# Vagn Holmboe



## Blake

Few Scandinavian composers other than Sibelius and Nielsen have succeeded in claiming international attention. Holmboe was an exception and is becoming widely recognized as the most important Danish composer since Nielsen. His 13 symphonies (1935 - 1982), 20 string quartets (1949 - 1975) and other compositions, including three operas, Requiem for Nietzsche (1964), 13 chamber concertos and Epilogue (1962), are increasingly shown to be significant contributions to twentieth century music.

Holmboe's musical development was cosmopolitan. He studied in Denmark, with Toch in Berlin and in Romania, where he came into contact with Balkan folk music and heard the works of Béla Bartók whose style he assimilated. On returning to his homeland he continued to work as a composer and critic and was professor at the Royal Danish Conservatory from 1950 - 1965 where he became immersed in Medieval church music. Holmboe's approach, with its free use of melodic and diatonic patterns was, however, basically neo-Classical, though more austere and inward-looking than either Nielsen or Sibelius, whose influence is less evident than that of Stravinsky and Bartók.

The First Symphony (1935) is a work of chamber proportions, while the third and fourth (a choral work), respectively subtitled "Sinfonia rustica" and "Sinfonia sacra," are precursors of a later, darker style in which the idea of "metamorphosis" -- themes that evolve through subtle tonic and thematic relationships -- is reminiscent of Hindemith, and at times, even Wagner.

International attention came when his Fifth Symphony was performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Copenhagen in 1947, after which Holmboe received commissions in various parts of Europe. The seventh and ninth symphonies are the most intense of Holmboe's orchestral output, and the Fourth Quartet the most intimate of his chamber works.

In some sense, Holmboe is more "main-line" than his Scandinavian contemporaries are. After his marriage in 1931 to the pianist Meta Graf, he traveled to her homeland, Romania, to collect folk tunes, and later to the Faeroe Islands on a similar quest though, except in the Rustic Symphony, folk elements are not prominent in Holmboe's major works. It remains for Holmboe to receive the consistent programming and advocacy that brought Sibelius to prominence in the '50s, and Nielsen in the '60s.

- As seen on allmusic.com


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## Blake




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## Blake

Amazing there's no traffic for this guy.

Another disk to check out...

Chamber Symphonies with John Storgårds:


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## Alypius

Vesuvius, Thanks for the recommendations on Holmboe's symphonies. Holmboe was a composer whose works I began exploring only last February or so. My initial interest in him was his cycle of string quartets -- which are superb. I cited them over on the "Masterpieces Off-the-Beaten-Path: String Quartets" thread. But let me repeat my recommendation here as well. My personal favorites are #17, #20, and a posthumous publication "Quatetto Sereno" (essentially his 21st or 22nd, but it's left unnumbered). It can be heard on YouTube: 



.

*Kontra Quartet, Vagn Holmboe: String Quartets, a 7-CD box set (DaCapo, 1993-2000)*

























I look forward to exploring the full range of his symphonies soon.


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## Blake

BIS came out with his complete symphony cycle which is outstanding.


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## Guest

^ I grabbed the mp3s for that whole symphony set on amazon for about 9 bucks last year 

Holmboe is great, but I don't know about this "best since Nielsen" business. I prefer Norgard, and probably Langgaard. All four of those guys are well worth your time, though!


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## Blake

arcaneholocaust said:


> ^ I grabbed the mp3s for that whole symphony set on amazon for about 9 bucks last year
> 
> Holmboe is great, but I don't know about this "best since Nielsen" business. I prefer Norgard, and probably Langgaard. All four of those guys are well worth your time, though!


Yea, 'best' should probably be extracted from the dictionary by now... it's pretty useless. I agree with the rest of what you've said, as well.


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## cjvinthechair

Holmboe & Langaard - possibly the pick from a much under-rated musical nation.
And both prolific, too. Hate to think what I've failed to find of theirs so far. Some excellent choral work amongst it all, not least the Requiem for Nietzsche.
Currently listening to his orchestral concerto 'The Ill-Tempered Turk'; delightful !


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## Sloe

Blake said:


>


I was listening to that symphony earlier today it is great. I like music that is lively.


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## musicrom

I don't know Holmboe that well, but his viola concerto is pretty good.


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## Sloe

musicrom said:


> I don't know Holmboe that well, but his viola concerto is pretty good.


I have listened to all his symphonies the last week. He is great.






Here is a documentary it is in Danish but some of us can understand Danish and this is a Danish forum anyway otherwise there are nice picture and to just see a composer in colour talking can be nice:


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## rw181383

Revisited the Chamber Concertos 1-3 today.









Always amazed how fantastic Holmboe is! I had written to dacapo a couple years back asking if they had plans to release a box set of the chamber concerti (like the quartets), and they replied in the affirmative. Alas, nothing yet.


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## rw181383

Dacapo has finally boxed the chamber concertos: https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8432639--vagn-holmboe-the-chamber-concertos-sinfonias


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## Josquin13

Thanks for the heads up, rw181383--onto the wish list it goes. (I've noticed that the set is currently less expensive to buy from Prestoclassical at $42.25 than the pre-order price on Amazon US at $54.28--a savings of about $12.)

Dacapo has been a godsend for Vagn Holmboe's music, along with BIS!

