Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)

[Karl Henning]

BTW I must add that orfeo's notes earlier in the thread are an absolutely essential guide for me, too. And, of course, his work on Wikipedia.

Aye, I do not mean to slight at all the considerable work our orfeo does, here and elsewhere!

Symphony No. 4, "Sacra." Wow, this is a martial first movement, reminds me of the Soviets - feels like the insistent timpani beat is driving this movement forward. That motif is carried over, in a variant form, to the adagio movement - an example of Holmboe learning how to be economic with material. As orfeo wrote: "What I love about Holmboe is that flow, from one movement to another and across a whole work." Yes - the timpani are still leading the way to the serene ending, a rather remarkable symphonic journey. Having said that, I'm not really convinced by all the choral bits here. Musically this is a strong, super-impressive conception for a symphony, but the use that framework has been put to is kinda weird.

These notes would have had interesting resonance in the cannot cope thread:

The symphony is dedicated to the memory of the composer's younger brother, Ebbe Holmboe, who died in the German concentration camp Porta Westphalica in December 1944, aged only 22.  Its six movements are based on texts by Holmboe himself, translated into Latin by Poul Johannes Jensen.  It would be accurate to identify Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms (1930) as a source of inspiration.  We should not doubt that Holmboe knew and treasured that work:  this is clearly evident fomr his excellent, perceptive analysis of it, published in the periodical Levende Musik (Living Music) in 1943.  His words about Stravinsky describe his own symphony equally well:

'For a modern composer it is natural that music cannot describe emotion and its manner, or in other words:  emotion is not the purpose.  One can, however, say that emotion is the driving force, the reason why composers express themselves in the material with which they feel at home:  music.  This emotion-based cause, of whatever kind it may be, can be of no significance for the listener when he is dealing with the work of art.  That must be able to stand alone, with neither explanation nor justification, like a synthesis of emotional tension, compositional power and technical mastery.'

[Brian]

These notes would have had interesting resonance in the cannot cope thread:

Thank you so much! 1. What an excellent quotation from the composer; 2. The background there would have been awfully useful for me to know before listening to the symphony. Pity NML does not have the booklet PDFs posted.

Holmboe was, beyond being a good composer, a very self-aware composer who explained his artistic process in an illuminating way.

[amw]

Thank you so much! 1. What an excellent quotation from the composer; 2. The background there would have been awfully useful for me to know before listening to the symphony. Pity NML does not have the booklet PDFs posted.

I think you can get the booklets of BIS releases for free from eClassical, as a rule. And Dacapo might supply partial notes on their website (dacapo-records.dk, iirc) though they don't do PDFs as far as I know.

[Madiel]

Aye, I do not mean to slight at all the considerable work our orfeo does, here and elsewhere!

Not feeling at all slighted. If anything, it's extremely interesting to read another person's reactions.

[Madiel]

(orfeo may be the world's leading expert on Vagn Holmboe.)

I prefer the term "scarily obsessed amateur".

PS If you have access to all the BIS and Da Capo recordings, as seems may be the case, you could be here for a fair while. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

[Brian]

Chamber Concerto No. 4 (for viola). This one really didn't do too much for me, so I've decided to suspend my Chamber Concerto adventures until orfeo can suggest which ones might be the best starting points. I'm familiar with No. 12 (for trombone) and have heard that No. 11 (for trumpet) is pretty great, so will return for those. In the meantime...

Symphony No. 5. orfeo is right, this is a very rhythm-driven symphony, and although the first movement takes a while to connect with me, the last 2 minutes are just awe-inspiring - extraordinary. Could bear comparison to Shostakovich 7 and 8, in terms of the sheer power being built up. The orchestra is really being tested, however. How great it would be to hear, say, LPO/V. Jurowski in this passage! The slow movement is a step up again, with Holmboe here approaching the raw elemental power of the best Nielsen. Actually, there are bits that sound a bit like military music from TV/movies - though not Holmboe's fault, as he got there first. The finale returns to those hard-driving rhythms, and this is probably the most "challenging" Holmboe piece I've heard yet. Or, at any rate, the most aloof.

