Nick Hyder

English 1101-092
Professor Karen Evans
Review Working Draft
23 October 2015
The Heavenly Bodies of Holst
The New Philharmonic reenacted Holsts The Planets on October 3rd of
2015. It was held in the Belushi Performance Hall at College of DuPage, in the
McAninch Arts Center. As said before the suite was performed by the New
Philharmonic, under their conductor Kirk Muspratt.
The first part of the concert was explain the pieces that were going to be
played. Kirk had a video prepared on each song in the suite. Each video went
over basics of the song, including tempo, beat, key, and even went over
some of the sheet music. It also showed what some players needed to do to
make some of the sounds that were being heard during the concert. The
reason Kirk went in such long detail about this was the concert would be
blacked out so we could see the Multimedia presentation more clearly.

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Between the two halves of the Intermission

there was an option to ask Kirk questions
using his As Kirk Questions cards that were
all laid out during the 20 minute intermission.
Following the intermission Kirk read some of
the questions and answered them to his best
ability. Some of the questions were very
funny, others were quite serious. Also during
that time he had hinted to the end of the
show that he would do an encore if the
Kirk Muspratt - Photo at
http://www.atthemac.org/showsevents/new-philharmonic/conductorbiography-and-members/

audience gave a huge roar of applause.

Knowing that we all would do exactly that a
convenient question came up that asked for a
hint to this encore. Kirk read the question,

then smiled, and finally said, We will just have to see, wont we.
After that there was a quick final warm up for all the players. After the noise
concluded Kirk returned to the stage and introduced Dr. Jose Francisco
Salgado. Dr. Salgado was doing the multimedia part of the concert and
making sure all his info and his video look like it could fit the music the best
way it would. As the introductions were now over, Dr. Salgado began talking
about the first planet that was going to be presented.
Mars, The Bringer of War was the first of these pieces. The song had a
uniform feel to it, making it sound like a military song. The opening of the
song actually uses the backside of the bows for the strings section to make
that pounding sound. This was not only unique to the song but at the same
time the start of the video was building suspense just like the music. Also the
song had been very well recognized by myself because it was in a car
commercial, and seemed to remind me of Star Wars.
Then came the next piece in the suite, Venus, the bringer of Peace. This
song was very soothing to listen to after a very dramatic song in Mars. This

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song was very fun to watch as well. There seemed to be some sort of story
that flowed with the music. I felt that it was an up and down journey of
someone that was exploring nature. Also parts of this song were
recognizable because it was in a video game I had played as a kid.
After Dr. Salgado finished his speech about Mercury, The Winged
Messenger the music began to play. It was a very fast intro, and that is due
to Mercury being the fastest to orbit the sun. It reflected perfectly, and some
what seemed to resemble parts of Venus, however not entirely. It also had
the same line of music played 12 times in a row. That was explained to us at
the beginning during the movies Kirk prepared. It also seemed to be the
fastest song because it was the shortest of all the 7 planets.
As we moved even further out in the solar system we stopped to admire
Jupiter, the bringer of Jollity. This song just seemed all over the place. It
was fast, slow, then fast again. I felt that this was a perfect fit for the
description of the planet. When you look at a picture of Jupiter you wonder
what is going on, and it almost the same in the song. The song being a
controlled chaos, it was a lot of fun listening to. It also has the big mood
swing that makes the song so much better.
Then came the most recognized planet of them all, Saturn, the Bringer of
Old Age. I didnt think the title gave the planet any credit, but the science
behind it was that you would be pretty old if you ever made it to Saturn. This
song had a very eerie felling to it, but constantly made up for it by the
images in the multimedia presentation. This was another slow song, but this
was the one song that I did not like too much because it was too slow and
boring for me.
Uranus, The Magician seemed to be the least serious of all the songs. It is
also wired in my mind the awkward name of the planet that sounds like
someones behind. The music was all over the place similar to Jupiter. I didnt
think that would fit, but I still enjoyed the song. It had a long range of

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dynamics and lots of different beats during the song. It was a step up from
the disappointment that Saturn was.
The final planet in the suite is Neptune, The Mystic. This planet appears to
be blue because of its methane atmosphere. Even though most of the planet
is gaseous, it still seems the piece had an underwater feel to it. This song
was okay in my view, but was not as amazing as the others. It had a very
interesting ending to it, because it had the audience sing the final parts of
the song. This seem so odd to me because I was always used to songs
ending in such a dramatic fashion.
Then the lights went up, and the performers gave a bow. Then as we were
told at the start, we needed to be very loud to get an encore. We had done
just that and the performers started to play the theme song to Star Wars. It
was an amazing way to end the concert because it was known by everyone
and was just very exciting.
The concert provided by the New Philharmonic was very interesting and very
fun to go see. I myself am not huge into classical music but was very happy
about the price I paidwhich was only ten dollarsand the amazing
performance I had just seen. I would recommend seeing the concert before
anything is added like the multimedia presentation. The astronomical aspect
was a unique thing to do, however it seemed to stray way from the main
appeal to the concert which was the music. This concert was very enjoyable
to watch, and I would say that this has been the best concert I have ever
attended.

Review Project Cover Sheet

Name: Nick Hyder
Review subject: The New Philharmonic

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Category: Modern Classic Music Reenactments

Audience for review: The audience for my project would be
classical music fans, fans of the New Philharmonic, fans of Kirk
Muspratt (Conductor), or just any one that liked Holsts The
Planets.
Publication venue for review: Cannot View the website on the
COD Domain, but you can post reviews of past concerts for this
ensemble. friendsofnewphilharmonic.com/
Rationale for choice of venue: It is one of the few places that
lets you review the concert as long as it is formatted in an
appropriate manner.
Method for submission: To put a review on the site you need to
have an account and verify an e-mail. It would be an easy play to
place a review for their previous concerts.
Audience interests/considerations: I am aiming my review at
fans listed above. It helps them understand from an outsiders
view and what parts were well rounded and what parts need to
improve if they decide to do something like this again.