Over the past year, I've been enjoying Dacapo's release of Ensemble MidtVest's survey of previously 'unrecorded' Holmboe chamber works (in two volumes, so far):

https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Cham...2594341&sr=8-12&keywords=vagn+holmboe+chamber
https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Cham...rd_wg=a0zpG&psc=1&refRID=WY51HWXRWC3CYKEZJS6S

Holmboe's "Primavera", Op. 55 (for flute, violin, cello & piano) is particularly captivating:






Among Holmboe's other chamber music, I've also been getting to know his 3 Violin Sonatas & other works for violin and piano, in the Dacapo recordings from violinist Johannes Søe Hansen and pianist Christine Bjørkøe, which I've found excellent:

https://www.amazon.com/Vagn-Holmboe...pID=51TC4xH4uNL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

I've also been enjoying another 'world premiere' Dacapo release of Holmboe's "3 Chamber Symphonies" from conductor John Storgårds & the Lapland Chamber Orchestra:

https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Cham...69&sr=1-1&keywords=holmboe+chamber+symphonies

In addition, I've continued to purchase and explore the BIS Holmboe series. Here are my three latest purchases of various Holmboe Concertos, all of which have been getting a lot of playing time over the past couple of weeks, especially the Concertos for Recorder & Flute, which are very imaginative:

https://www.amazon.com/Concertos-No...94275&sr=8-17&keywords=vagn+holmboe+concertos
https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Bras...594132&sr=8-6&keywords=vagn+holmboe+concertos
https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Conc...594132&sr=8-5&keywords=vagn+holmboe+concertos

Of course I agree with others about the high quality of the Orwain Arwel Hughes box set of Holmboe's 13 Symphonies, and the Complete String Quartets from the Kontra Quartet--both of which firmly establish Holmboe's place as an important 20th century composer.


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## Triplets

He is just to prolific for his own good. I like his music but to much of it sounds alike


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## CnC Bartok

Triplets - there's a tiny tiny part of me that sympathises with your comment, but some composers can produce a lot of music and maintain both quality and freshness without mere quantity being the overriding factor. I think Holmboe is one of those, especially in the Symphonies and in his concertos. True it is hard to get to know each of his string quartets individually, I don't think that matters for the basic music lover, maybe so if you are a professional string player!

Maybe give it time, and some of his works will "find their own identity"? If you want something very different, check out his Requiem for Nietzsche. Wacky stuff!

Another composer who is suspiciously prolific, and who admittedly did do a lot of recycling with his music, is Bohuslav Martinů. To be honest I am perfectly happy to overlook a huge swathe of his oeuvre just for the two dozen-ish masterpieces he did produce.

Same with Holmboe.


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## CnC Bartok

Josquin - as ever, eloquent advocacy of one of our shared favourites.

I still prefer No.6 to No.8, by the way.....!


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## Josquin13

Robert--Since we last spoke about Holmboe, I've come to greatly appreciate both his 5th & 6th Symphonies, so thanks for the nudge! Interestingly, I hear a bit of an influence from both Mahler & Nielsen in the 6th, and that 1st movement adagio is very beautiful. As for it being a better symphony than the 8th, well, seeing as I own a typed, hand signed letter by Holmboe, which I bought for under $20 (all bragging intended), where Holmboe mentions his "Sinfonia borealis" by name, it will remain his greatest symphony!, in my view, no matter how much I may come prefer other symphonies by him... Besides, that 'Wagnerian' 2nd movement in the 8th is a thrilling ride.

As for Holmboe's music all sounding the same, I think you could say that about a lot of composers' music. For example, I've heard the same said about Renaissance music, Bruckner Symphonies, Mahler, Vivaldi, Mozart, etc. So it's not necessarily a bad thing (that we associate a certain style or sound with a composer), & personally, I've found more variety in Holmboe's opus than I initially did, as I've listened to it further. Indeed, I might have agreed with you a couple of years ago, especially in regards to his string quartets, but these days, no, I don't think Holmboe wrote the same work over and over again. He's more creative than that, at least enough so that I've found myself returning to a good range of his music. Though I do get what you're saying, as I'm not sure an annual "Mostly Holmboe" music festival would be entirely successful, either. (Though maybe it could be?)

For others, here's a link to the two movement 6th:










Here too is Holmboe's 8th Symphony, his "Sinfonia boreale":

1st movement: 



2nd movement (which I find Wagner influenced): 




3rd movement:



4th movement: 




Here also is conductor Jerzy Semkow's old Turnabout Vox LP recording of Holmboe's 8th, performed by the Royal Danish Orchestra--which I hope will get issued on CD someday soon, as it's a valuable alternative to the Hughes, interpretatively):


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## HerbertNorman

Quite breathtaking! I didn't know this man's music...I think it is fantastic


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## CnC Bartok

Just a heads-up. New recorded cycle of the Holmboe String Quartets on its way, on DaCapo, played by the Danish (all female) Nightingale Quartet. 

Volume One out in January. Might be interesting!


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## Malx

CnC Bartok said:


> Just a heads-up. New recorded cycle of the Holmboe String Quartets on its way, on DaCapo, played by the Danish (all female) Nightingale Quartet.
> 
> Volume One out in January. Might be interesting!


Oh no - more expense. 
I collected the Nightingales Langgaard recordings as they came out and was impressed.


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## sstucky

One of the half-dozen or so greatest composers of the 20th century.


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## Merl

Malx said:


> Oh no - more expense.
> I collected the Nightingales Langgaard recordings as they came out and was impressed.


Me too, Malx


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