Topic: Scandinavian and Finnish composers.

[Symphonic Addict]

As far as I know, Englund has his own thread. 

[kyjo]

Einar Englund disc of his Cello Concerto and the 6th Symphony on Ondine arrived today. Just listened to it the first time. The Cello Concerto is very nice, especially the Adagio is "DEEP."  The 6th Symphony isn't my (or anyone else's) favorite Englund Symphony, but it's okay. I am not a fan of this kind of works for orchestra and chorus.

I really like Englund's "no nonsense" approach. The music is rich, but contains nothing unnecessory. Especially I like how his music is totally free of national romanticism, but still sounds very "Finnish."

The Englund Cello Concerto is excellent - I could describe it as "Moeran meets Shostakovich", in a way! Other favorite Englund works of mine include the Symphony no. 2 The Blackbird and the Piano Concerto no. 2.

[71 dB]

The Englund Cello Concerto is excellent - I could describe it as "Moeran meets Shostakovich", in a way! Other favorite Englund works of mine include the Symphony no. 2 The Blackbird and the Piano Concerto no. 2.

I know nothing about Moeran, but Shostakovich's Cello Concertos are great if I remember correctly (have not listened to them for ages!). Agree about Symphony No. 2 and I am waiting for the Ondine disc of the Piano Concertos to arrive...

[Brewski]

The subject of this thread is Scandinavian and Finnish composers. For those who wish to discuss other things, please do so elsewhere, or via private message. Thank you.

--Bruce

[MusicTurner]

(...)

Give me a break. We have been discussing Einar Englund, a FINNISH composer! What next? Threads with a list of 100 allowed words? I am really feeling like leaving this forum. First I was banned from political threads and now when I try to contribute music threads moderators keep whining.

I try so hard to make this place less toxic, but look at how other people (Mirror Image, Karl Hanning) react. I don't attack other here, but I am constantly attacked.

I think the mod's note is referring to some very recent  posts that were now deleted because of personal quarelling and attacks. It's got nothing to do with Shostakovich being mentioned, for example; Englund's relations to Shostakovich's music are an often-occurring subject elsewhere too, also scholarly in record liner notes etc.

[71 dB]

I think the mod's note is referring to some very recent  posts that were now deleted because of personal quarelling and attacks. It's got nothing to do with Shostakovich being mentioned, for example; Englund's relations to Shostakovich's music are an often-occurring subject elsewhere too, also scholarly in record liner notes etc.

Oh, okay. My mistake. I deleted my post... 

[Christo]

Listened to Englunds Cello Concerto and Symphony 6 again and liked the Symphony even more (the first listen was so so)

Give me a break. We have been discussing Einar Englund, a FINNISH composer! What next? Threads with a list of 100 allowed words? I am really feeling like leaving this forum. First I was banned from political threads and now when I try to contribute music threads moderators keep whining.

I try so hard to make this place less toxic, but look at how other people (Mirror Image, Karl Hanning) react. I don't attack other here, but I am constantly attacked.

This time, they were certainly not aiming at you - your mistake.  Only in case you would have called Englund 'a bloody Swedish colonial occupier' as no doubt a True Finn (political party) would have done, we could have taken offense, but of course you didn't. 
I'm happy, since I'm an admirer of Englund's symphonies, especially the Fourth and later ones, No. 6 perhaps excluded. Perhaps we should return to his own long forgotten thread? 

[André]

Cross posted from WAYL2

2 works for cello and piano, one for solo cello by Herman Koppel (1908-1998). From his grandson Benjamin we get Professor Herman’s Cellistic Imaginarium, an homage to the disc’s solo cello work by his grand-dad. Both solo cello works use tone rows and are quite modern in idiom, whereas those where the cello is paired with the piano are more conservatively phrased. The piano writing reminds me of the mix of plangency and acerbity found in Shostakovich’s chamber works with piano. A great program, displaying much variety of tone.

Herman Koppel is one of my favourite composers from northern Europe. An exact contemporary of Vagn Holmboe,  I find him just as interesting by virtue of his broad compositional palette. He composed in tonal or atonal language with equal mastery and felicity.

[Brewski]

I think the mod's note is referring to some very recent  posts that were now deleted because of personal quarelling and attacks. It's got nothing to do with Shostakovich being mentioned, for example; Englund's relations to Shostakovich's music are an often-occurring subject elsewhere too, also scholarly in record liner notes etc.

Correct.

--Bruce

[Christo]

Herman Koppel is one of my favourite composers from northern Europe. An exact contemporary of Vagn Holmboe

They were not only contemporaries, but friends; at least that's what Holmboe told me in 1995. One of the composers he admired was 'his old friend' Herman Koppel, in those words.

[MusicTurner]

They were not only contemporaries, but friends; at least that's what Holmboe told me in 1995. One of the composers he admired was 'his old friend' Herman Koppel, in those words.

Interesting. I don't know if you've mentioned it before, but: how did you meet & what else did he say?

[vandermolen]

Interesting. I don't know if you've mentioned it before, but: how did you meet & what else did he say?

'Would you like another gin and tonic Johan?'

 

[MusicTurner]

Concerning a perhaps more informal side of Holmboe, I looked a bit for sources. There wasn't any informal content in this interview with Bo Holten from 1976, but I found it interesting enough to link to it. It's in Danish, so maybe use google translate, but:

he says he likes Martinu (which is interesting,since Martinu was rather overlooked here then) besides Britten and Lutoslawski, admiring both a lot; he also likes the symphonies of Roussel, Honegger and V-Williams, for example, and sees Nielsen as a barrier in Denmark against an - alleged - decadence found in later German music, for example; he sees nothing of value in the Darmstadt School. Bartok, Nielsen, Sibelius and Stravinsky influenced him the most, and Haydn as regards the quartets. He also likes late-medieval music, such as the linear features of Estampie and the Conductus, and says that a preference for a linear style comes very natural to him, etc.

https://seismograf.org/dmt/51/04/vagn-holmboe-i-dag

In another interview from 1983 he tells a lot more about his background and private life, including an early interest in yoga (!) and that originally he wanted to be a painter. He also details his un-sentimental interest in nature, shuns the city, and mentions Schubert and Mozart as other major figures for him. He also tells a good deal about music in the 1930s. H.D. Koppel, Franz Syberg, Svend S.Schultz and Svend Erik Tarp were his close friends among composers.
https://seismograf.org/dmt/51/04/vagn-holmboe-i-dag