Wow. Lenny knows exactly what he’s doing in these Planets (except for the organ sound in “Mars” from 4:35-4:40 – what was he thinking?). Wow. Incidentally, in the orchestra’s last death throe at the end of “Mars”, there’s a weird bit of trumpet hesitation at 6:18. I wasn’t going to mention that particular bit of weirdness, but the more I listen to it the more it weirds me out.
I want to quickly mention “Jupiter”: it’s wonderfully jolly. And I didn’t even mind the mistakes in it (dodgy intonation from the trumpets at 0:56, a wrong note from a horn at 1:08, a strange note from something in the right channel at 1:16, a noticeable edit at 2:33, a very strange sound at 3:25, and a cracked note from the solo trumpet at 6:58). The Big Tune (3:04-5:18) might be a bit slow (it is), but what the hey – it’s very Lenny. (I can picture him in Full Emotional Mode, with one hand pointing his baton like a magic wand, trying to cast a spell over the string section, while his other hand is in a grasping gesture, as it holds The Meaning Of Life.)
“Saturn” is excellent. The Lenmeister treats it as if it’s a long-lost slow movement from a Sibelius symphony. Unfortunately, there’s a wayward horn entry at 2:55, which sounds like a honking swan. (Maybe Lenny wanted people to think of Sibelius’s Swan of Tuonela.) And at 4:08 there’s a strange sound in the left channel. I reckon it’s a pair of cymbals accidentally touching. If you hear it and think it’s something else, feel free to let me know. But forgetting those minor things for a moment (I did), this “Saturn” is magic.
Speaking of instrumental awkwardness, “Uranus” contains a horn having a whole heap o’ trouble playing his or her part from 1:14-1:17. You can’t miss it. Oh, and a piccolo plays a sharp note at 3:03.
But “Neptune” has no off moments at all (hurrah!), and is spookily mysterious.
Looking at Listening to Leapin’ Lenny’s Planets overall, this is definitely a top 5 contender. Unless I hear some Planets I like more.
Update: I did.
Peter's Planets 
One thing that drives me nuts in this version is that the Celesta plays the entire part an octave lower than it should be. What I’ve heard is that Bernstein thought that Holst didn’t know that the convention was that the Celesta sounds an octave higher than the written pitch. Holst’s own recordings certainly don’t show any evidence of this misunderstanding, and it really messes up a lot of the voice leading in movements like Mercury.
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Howdy, O Person Who Loves Jacques:
Where does the celesta go rogue? It appears in three movements (“Venus”, “Mercury”, and “Neptune”), so I don’t know which bit of “Hey, that’s the wrong octave!” you’re talking about.
It’s yet another case of The Conductor Knows Best. As far as I know (which, admittedly, isn’t very far), there have been quite a few conductors throughout history who have decided to “improve” scores. Leopold Stokowski was the king of score-meddling. He was renowned for tinkering with the composer’s intentions. And it didn’t matter what score it was – he’d beaver away, turning the score into Another Stokowski Extravaganza™.
But I think I’m getting off the point.
The point is there’s a celesta on the Bernstein recording of The Planets that’s doin’ somethin’ it shouldn’a oughta, and it bothers you enormously.
I’d love to be able to rectify this unwanted situation, but all I can offer is: “Try listening to another version. There are plenty.”
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It’s the entire celesta part which is played incorrectly. As you mention it’s not used in every movement. Sure it bothers me, but more than that, it’s a head scratcher, since no other conductor does this (that I’ve heard). Does it ruin it for me? No, I like Bernstein’s reading very much, if not enough to put it in the top 10 perhaps. I guess it is more distracting to me, since I’ve played the organ part (sitting next to the celesta) about 20 times in performance, and have the correct playing of it etched in my hearing of the work!
Cheers,
Tati
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It certainly is weird, Big T.
Who knows what’s happening here?
I now have three theories about what may have happened:
There may even be a fourth possibility, but I can’t think of it at the moment.
Otherwise, I’m as in the dark about this as you are, Mr. T.
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LOL.
Couldn’t stop smiling with your vivid description of Lenny with the “magic wand, trying to cast a spell over the string section, while his other hand is in a grasping gesture, as it holds The Meaning Of Life”…
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not my cup of tea :(
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It’s the tenor tuba that messes up the line in Uranus at 1:14-1:17, not the horn. Trust me, I have this score memorized from years of analyzing it and writing college essays on it. Also, I’ve played the horn and know that the horn entrance is a few bars later with the strings. This is the second recording in which you’ve mistaken the tenor tuba for the horn, I can’t remember which was the other recording. Oh well.
Great analysis, this is one of my least favorite recordings, unfortunately. It’s the second Planets CD I bought, the first being Simon Rattle with the Philharmonia Orchestra and I have to say I found the latter to be far superior, especially with Venus, Mercury, and Saturn. Definitely Saturn. This one left a bad taste in my mouth with the unbalanced instruments in the latter portion of the movement. It was not calming as I found the Rattle recording to be. I’m legitimately surprised to see that recording ranked so low while this one being so high.
