Earth and Other Planets review – reimagined Holst with harmonica and a hoedown

2026-01-29 - 13:10

Milton Court, London Left-field duo Stevens & Pound threaded funky folk stylings with poetry by Robert Macfarlane and virtuoso playing by Britten Sinfonia to create The Silent Planet, a rethinking of Holst’s Planets Suite, with the addition of the newly composed Earth ‘Is it a concert? Is it a gig?” pondered writer Robert Macfarlane, introducing the second half of this quirky classical-meets-folk performance. By the end, melodeon and harmonica player Will Pound had drawn his own conclusions: the encore – an upbeat, gently madcap arrangement of the Sailor’s Hornpipe – would be “a rave”, he joked, to polite giggles from the unequivocally well-behaved audience. Not that the evening had lacked moments to inspire toe tapping and chin bobbing. Percussionist Delia Stevens saw to that, as she danced between instruments laid out around her like at a jumble sale – among them a set of mixing bowls, one toy piano, a guitar balanced next to a vibraphone as well as numerous drums, shakers and contraptions I’d be pushed to name, mostly played two or three at a time. As a duo, Stevens & Pound bill themselves as a “left-field folk” act. Their mashup of Pound’s folk background and Stevens’s classical training is all about high-energy, rhythmically driven virtuosity. Continue reading...