Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)

Started by Guido, March 18, 2009, 06:25:12 AM

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Camphy

Spotted on Dacapo's website:

"VAGN HOLMBOE
The Complete Chamber Concertos

Released: Jan 2016

Danish National Chamber Orchestra
Hannu Koivula, conductor

Vagn Holmboe, composer"

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recording-vagn-holmboe--the-complete-chamber-concertos.aspx

Madiel

Quote from: Camphy on July 15, 2015, 03:38:42 AM
Spotted on Dacapo's website:

"VAGN HOLMBOE
The Complete Chamber Concertos

Released: Jan 2016

Danish National Chamber Orchestra
Hannu Koivula, conductor

Vagn Holmboe, composer"

http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recording-vagn-holmboe--the-complete-chamber-concertos.aspx

HA!

They talked about releasing this years ago!

You know why, don't you? It's because I bought their very last copy of one of the separate volumes.  ;D
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Karl Henning

Aye;  I gave up on the reissue, and wound up fetching in used copies of the original releases  :)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Camphy

Quote from: orfeo on July 15, 2015, 04:06:06 AM
HA!

They talked about releasing this years ago!

You know why, don't you? It's because I bought their very last copy of one of the separate volumes.  ;D

:laugh: Thanks for your cunning maneuver!  ;D

Madiel

You're welcome.

Only cost me about 100 kroner per disc...
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Camphy

Quote from: orfeo on July 15, 2015, 04:54:31 AM
You're welcome.

Only cost me about 100 kroner per disc...

These things can be quite frustating, especially when a label puts a lot of effort in the box set design as Dacapo seems to do. Which in itself is laudable, of course.
At least they usually don't add some music to make the box set truly indispensable to collectors.

Madiel

I'm not really that bothered. Yes, the individual volumes were probably more expensive than a box will be, but the price wasn't outrageous and the circumstances of buying them direct from Da Capo's office (ie, actually standing in their office) will always be something a little bit special.

And no shipping costs.  ;)

I suppose I'd better make sure I get my concerto survey done before January. It's going to be genuinely interesting to compare the works where the Da Capo recordings come into competition with the BIS recordings, but there's no doubt this box will be a good deal because it will still be the only way to hear the complete series.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mirror Image

Maybe I'm just clutching at straws here (per usual with me ;) ), but it would be really nice to see Dacapo record a symphony cycle.

Camphy

#388
Quote from: orfeo on July 15, 2015, 05:36:38 AM
I'm not really that bothered. Yes, the individual volumes were probably more expensive than a box will be, but the price wasn't outrageous and the circumstances of buying them direct from Da Capo's office (ie, actually standing in their office) will always be something a little bit special.

And no shipping costs.  ;)

I suppose I'd better make sure I get my concerto survey done before January. It's going to be genuinely interesting to compare the works where the Da Capo recordings come into competition with the BIS recordings, but there's no doubt this box will be a good deal because it will still be the only way to hear the complete series.

You're absolutely right not to be bothered. Circumstances of buying make all the difference here. Besides, the release is six months away.

Once I'm in the way of listening to all these concertos, it will no doubt be a pleasure to
read your posts in this thread concerning them.

Madiel

Quote from: Mirror Image on July 15, 2015, 06:34:55 AM
Maybe I'm just clutching at straws here (per usual with me ;) ), but it would be really nice to see Dacapo record a symphony cycle.

Didn't you see me mention this? They told me in April it was on the cards.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Mirror Image

Quote from: orfeo on July 15, 2015, 04:39:13 PM
Didn't you see me mention this? They told me in April it was on the cards.

Sorry, I don't read everything that's posted in this thread. ::)

krummholz

Great thread! :)

One recording I didn't see mentioned here (maybe I missed it) is the three Chamber Symphonies on the Da Capo label. These are really symphonies despite the name, especially the first two; the third feels more like a divertimento or suite for chamber orchestra perhaps. But they each have the sound of Holmboe's orchestral music during the period he wrote it, even if the forces are reduced.