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“It’s the tenor tuba that messes up the line in Uranus at 1:14-1:17, not the horn.”
Oops. It sounds like an English horn to me. (An out-of-tune English horn.)
“Trust me, …”
I do.
“… I have this score memorized from years of analyzing it and writing college essays on it. Also, I’ve played the horn and know that the horn entrance is a few bars later with the strings. This is the second recording in which you’ve mistaken the tenor tuba for the horn, I can’t remember which was the other recording. Oh well.”
That’d be my faulty ears, not hearing the difference. Can I blame it on my tinnitus? (No you can’t, Peter.)
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“Great analysis, this is one of my least favorite recordings, unfortunately. …”
Fair enough. À chacun son goût.
“… It’s the second Planets CD I bought, the first being Simon Rattle with the Philharmonia Orchestra and I have to say I found the latter to be far superior, especially with Venus, Mercury, and Saturn. Definitely Saturn. This one left a bad taste in my mouth with the unbalanced instruments in the latter portion of the movement. It was not calming as I found the Rattle recording to be. I’m legitimately surprised to see that recording ranked so low while this one being so high.”
The thing I love about the Bernstein is how confident/flamboyant/shameless it is. It makes no excuses for its interpretative flair. (But that’s The Lenny Way™, isn’t it?) I love how it glares at you, saying, “This is how we play The Planets, pal. Get used to it, or get out of the way!”
I rated the Rattle/Philharmonia Planets relatively low because of how I thought of it overall. Interpretatively, it had good points and bad points. The best of the good points was that Rattle’s approach was openhearted. And the interpretation was backed up by the playing. In other words, it was performed as intended – it wasn’t the sound of an orchestra struggling to realise the conductor’s intentions. In the demerit column, though, I thought it was bland in a few places. And with the sound quality, I didn’t think it was all that great compared to other Planets recordings.
Ultimately with the Rattle, it was simply a matter of there being many more Planets recordings that I preferred. But I must say that when I do listen to it, I enjoy it.
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I went to the concert that led to this recording. A few years earlier, as a huge fan of The Planets, I had borrowed the full score, the piano duet version, and the 2 piano 4 hands version, and I knew that both piano versions put the celesta part where you would think: an octave higher than written in the celesta part. I was very curious as to why Paul Jacobs played them an octave lower. I went backstage after, found him, and asked why he played the entire part an octave lower. I got a blast in return (Jane, you ignorant slut comes to mind). He never mentioned Lenny. It certainly seemed to me from his intensity that it was his idea and he was tired of suffering fools about it.
Wikipedia says Holst originally conceived and sketched The Planets for 2p4h, then the first version was for 1p4h.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jacobs_(pianist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets
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Howdy, Magnificent T.
“I went to the concert that led to this recording.”
Excellent.
“A few years earlier, as a huge fan of The Planets, I had borrowed the full score, the piano duet version, and the 2 piano 4 hands version, and I knew that both piano versions put the celesta part where you would think: an octave higher than written in the celesta part. I was very curious as to why Paul Jacobs played them an octave lower. I went backstage after, found him, and asked why he played the entire part an octave lower. I got a blast in return (Jane, you ignorant slut comes to mind). He never mentioned Lenny. It certainly seemed to me from his intensity that it was his idea and he was tired of suffering fools about it.”
Golly. That sounds a tad uncivil to me. Maybe he’s the kind of guy who thinks, “What would you know? You’re an ordinary person. You’re not superior, like me.”
Was that a “Never meet your heroes” moment for you?
“Wikipedia says Holst originally conceived and sketched The Planets for 2p4h, then the first version was for 1p4h.”
I might have to start buying the piano versions as well.
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Hey, testifacio:
I was reading the liner notes in my latest Planets CD purchase (I can’t stop buying them) and thought of you when I came across this on page 4:
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With regards to your question about what Benny was thinking with the organ, it appears there was no organ during the live recording, and it was added later on. So Benny deserves an apology :-)
Here are the liner notes:
“Recorded over two nights Nov 30, Dec 7.”
“The Organ Overdub was recorded on June 7, 1973 at 30th Street Studio, New York City.”
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Many apologies, Benny/Lenny/Henny/Penny.
But still, I’d say that’s possibly the weirdest organ sound I’ve heard on any recording of The Planets.
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I have that exact recording (among many others of “The Planets”). But I don’t hear a strange organ sound at the time stamp 4:35 – 4:40 in “Mars”. In fact Mars doesn’t seem to have any organ at all in this Lenny/NY recording. At least my copy.
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I was checking different uploads of this recording on YouTube. One had a cover picture with the words “Sonic Space Spectacular” (or something like this) and there it was. A shrill, piercing sounding organ. Than i was listening to the “Bernstein Century” version. And… no organ. So it really was dubbed in. Maybe some reissue producer, or sound engineer thought it was better to leave the thing out. Or they just forget to put it in, as it obviusly isn’t on the master tape. No loss.
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Here is that “A Sonic Space Spectacular” recording:
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This version was issued in both stereo and quadrophonic. It could be that one version had more organ than the other, or possibly even something like them only transferring the front pair of channels from the quad tape.
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