Music of the spheres

Our Theresa has been combining her interest in the sciences with her inherited interest in music. Two famous compositions lend themselves especially well to this: Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The two of us have been arguing over whose interpretation of the former is the better. She prefers Hermann Scherchen and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra’s rendition (1973), while I much prefer that of Stanislav Gorkovenko and the St. Petersburg RSO (1997). (At least we're not arguing over hip-hop!) As for Holst’s piece, it was composed in 1916, 14 years before Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. If Holst had known of Pluto — as well as “Xena” and all of the other quasi-planetary objects in the Kuyper Kuiper Belt — might he have composed additional movements for these as well? Perhaps I’ll address this in a possible second blog devoted to music appreciation, to be titled Notes from a Coloratura Accordionist.