Gustav Holst's The Cloud Messenger, Op. 30, of 1913, is all but forgotten. A giant choral-orchestral setting of an epic Sanskrit love poem, the work was, in
Holst's mind, to be a major expansion of the music on Indian subjects he had been pursuing since the first years of the century. Unfortunately, the premiere was sunk by a ghastly error (no semi-choir was provided, and the singers attempted to sight-read the music, with predictably disastrous results), and the work fell out of the repertory, eclipsed by more modernist concepts. Even today, it's a substantial budgetary undertaking for even the big British choirs
Holst imagined. Hence this chamber arrangement for 15 players by
Joseph Fort: the idea is to revive the work, which is doubtless interesting. The piece, unlike some others by
Holst of the period, doesn't include much reference to actual Indian music, but it does have an attractively romantic-mystical atmosphere that survives the reduction in forces. The tale recounts the efforts of a king to have a cloud take a message to his wife in the Himalayan mountains. The paean to marital love was a bit out of fashion in the year of The Rite of Spring, but
Holst's airy score, coming to rest in quiet ecstasy at the end, reflects the ancient text well. The
Choir of King's College London and the
Strand Ensemble achieve the right transparent texture, and the choir also does well with the encore, the Five Partsongs, Op. 12, also of a romantic nature. Certainly of interest to
Holst buffs, this album will also attract those exploring the question of India in the British cultural mind.