It is good to see the Cello Concerto on CD at last though it is puzzling that a work of this quality has not been taken up more widely. It is a work of some substance and individuality. The performance emanates from the Danish Radio premiere in 1975; Blondal Bengtsson played it as a Prom four years later to much acclaim but since then it hs been rarely heard. This is puzzling for, along with the Dutilleux, it is one of the finest examples of the genre to have appeared in the last 20 years or so. In Holmboe's music it is the subtle shaping of thematic ideas and their organic transformation that constitute the basis of his thought. His textures are transparent and luminous, and the music inhabits a distinctive world all its own. As so often with this composer, the ideas at the outset provide the basis for almost all the subsequent developments. The overall effect of the work is haunting and the atmosphere strong. There is a gentle figure on muted pianissimo strings about two minutes in, restless and strangely disturbing, like a wind that can be observed but not felt!
The remaining pieces offer a good sample of his other music: Benedic Domino is one of a cycle of motets comprising the ''Liber canticorum'', composed in the 1950s that have an austere beauty and elevation of feeling. The whole cycle was broadcast by the BBC in the late 1980s. The brass Quintet comes from 1961 and is a stirring piece written for the New York Brass Quintet, marvellously played and recorded here. The fine Triade for trombone and organ comes from the same period as the Concerto. An excellent introduction to the work of the doyen of Danish composers. But Holmboe's most important work is in the field of the symphony and the string quartet and it is very good news indeed that BIS have embarked on a complete Holmboe cycle.'