Holst: Beni Mora / Somerset Rhapsody / Hammersmith / Heath: Invocation for Cello and Orchestra

There is much more to Holst than The Planets, and the music gathered on this excellently played and recorded disc gives you some of his very best orchestral music at a budget price. If you're a Planets fan, then the next logical piece to try is Beni Mora, a luscious Oriental rhapsody in three movements that reveals the same interest in rhythm and orchestral color that characterizes it's more famous astrological big brother. Holst considered Egdon Heath (a symphonic poem after Thomas Hardy) to be his best piece, and it's certainly one of his most evocative--a study in bleakness and silence very much like Debussy's Nuages (Clouds) from the Nocturnes. In short, there's a lot of fine music to discover here, and at the price it's a low risk investment. --David Hurwitz