I’ve just finished recording the music of Imogen Holst for release by NMC in September. This could hardly be more appropriate, as without Imogen (known to everyone as Imo) having the foresight to set up the Holst Foundation not long before she died in 1984 it is very unlikely that NMC would exist at all. The Foundation was always intended to support the work of living composers, and we had discussed in detail the possibility of setting up a record label which would do exactly that.
Imo was hopelessly evasive if you asked her about her music, and although I knew she had composed throughout her life it was not until after her death that we discovered quite how extensive her catalogue is – well over 200 works, many of them arrangements or on a small scale, but many substantial pieces as well. And quite a number of these larger works remained unperformed, as if simply set aside while she was preoccupied with her many teaching roles, as well as promoting the music of her father. During the 15 years in which she worked as an assistant to Britten she continued to write, but less so than in the 1930s and 1940s, which included her residencies at Dartington.
A few years ago NMC took over an existing disc of her chamber music (NMC D236) and rather to our surprise it has become one of our best sellers. So hopes are high for this new recording, which will be released in September. It includes works she wrote as a student, including the remarkable symphonic poem Persephone from 1929, and an even earlier Allegro assai for strings. Two major works for strings are included, a Suite from 1943 (the only piece on this disc to have received a professional performance) and Variations on Loth to Depart, a remarkable work for string quartet and double string orchestra, composed in 1962. On Westhall Hill for small orchestra and two substantial choral works complete the disc. What Man is He? from the 1940s and Festival Anthem, composed in 1946, were both of them receiving their first ever performances.
It has been a great pleasure to pay tribute to Imo with this recording – something which would probably have surprised her but surely also pleased her greatly. Wonderful playing in the BBC’s Maida Vale Studio 1 by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and a treat to have the impeccable BBC Singers, all conducted by Alice Farnham.