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Space Coast Symphony Tours the Planets  January 24, 2014 | Melbourne, WMFE--Classical music lovers can tour the universe this weekend from the comfort of a concert hall. The Space Coast Symphony is offering an audio-visual performance of Gustav Holst's The Planets.
Since long before NASA, music composers have guided listeners through space. Joseph Haydn told of earth’s Creation; Antonin Dvorak composed a “Song to the Moon,” and Gustav Holst gave The Planets personalities of Gods. In 2010, the Houston Symphony commissioned filmmaker Duncan Copp to pair Holst’s The Planets with NASA images of the actual planets. This weekend, the Space Coast Symphony will bring the presentation to Florida. Conductor Aaron Collins explains, "Each movement has the characteristics of each of those Gods. So for Mars, for example, Mars the Bringer of War, is a very aggressive, bombastic movement. ... Mercury is very fast, quick and light. Neptune is very soft and sedated and kind of dream-like. It’s a very descriptive score.” Other movements feature loving Venus, ancient Saturn and magical Uranus. Holst skipped Earth, and Pluto’s discovery came too late for the composition. Perhaps appropriately, it’s named for the God of the Dead. The Space Coast Symphony will perform The Planets with Copp’s film twice Saturday in Melbourne and once on Sunday in Vero Beach. |
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