Symphony No. 6. Something unusual happened when I was listening to this one. I got caught up in working while listening, and 6 minutes in, the music got so interesting I rewound back to the start and started over.

The beginning is actually not that promising. But, again, Holmboe sets out a rhythmic motif and begins to weave stuff around it, leading in a fairly straightish line to the big climax around 10 minutes in. The first movement ends with another adagio episode. Unfortunately, at 13:30ish, I got called away to a 15-minute meeting. Will need to listen again, to really have a chance with this.

[Madiel]

Chamber Concerto No. 4 (for viola). This one really didn't do too much for me, so I've decided to suspend my Chamber Concerto adventures until orfeo can suggest which ones might be the best starting points.

Erm, now I'm wondering which one you listened to, because No.4 is for piano trio, and No.5 is for viola... No.4 is pretty light, I do enjoy it but it's not a major piece. Whereas I think No.5 is excellent, the slow movement is really powerful.

Recommendations: Well, you've already done No.2 (flute/violin). I'd say No.5 (viola) and No.6 (violin) if in fact you didn't already do No.5.

No.8 (sinfonia concertante) is very good if you're using the Da Capo set. Nos 11 and 12 yes... and I'd better say No.13 (oboe/viola) even though I haven't got to it again recently, I kind of remember feeling positive about it, calyptorhynchus recommends it and I imagine it would actually be stylistically rather distinct from the others.

[amw]

Symphony No. 6. Something unusual happened when I was listening to this one. I got caught up in working while listening, and 6 minutes in, the music got so interesting I rewound back to the start and started over.

This one was probably my favourite before the last three. I'll need to listen to it again to remember why, though. Hmm.

[Brian]

Erm, now I'm wondering which one you listened to, because No.4 is for piano trio, and No.5 is for viola... No.4 is pretty light, I do enjoy it but it's not a major piece. Whereas I think No.5 is excellent, the slow movement is really powerful.

Recommendations: Well, you've already done No.2 (flute/violin). I'd say No.5 (viola) and No.6 (violin) if in fact you didn't already do No.5.

No.8 (sinfonia concertante) is very good if you're using the Da Capo set. Nos 11 and 12 yes... and I'd better say No.13 (oboe/viola) even though I haven't got to it again recently, I kind of remember feeling positive about it, calyptorhynchus recommends it and I imagine it would actually be stylistically rather distinct from the others.

Thanks for these picks. Will be delving into some today. It was No. 5, by the way - forgot that I had passed over No. 4.

[Karl Henning]

I like the Symphony № 7 a great deal, but I have to question the premise that it is a symphony in one movement; in the first place because the close of the Presto certainly feels like An Ending; and in the second, because the composer himself designates the Intermedi I, II & III — if that does not break the grand structure up into discrete movements, I don't know how one would do so any clearer.

[Karl Henning]

Excellent piece, though!

[Brian]

Symphony No. 6. Do-over! The beginning - with a spotlight shining on the violas - is mysterious - maybe like walking in the fog. The music is built up slowly and carefully, instruments added to the mix when the time is right. The tempo change to allegro is a little more abrupt, but the mind easily adjusts. This time, I'm more impressed by the gigantic arc that this first movement is, partly because I didn't get interrupted. And while we usually mean "arc" in a metaphorical sense, here it's more geometric. You know...like a parenthesis ( . Purely in terms of "when it's loud and when it's quiet", this movement is like the first of Shostakovich's Tenth. Now, on a second listen, I recognize that right after the climax, around 13:30, the violas start to play a major role again, in bringing this movement back to where it started.

The finale is stranger - structurally, it's a bit like a Bruckner finale, but tonally more Shosty-like (xylophone! snare drum!), and in general quite dramatic. You can imagine another conductor putting in a bit more 'fuoco'. This is a harder nut to crack, but man, that ending with the strings fading away - brilliant touch.

