Lyric Movement for Viola and Small Orchestra

Composer: HOLST, Gustav
  • Lyric Movement for viola and small orchestra was one of Holst’s final compositions. Holst wrote the single-movement work in 1933 for violinist Lionel Tertis. Tertis played at the premiere in March of 1934 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.1
    • Holst died just two months later.2
  • Lyric Movement epitomizes Holst’s late musical style and perhaps better resembles the aesthetic of a nocturne.3 According to the composer’s daughter, Imogen Holst, this piece came nearer than any other work to reaching Gustav Holst’s own ideal of “a tender austerity.”4

Sources

  1. Lewis Foreman, “Lyric Movement for viola and small orchestra (1933)” in accompanying booklet, Holst: Orchestral Works performed by Stephen Tees and the City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox, CHAN 9270, 1994, compact disc.
  2. Colin Matthews, “Holst, Gustav(us Theodore von),” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 20, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000013252.
  3. Lewis Foreman, “Lyric Movement for viola and small orchestra (1933)” in accompanying booklet, Holst: Orchestral Works.
  4. Imogen Holst, Essay in accompanying booklet, Imogen Holst conducts Gustav Holst performed by Cecil Aronowitz and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Imogen Holst, Lyrita 0223, 2014, compact disc.

Cut IDs

24754