The Planets

Went to the Milwaukee Symphany Orchestra again tonight, for Holst's The Planets. I think John Williams borrowed bits from the movements for "Mars", "Venus", and "Uranus", and the first cello made sure to point out in his remarks that Star Trek stole from "Jupiter" for. In none of the commentary about the music did they mention that Holst grew to hate the suite over time...

The projection of NASA footage of the planets was a little distracting and the sequences they used had been put together in 1996, so they were...not exactly out-of-date, since Jupiter hasn't changed much, but a little stale. Plus, the music was written during WWI, and was less about astronomy than astrology.

Fun, though, and the music was very enjoyable. The female chorus in "Neptune" was suitably otherworldly. There are three more performances this weekend.

Here's a YouTube mashup of Mars Rover footage with Holst's Mars:


(Unintentional comedy at the cocktail reception before the show; my German teacher is in the chorus and when I met her there she introduced me to people as "my German student" which prompted them all to ask which part of Germany I was from. Uh, ich wohne auf Milwaukee.)