Trumpet Concerto (Chamber Concerto No. 11). Dave Hurwitz has called this the best trumpet concerto since Haydn's, and I'm not familiar enough with the repertoire to disagree. (Does Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto count? Probably not.) It certainly is extremely good, one of the best pieces I've heard yet. Rarely for a concerto, there are quite a few slow passages. Someone earlier in this thread commented on how a Holmboe piece seems to be reaching some kind of tonality-destination, and this piece illuminates what they were talking about, with the sudden but exquisitely prepared-for major-key landing at the end. This might be a "light" piece but it's a very, very good one. (BTW: I listened to Hardenberger's version on BIS. We're lucky that the BIS and Dacapo recordings both feature some of the world's very greatest trumpet soloists, and to have Christian Lindberg for the Trombone Concerto is the definition of luxury, too.)

String Quartet No. 2. Using the awesome notes taken by both orfeo and kentel (a former GMGer I never had the pleasure of talking to), I am going to dip into the string quartets selectively, just going by what sounds most to my taste. kentel wrote that this one is "softly disonnant, more vivid than the previous one, a little bit Prokofiew-like". I find the first and last parts remarkably accurate, and you might also draw a comparison with Pavel Haas, the Czech composer whose 1930s and 1940s quartets showed a flair for combining folk inspiration, modern rhythmic emphasis, soft dissonance, lots of trills, and a lyrical voice. I will definitely continue to explore the quartets. This one is very good.

Symphony No. 7. Karl wrote a couple posts about this symphony while I was writing this one. I actually like the first two interludes - they complement the preceding material and sort of comment on it, bringing about a logical transition to the next material. The exception is, as Karl says, the Presto. That does end very final-ly, although again, the intermedio which follows is a direct commentary/variation on the melodic material. I would organize the symphony like this:

I. Allegro con fuoco - andantino -
II. Adagio - andantino -
III. Presto
IV. Andantino - Andante

For, as a multi-movement piece, this holds up just fine. And it is a very good symphony, as Karl says. The adagio, with its fugal hints, is a highlight, and the presto is kind of like a Mendelssohn scherzo dragged forward 120 years and exposed to terrors Felix didn't know. (The work dates from 1950.)

Trombone Concerto (Chamber Concerto No. 12). I think I might like this more than the Trumpet Concerto, but in structure and tone, they are very similar pieces. This is my third listen to the work, which probably makes it the one I'm most familiar with. It's terrific, and over in 15 minutes. Christian Lindberg is probably (?) the best active trombone player. What more couldja want?

Chamber Symphony No. 1. We're in 1951, and Holmboe's voice is already taking on more acerbic qualities. The scherzo is scored like you'd score a fun light peppy neo-classical piece, and the slow movement focuses on plaintive dialogue between the woodwind soloists, but the actual voice makes these moments very different from how they sound on paper. The tone is like if Alice stepped down the rabbit-hole and found a place where everything is two colors over on the color wheel.

Especially from the description of the string quartets, it seems Holmboe is often preoccupied with music of sadness, gloom, and the wistfulness of foiled expectations. That is the case here. I'm more of a happy soul, I guess (like '30s Roussel and Martinu), but I respect the craftsmanship here. Truly striking ending, as well, which seems to be trying to bust out of the "chamber" confines and enter into Big Boy Symphony territory.

Speaking of Big Boy Symphonies...

Symphony No. 8, "Boreale." First listen to this! Wow - it's like Nielsen's Third's Evil Twin. General comment: I love the way that Holmboe uses timpani in all these works, and I love the performance of the Aarhus SO timpanist in particular. This work is a powerful one, and a remarkably compact one (until the finale, though the ending more than makes up for a momentum-stalling episode earlier). I'm not ready after one listen to call this a masterpiece, but it has a strong sense of purpose and is shot through with fire and ice - in fact, being up close and personal with a glacier seems more apt than Northern Lights, descriptively. Safe to say I enjoyed this more than any of Tubin's symphonies. Just not yet ready to fall in love.

[Sergeant Rock]

Symphony No. 8, "Boreale." First listen to this! Wow - it's like Nielsen's Third's Evil Twin.

That is one of the few Holmboe works I own. I'll have to give it another listen soon.

Sarge

[Madiel]

I like the Symphony № 7 a great deal, but I have to question the premise that it is a symphony in one movement; in the first place because the close of the Presto certainly feels like An Ending; and in the second, because the composer himself designates the Intermedi I, II & III — if that does not break the grand structure up into discrete movements, I don't know how one would do so any clearer.

