Holst is rolling in his grave.
My musical upbringing was shaped by a band director who bent over backwards to instill in his students a sense of musical integrity. I am grateful to this day for his painstaking attempts to get us wiggling adolescents to understand that a composer wrote something to be played with persistent respect to what he/she meant.
Is it that so many orchestral standards are out of copyright that they are so unhesitatingly programmed with whatever combinations of musicians can be arranged? “Two harps” doesn’t mean one harp and “something else that can play the same notes”, least of all something electronic or amplified.
I have never, ever seen acknowledgement in a program that addresses the fact that the instruments the composer meant are not being used in performance of a piece.
I am imagining the New World Symphony with an alto sax playing the English Horn part, or or a bassoon playing the flute part in “Meditation from Thais”. Hey why not, they[re all woodwinds, right? Who cares if there’s a couple octaves dropped among friends.
Makes my head ache.
.
