Holst: Orchestral Works, Vol 1: Joyful Company of
Singers/BBCNOW/Hickox  3 out of 5 3  When he died with such
shocking suddenness last month, Richard Hickox's tireless
championing of British music for Chandos had just switched its
focus to the orchestral works of Gustav Holst. Hickox was
recording what would have been the second volume of his survey
when he was taken ill, and though that disc now will never be
finished, the record company had already scheduled the first
instalment for release this month. It brings together all of
Holst's scores for dancing, only one of which - the short ballet
that begins his long-neglected 1923 comic opera, The Perfect
Fool - is ever heard in the concert hall today.    1. Holst   2.
Ballet from The Perfect Fool; The Lure; The Golden Goose; The
Morning of the Year   3. Joyful Company of Singers/ BBCNOW/
Hickox   4. (Chandos)  The other three make a curious bunch. The
Lure of 1921 was commissioned as a ballet for Chicago, but it
was never performed and was eventually excluded