Obscure Music Monday: Holst's Terzetto

This week, we take a look at a work by Gustav Holst with a unique instrumentation, his Terzetto for Flute, Oboe, & Viola. While known for his massive orchestral work The Planets, Holst's style for his other works is less the massive movie music sounds of the plants, and more daring in tonality.

The work opens with a beautiful Allegretto movement that intertwines flowing melodic lines between the three instruments with hints at fugal entries in many places, leading to some wonderful harmonic moments and featured solo lines for each of the instruments.

The first movement slowly winds down to an unresolved line in the oboe, which leads straight into the second movement, Un poco vivace, which opens the viola introducing a lively new theme in another fugal section.

The movement continues on to a more relaxed feel, where the instruments begin sharing lyrical lines with a 2/4 over 6/8 producing interesting rhythmic variants and double stops by the viola providing a climax. Finally, we move back to the opening theme and wind down to a pianissimo sustained chord to close the work.

Unfortunately, there are few commercial recordings of this work still available, with current options appearing to be limited to a recording by James Dunham and the Westwood Wind Quintet or one by the Huntington Trio and Diane Gold. A variety of video performances appear on the Internet by various ensembles - including a few where the viola is replaced by a clarinet.