Looking at the score online, it is presented as "1. Allegro con fuoco - intermezzo I - adagio - intermezzo II - presto - intermezzo III - coda". There is no movement "2."

There are double bar lines at the breaks but no gap in the printing. There is a marked long pause at the end of the presto (page 120), and the only people who are supposed to be playing a note on that pause are the cellos and double basses.

http://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/symphony_no_7_21940.pdc

It's very like the situation for the Trombone Concerto, from much the same era. It seems that Holmboe was playing with things being "in one movement" but still putting distinct markers of the joins.

[Madiel]

Well, here's a surprise. I've just discovered that there is a recording of the Sonata for double bass, op.82, on Youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6ZWI3H_5w

I can't find any sign that this is a commercially available recording, thought Frank Reinecke is indeed a prominent double bass player.

[calyptorhynchus]

 

Some odd things on YouTube, like the first movement of the Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano op 97, but apparently not the other movements.

[Madiel]

My Holmboe chronological listening stalled for a little bit halfway through the four main books of the choral Liber Canticorum (opp. 54, 59, 60 and 61), but I'm starting up again now, and I feel like I'm beginning to appreciate more the individual pieces in that set. Even though it does all tend to sound quite medieval, the ones with texts of praise from the Psalms are in fact distinctly happier in tone than the ones with glum texts about the pointlessness of existence from Ecclesiastes!

Right now, it's Dedique cor meum, op.60a, which as far as I know is only available in the one complete recording of all the books. It starts with this long, haunting male solo, which is sung superbly.

It's on streaming sites, so worth checking out.

[Madiel]

Okay okay, so I'm dominating the thread as usual, but...

Having slowed down a fair bit and spent recent weeks only with books II, III and IV of Liber Canticorum, reaching String Quartet No.4 has been a total revelation.

[asin]B003NEQAMC[/asin]

Partly because the very opening of the quartet absolutely sounds like a gesture from Liber Canticorum. I don't know, something about the harmony carries across that pseudo-mediaeval feel for me.

Of course, it doesn't take long before the music starts doing things that are only possible in instrumental music. But right now, however irrationally I can't help feeling like this piece has been affected by being the first fully instrumental work composed in about two years. The last one was Symphony No.8. Opuses 57 to 62 are all vocal!

[kishnevi]

Okay okay, so I'm dominating the thread as usual, but...

Having slowed down a fair bit and spent recent weeks only with books II, III and IV of Liber Canticorum, reaching String Quartet No.4 has been a total revelation.

[asin]B003NEQAMC[/asin]

Partly because the very opening of the quartet absolutely sounds like a gesture from Liber Canticorum. I don't know, something about the harmony carries across that pseudo-mediaeval feel for me.

Of course, it doesn't take long before the music starts doing things that are only possible in instrumental music. But right now, however irrationally I can't help feeling like this piece has been affected by being the first fully instrumental work composed in about two years. The last one was Symphony No.8. Opuses 57 to 62 are all vocal!

Not that I have anything actual to contribute to this thread, but....
My copy of the SQs arrived yesterday.  Is starting with CD 1 the best way to go, or is there another jumping off point you might suggest?

Nota bene:  this won't happen immediately, since there are some other things ahead of it in the queue,  including the BIS set of VH's symphonies.

[Madiel]

Not that I have anything actual to contribute to this thread, but....
My copy of the SQs arrived yesterday.  Is starting with CD 1 the best way to go, or is there another jumping off point you might suggest?

Nota bene:  this won't happen immediately, since there are some other things ahead of it in the queue,  including the BIS set of VH's symphonies.

There's nothing wrong with just starting at the beginning. Going chronologically will tend to get you groups of 2 or 3 works that have something stylistically in common. It's up to you whether you'd prefer to mix it up.

I haven't listened THAT recently but I'd describe 6 to 8 as relatively avant garde, 13/14 as dreamy and delicate, and a lot of people seem to find 17 to 20 a bit difficult.

The only other thing I'd note is that to me the sound on CD1 is a tiny bit "thinner" than the others.