The Planets (Holst) / Enigma Variations (Elgar) - BBC Live 1965-66 (Remastered)

These colourful live BBC concert recordings are brimming with life and individual character, featuring performances of racing tempo and high energy. Don't listen to another version of The Planets straight after this - it'll sound slow and plodding by comparison. Just as The Beatles were moving toward experiments with LSD in 1965/6, one wonders if Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra were getting into Speed.
These being live performances, one can expect the usual ambient sounds of coughing, sneezing and butt scratching, adding to the live atmosphere and placing the listener right in the 1965 Royal Festival Hall audience.
Expertly recorded for BBC radio broadcast in 1965 and 1966, the tapes were dusted off and remastered for the Pickwick CD release in 1995, which is issued with sleeve notes by former Genesis drummer John Mayhew.
This is neither technically the best of performances or recordings, and yet is still one of my favourite versions that I find myself repeatedly returning to. Royston Cropper-Harvey, Aug 2003


Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
Performers: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Venue: Royal Festival Hall
Date of live recordings: 3rd Feb 1965 (Planets) and 6th Aug 1966 (Enigma)
Year of CD re-issue: 1995 (Pickwick / BBC Radio Classics)
Remastering: John Hunt, BBC Radiophonic Workshop