The Planets

Festival regulars Spiritato bring us a celestial orchestral journey through the planets in a pre-imagining of Holst’s famous masterpiece. In this programme each planet’s character is portrayed through music of the 17th and 18th centuries evoking the same astrological archetypes that inspired Holst: finding peace, war, jollity, wisdom, magic and mysticism in the music of Uccellini, Handel, Rameau and others.

Spiritato
Kinga Ujszászi director, violin

“We begin with Rebel’s Les élémens, representing the planets emerging from chaos. As some of the planets hadn’t yet been discovered in the 18th century, I’ve taken a few creative liberties. I’m also including a piece by William Herschel, who discovered Uranus. Although it was written a little later than the rest of the programme, it would have been a missed opportunity not to include music by the astronomer-composer. The ‘Planets’ will be represented by music from Kerll, Rameau, Blow, Handel, Herschel, Fischer and even Castrucci, so it will be a real showcase of characters and emotions. To connect the different works, as we are travelling through space between planets, I’m using a simple, haunting, lullaby-themed ground bass by Merula, built on a single semitone step. I hope the audience feels as though they’ve journeyed through the cosmos and spent the evening gazing up at the night sky.”
Kinga Ujszaszi interviewed for Continuo Connect

Supported by Continuo Foundation