Vagn Holmboe Complete Chamber Concertos, Volume 3

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Vagn Holmboe

Label: Dacapo

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 62

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 8 224086

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Chamber Concerto No. 7 for Oboe and Chamber Orches Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Danish Radio Sinfonietta
Hannu Koivula, Conductor
Max Artved, Oboe
Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Chamber Concerto No. 8 for Orchestra, "Sinfonia Co Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Danish Radio Sinfonietta
Hannu Koivula, Conductor
Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Chamber Concerto No. 9 for Violin, Viola and Orche Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Danish Radio Sinfonietta
Hannu Koivula, Conductor
Mikkel Futtrup, Violin
Tim Frederiksen, Viola
Vagn Holmboe, Composer
Da Capo’s series of Holmboe’s chamber concertos has been invaluable in opening out the picture one had of the composer from his symphonies and quartets alone. While he remained audibly the same composer, Holmboe the concerto writer had a very different agenda from Holmboe the symphonist, and nowhere does that become more apparent than in No. 8 (1945), subtitled Sinfonia concertante, a splendid chamber-orchestral concerto yet also a direct precursor of the magnificent First Chamber Symphony (1953). Internal cohesion seems to be No. 8’s raison d’etre, not the interplay of soloist(s) and tutti found in, for instance, Nos. 7 (1944-5) and 9 (1945-6). The Eighth also stands a little apart from its companions by virtue of its more Hindemithian aspect, especially in the first movement which seems to fuse – in Holmboe’s own very particular accent – the sound and motion of the Kammermusiken with the more robust symphonism Hindemith espoused from the 1930s.
Listeners familiar with late Holmboe will find themselves on slightly more familiar stylistic ground here than with the two previous volumes of the series. The arch-form first movement of No. 7, for oboe, has in its outermost sections distinct pre-echoes of the humane luminosity that infuses so much of the music of his last three decades, and – as does the second of No. 8 – nimbly synthesizes elements of multiple movements within a single span as do several of the symphonies. No. 9 is more conventional, a delightful two-part invention in three movements for violin and viola, with orchestral accompaniment in the outer spans only. The performances are exemplary, the sound clear if very slightly studio-bound. The best yet of an excellent series, with four concertos still to come. A definite must-buy.'

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