English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) established himself in the concert halls of the world with a single work: his famous orchestral suite "The Planets", Opus 32. Were we to seek after traces of his work, apart from his own compositions, which sent out important impulses, we would find them today in the creativity of such English colleagues as Michael Tippett or Benjamin Britten, and primarily in his long years as instructor at a number of institutions, on which he left his imprint making some radical improvements in their activities through his music-educational approaches. Beyond this, Gustav Holst was one of the fathers of a movement, which in the middle of the 20th century would subsequently lead to the development of historical performance practice, the revivification of early English music from John Dowland to Henry Purcell. Besides this, from the time of his own studies at London's Royal College of Music and motivated by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, he concerned himself intensively with English folk songs. Of course these varied activities are reflected in Gustav Holst´s compositional works, and thus much of this fine music waits to be rediscovered.
Born on September 21, 1874 in Cheltenham
Died on May 25, 1934 in London