In the first half of 2026 the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria present works by Imogen Holst. On April 10 and 11 the latter perform her Suite for String Orchestra with Alice Farnham at Melbourne’s Blackwood Box and ABC Southbank Centre, and then the Lighthouse Theatre in Warrnambool on 17 April. Holst’s overture Persephone, receiving its national debut, appears on 20 June with Sarah Duhig and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as part of ‘She Speaks’ – a weekend celebrating female composers, with Holst programmed alongside Anna Clyne, Thea Musgrave, Grace Evangeline Mason and Grażyna Bacewicz.
The 12-minute overture Persephone (1929) was written whilst Holst was a student at the Royal College of Music, where it received its first performance from Malcolm Sargent. For large orchestra, with harp and celesta, the evocative score reflects the mythological suggestions of the title and shows the influence of Ravel. In 2026 it will tour with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra to the Musikverein after a performance at London’s Barbican Hall.
The 15-minute Suite for String Orchestra is cast in four movements and was premiered by the composer. It opens with a lilting Prelude in 5/8 whose patterns shift throughout; it is succeeded by a rambunctious fugue with a rugged folk-like subject in three. The third movement is a limpid intermezzo with a spotlight on a solo violin in its middle section. A scurrying Gigue (presto) serves as finale. View a perusal score here.
Alice Farnham will conduct the Suite with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on 28 and 29 April. She recorded the work as part of Discovering Imogen with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers - an NMC portrait album showcasing Holst’s rich catalogue of previously unrecorded orchestral works, which also includes the world premiere recording of Persephone.