Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)

[kyjo]

Lately I'm starting to get into Holmboe's non-symphonic orchestral works, and discovering that there's plenty of riches to be found there! First, I listened to his Ten Preludes for Sinfonietta (chamber orchestra), composed near the end of his life between 1986 and 1991. They're quite unlike anything else I know, each prelude being like a mini-tone poem and bearing colorfully evocative titles such as To a Pine Tree, To a Dolphin, To the Unsettled Weather, etc. While I wouldn't necessarily say that the musical content of each prelude obviously depicts its subject matter, that's not really a quibble. Unlike the majority of 20th century composers, Holmboe's style didn't become more "difficult" or enigmatic as he aged. These Preludes are couched in Holmboe's signature modal style, with enough dissonance added to keep things interesting and unpredictable. And the orchestration is ear-catching and luminous throughout, often with prominent roles for percussion.




Now, I'm starting to explore his significant cycle of 13 chamber concertos. Little did I know that the Chamber Concerto No. 1 (1939) is a full-fledged piano concerto in disguise with an accompaniment of string orchestra and timpani. It's unusually structured, with a 22-minute first movement followed by a 6-minute second movement. The first movement, marked Molto moderato, explores a wide range of moods within a single tempo, from hushed tranquility to doom-laden tragedy (I'm thinking particularly of a powerful passage about 16 minutes in). By contrast, the second movement is a fun, folksy romp complete with "country fiddle"-like violin solos. Great stuff, and I'm certainly looking forward to exploring the rest of the cycle!

[Daverz]

For me the chamber concertos are central Holmboe repertoire and more intimate and accessible than the "big" symphonies, while the  sinfoniettas preludes are relatively uninteresting despite the evocative titles.  However, I should probably revisit them.

[Madiel]

The borderline between a concerto and a 'chamber' concerto is... hazy. BIS recorded many of the same works without the chamber label.

In general I prefer the BIS versions (I think I prefer their piano concerto though I've not heard it in a while), but there are exceptions. In my view the Dacapo version of the clarinet concerto is far better.

There are something like 20 concertos in total!

[Symphonic Addict]

I remember being quite enthralled by most of the concertos, but less so with the preludes to sinfoniettas which sounded to me somewhat melancholic, "gray" and languid for the most part. Mind you, as Kyle pointed out, the orchestration stood out. I'm more attuned to the sound world of the four symphonic metamorphosis, actually.

[Daverz]

I remember being quite enthralled by most of the concertos, but less so with the preludes to sinfoniettas which sounded to me somewhat melancholic, "gray" and languid for the most part. Mind you, as Kyle pointed out, the orchestration stood out. I'm more attuned to the sound world of the four symphonic metamorphosis, actually.

Listened to both discs of Preludes earlier, and the one that really stood out was To the Pollution of Nature.

[Madiel]

I just looked back, in 2015/6 in this thread I went through all the recorded concertos.

I thought I might have written out a list of them all, but I didn't find one.

However, I did at one point claim there were 23 recorded concertos. Which is plausible off the top of my head, the numbered series is 13 but there is also a large cluster of much later works.

Edit: Back home and yes, I've worked out how I came up with 23. PLENTY to listen to.

[krummholz]

Lately I'm starting to get into Holmboe's non-symphonic orchestral works, and discovering that there's plenty of riches to be found there! First, I listened to his Ten Preludes for Sinfonietta (chamber orchestra), composed near the end of his life between 1986 and 1991. They're quite unlike anything else I know, each prelude being like a mini-tone poem and bearing colorfully evocative titles such as To a Pine Tree, To a Dolphin, To the Unsettled Weather, etc. While I wouldn't necessarily say that the musical content of each prelude obviously depicts its subject matter, that's not really a quibble. Unlike the majority of 20th century composers, Holmboe's style didn't become more "difficult" or enigmatic as he aged. These Preludes are couched in Holmboe's signature modal style, with enough dissonance added to keep things interesting and unpredictable. And the orchestration is ear-catching and luminous throughout, often with prominent roles for percussion.




Now, I'm starting to explore his significant cycle of 13 chamber concertos. Little did I know that the Chamber Concerto No. 1 (1939) is a full-fledged piano concerto in disguise with an accompaniment of string orchestra and timpani. It's unusually structured, with a 22-minute first movement followed by a 6-minute second movement. The first movement, marked Molto moderato, explores a wide range of moods within a single tempo, from hushed tranquility to doom-laden tragedy (I'm thinking particularly of a powerful passage about 16 minutes in). By contrast, the second movement is a fun, folksy romp complete with "country fiddle"-like violin solos. Great stuff, and I'm certainly looking forward to exploring the rest of the cycle!

I find that first Chamber Concerto to be a real gem, and your description of that wide-ranging first movement is IMHO spot-on. I love all of Holmboe's Chamber Concertos, but the ones that stand out most to me are #1, #6 (violin and chamber orchestra, for its uncharacteristically Romantic and richly expressive slow movement), the "concertos for chamber orchestra" #8 and #10, and #13 for oboe and viola, for its uniquely astringent harmonic language and wonderful interplay between the oboe, viola, and orchestral winds.