The first is roughly contemporary with the 8th symphony and is solid middle-period Holmboe; the second is one of his most profound works, dating from a year or two after he finished the 9th symphony and I think it's in a similar style to the 9th though the sound world is entirely different. The third (subtitled "Frieze") leans stylistically more towards the language of Tempo Variabile and the 10th Symphony. Somewhere around then Holmboe started to pull away from his "modernist" experiments and evolved a mellower, softer harmonic language and orchestral sound. I think Frieze might just be the turning point, at least in his writing for larger ensembles (larger than string quartets, anyway).

As these works have never been recorded before there is nothing to compare this release against, but the performances are certainly solid from a technical standpoint and it all sounds and feels like genuine Holmboe, at least to my ears. Has anyone else heard this?

krummholz

Quote from: orfeo on May 07, 2015, 07:05:23 PM
Okay, I'm now curious to know whether anyone has heard the Requiem for Nietzsche.

Yes! The disc in your picture was unobtainium when I was trying to find a recording of the work, and the only way I could get it was on an anthology disc called "Holmboe: The Key Masterpieces" or some such inane title. But I'm pretty sure it's the same performance.

I like it too, though with some reservations, and I agree that it's an unusual work for Holmboe. There are one or two details that seem hackneyed to me, e.g. the Wagner quotation on "Wagner". But most of it is shattering, powerful stuff, like the chorus's repeated "He would no longer Nietzsche be", which gives me goose bumps every time. And I love the ending, the setting so simple, almost like plainchant, but it's perfect for the text:

"At last let his pugnacious charity,
which unrequited in his grave laments,
invulnerable spread its mighty wings,
and by Genoa reach the open sea,
and where the greatest storm wears out and ends,
arrive victorious and rest in God."

Of course it's all sung in Danish, which I don't speak a word of... thank g_d for translations. :)

kishnevi

A new reissue of disparate recordings that includes Holmboe

Madiel

Quote from: krummholz on August 30, 2015, 05:15:27 PM
But I'm pretty sure it's the same performance.

Yes, it's the same performance.

Also, I did include the Chamber Symphonies in my symphony overview which is one of the many occasions where I've tried to basically take over this thread...
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Camphy

Apparently the reissue of the complete Chamber Concertos has disappeared from Da Capo's release schedule up to March 2016.

snyprrr

Cello Concerto (1975)

Can someone please give me five paragraphs about this, and the disc it's on? Aho's CC, of similar vintage, is just too noisy for me; I suspect Holmboe's is a work I may actually enjoy of his.I've looked through the Thread, and there's just some "dark, powerful" verbiage,... can I please have some more? You know, I just can't seem to get into Holmboe, and maybe this is my only option...

Daverz

Quote from: snyprrr on October 01, 2015, 02:55:19 PM
Cello Concerto (1975)

Can someone please give me five paragraphs about this, and the disc it's on? Aho's CC, of similar vintage, is just too noisy for me; I suspect Holmboe's is a work I may actually enjoy of his.I've looked through the Thread, and there's just some "dark, powerful" verbiage,... can I please have some more? You know, I just can't seem to get into Holmboe, and maybe this is my only option...

The Holmboe concerto is a fine work in a conservative neoclassical idiom which should be easy to assimilate.

snyprrr

Quote from: Daverz on October 01, 2015, 04:39:25 PM
The Holmboe concerto is a fine work in a conservative neoclassical idiom which should be easy to assimilate.

see? that's exactly what I didn't want to hear...mmm... this will be difficult... How does it compare with the Sallinen?-in your estimation...

Daverz

Quote from: snyprrr on October 02, 2015, 02:45:17 PM
see? that's exactly what I didn't want to hear...mmm... this will be difficult... How does it compare with the Sallinen?-in your estimation...

The Sallinen is very different: rhapsodic, even cinematic, with echoes of Shostakovich.