen Holst
, daughter of
Gustav
, should have been so completely neglected. The first album devoted to her work did not appear until 2009, and this one is in very limited company. The fault may be partly
Holst
's own. She served for 12 years as
Benjamin Britten
's assistant, was a prominent educator, and wrote several books. She was a part-time composer and apparently quite reluctant to blow her own horn. Yet this music is eminently worth hearing, and music buyers have agreed, propelling this release by the small
NMC
label (which
herself was indirectly responsible for establishing) onto classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2024. The big influence is not
Gustav Holst
but the pastoralism of
Ralph Vaughan Williams
, with whom
studied at the Royal College of Music. Yet, she is not a clone of
Vaughan Williams
. Sample the
Variations on "Loth to Depart,"
a 16th century folk melody, which has a concision and economy that are somehow miles removed from
and is set for the unusual combination of a string quartet and a double string orchestra. The
Suite for String Orchestra
is a neoclassic work that one might actually take for
. There is an early short tone poem,
Persephone
(1929), that shows the influence of
Ravel
, also one of
' inspirations, and a couple of choral anthems of a much more conventional cast. The
BBC Concert Orchestra
and the back-from-the-dead
BBC Singers
are ideal in this music, with the lush sound cultivated by conductor
John Wilson
playing nicely off of
's slightly dry tone. There is plenty of music here that could fit on any number of orchestral concerts. ~ James Manheim