[Symphonic Addict]

Listened to both discs of Preludes earlier, and the one that really stood out was To the Pollution of Nature.

I'll stick with other Holmboe pieces then.

[kyjo]

I remember being quite enthralled by most of the concertos, but less so with the preludes to sinfoniettas which sounded to me somewhat melancholic, "gray" and languid for the most part. Mind you, as Kyle pointed out, the orchestration stood out. I'm more attuned to the sound world of the four symphonic metamorphosis, actually.

Interesting, Cesar - I perceived a greater amount of color and energy in the Preludes than you did. Whilst I wouldn't claim them to be masterpieces, I found them to be quite unique and a good encapsulation of Holmboe's later style.

The four Symphonic Metamorphoses are indeed pretty impressive works. They represent Holmboe at his darkest and most "elemental/un-human" - in this way, they rather reminded me of the sound-world of his British contemporary Robert Simpson.

[Symphonic Addict]

Interesting, Cesar - I perceived a greater amount of color and energy in the Preludes than you did. Whilst I wouldn't claim them to be masterpieces, I found them to be quite unique and a good encapsulation of Holmboe's later style.

The four Symphonic Metamorphoses are indeed pretty impressive works. They represent Holmboe at his darkest and most "elemental/un-human" - in this way, they rather reminded me of the sound-world of his British contemporary Robert Simpson.

I'll have to revisit those preludes at some point to see if my impressions remain or not, and the Simpson connection makes sense to me.

[Symphonic Addict]

To be released on 23 January:



Die Erfüllung, Op. 183
Song at Sunset, Op. 138b
Ode til sjælen, Op. 161

[Madiel]

To be released on 23 January:



Die Erfüllung, Op. 183
Song at Sunset, Op. 138b
Ode til sjælen, Op. 161

Oh my God yes. I literally asked them to do this!!!

[Madiel]

I'm sure I would have noticed if somebody mentioned this, because I practically fell over just now.

I've just discovered that last November, there was a concert of Holmboe choral works, including 2 that I've never heard... and it's on Youtube.

I haven't even listened yet. It's published as both the complete concert, and as each work separately. And a number of the things have been published more than once, I'm not sure why.

Here's the complete concert:

The list of works:

Song at Sunset, op.138b
Ode til Sjælen (Ode to the Soul), op.161
A Lyke-wake Dirge, op.110
Die Erfüllung (The Fulfilment), op.183
Solyhymne (Hymn to the Sun), op.77


The 2nd and 4th ones are longer, accompanied works, and it's these that as far as I know have never been commercially recorded.

...to say that I'm hyped about seeing this would be an understatement!

The concert on YouTube. I sent them an email about it. Oh. My.

[Symphonic Addict]

Oh my God yes. I literally asked them to do this!!!

Your request was rather persuasive then. 

I listened to the first minutes of the video and sounds lovely.

[Madiel]

Your request was rather persuasive then. 

If it was, that's utterly wild. I mean, they never replied to me. Were they thinking of doing it anyway??

It's even exactly the 3 works I mentioned to them. From my cataloguing there are no other recordings of Die Erfüllung and Ode til Sjælen, and the only recording of Song at Sunset that I know about is really obscure, not available online. This is what I told them, in September 2024 shortly after watching the concert video.

... did I get an album made?!?

Where did you see the release announcement by the way?

[Symphonic Addict]

If it was, that's utterly wild. I mean, they never replied to me. Were they thinking of doing it anyway??

It's even exactly the 3 works I mentioned to them. From my cataloguing there are no other recordings of Die Erfüllung and Ode til Sjælen, and the only recording of Song at Sunset that I know about is really obscure, not available online. This is what I told them, in September 2024 shortly after watching the concert video.

... did I get an album made?!?

Where did you see the release announcement by the way?

Probably that was their intention, but your encouragement could have helped too.

I found it here.

[krummholz]

Probably that was their intention, but your encouragement could have helped too.

I found it here.

Was that the correct link? It appears to lead only to a page featuring an end-of-year sale of pop music.

[Symphonic Addict]

Was that the correct link? It appears to lead only to a page featuring an end-of-year sale of pop music.

Did you search properly? 

Anyway, it appears on Presto already:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9838393--holmboe-works-for-choir-and-ensemble

[Madiel]

No CD then? I feared as much.

[krummholz]

No CD then? I feared as much.

I have taken to purchasing most of my albums via download this past year. I then copy them into an Apple Music (f.k.a. iTunes) playlist and burn the playlist to CD. It works fairly well and is less expensive - the only negative is that some transitions between tracks are meant to play without a break, and would be seamless on a professionally engineered CD. But on downloaded albums the audio on the track that's ending often cuts off abruptly, leaving a loud click.

I've yet to download the Holmboe album from PrestoMusic; most of my downloading experience so far has been with Hyperion.