Gustav Holst: Japanese Suite, for Saxophone Quartet

Gustav Holst
(b Cheltenham, 21 Sept 1874; d London, 25 May 1934). English composer. His prominent position among 20th-century English composers owes a great deal to the immense popularity of his orchestral work The Planets. The only pieces to have achieved comparable success are on a much smaller scale, yet equally idiosyncratic. His wholly individual blend of Hindu philosophy and English folksong set him on a path far from the mainstream of European tradition, although his early works reveal a thorough grounding in conventional forms.