Stunning New Holmboe album! Tomter/Heide/Norrkoping SO/Slobodeniouk (Da Capo)

[jayne lee wilson]

The Viola Concerto and the 2nd Violin Concerto, here recorded for the first time, date from 1992 and 1979 respectively, so if you know Holmboe's tersely compelling Symphonies 11-13, you'll relate them to that concision of means, intensity of argument and variety of mood. But here the solo roles have brought out a warmer, more immediate, more lyrical vein in Holmboe's inspiration as we move from epic drama, through elegy and tenderness to a life-goes-on geniality. There's a striking folk rhythm and inflection here which the notes explain feed off Jewish and Balkan sources - the orchestra declaims, the soloist follows with recitative, dance, or rhapsody. But the viola isn't only husky and dark, it's often gypsyish - rustic, robust and very upbeat. The orchestral violas are used to great effect in the Violin Concerto too.

Both works are in 2 movements, but with much continuous metamorphosis, so the 2nd movement of the Viola Concerto is an allegro-andante-vivace and so on. Try the opening of the viola concerto - you'll soon be gripped by the wild stamping dance, then the orchestra holds its breath for the Viola's recitative - it's quite wonderful! Or the opening of the affetuoso part 2 of the Violin Concerto, a gorgeous horn solo against darkly cushioning strings, as the violin begins its lovely rhapsody. To try is to buy! The conclusions of both concertos may seem a little low-key, but as ever Holmboe gives no concession to rhetoric - he says what he has to say and leaves the stage. His art is about Process, not outcome - better to travel than to arrive perhaps, so take your pleasures in the journey - the scenery is worth pulling over for.

Between the String Concertos is the very early Concerto for Orchestra, composed when he was 20; showing it's influences, yes, but very inventively so, and fascinating to hear Holmboe's own voice emerging from them.

The De Capo recording is lovely - rich and full - and you have the choice at Da Capo or eclassical of lossless, CD or files all the way up to 24/192. I took the highvalue lossless from eclassical, and very fine it is.

Best new release this year, so - D-N-M! Do. Not. Miss.

[richardfinegold]

[QUOTE=jayne lee wilson;300447]The Viola Concerto and the 2nd Violin Concerto, here recorded for the first time, date from 1992 and 1979 respectively, so if you know Holmboe's tersely compelling Symphonies 11-13, you'll relate them to that concision of means, intensity of argument and variety of mood. But here the solo roles have brought out a warmer, more immediate, more lyrical vein in Holmboe's inspiration as we move from epic drama, through elegy and tenderness to a life-goes-on geniality. There's a striking folk rhythm and inflection here which the notes explain feed off Jewish and Balkan sources - the orchestra declaims, the soloist follows with recitative, dance, or rhapsody. But the viola isn't only husky and dark, it's often gypsyish - rustic, robust and very upbeat. The orchestral violas are used to great effect in the Violin Concerto too.

Both works are in 2 movements, but with much continuous metamorphosis, so the 2nd movement of the Viola Concerto is an allegro-andante-vivace and so on. Try the opening of the viola concerto - you'll soon be gripped by the wild stamping dance, then the orchestra holds its breath for the Viola's recitative - it's quite wonderful! Or the opening of the affetuoso part 2 of the Violin Concerto, a gorgeous horn solo against darkly cushioning strings, as the violin begins its lovely rhapsody. To try is to buy! The conclusions of both concertos may seem a little low-key, but as ever Holmboe gives no concession to rhetoric - he says what he has to say and leaves the stage. His art is about Process, not outcome - better to travel than to arrive perhaps, so take your pleasures in the journey - the scenery is worth pulling over for.

Between the String Concertos is the very early Concerto for Orchestra, composed when he was 20; showing it's influences, yes, but very inventively so, and fascinating to hear Holmboe's own voice emerging from them.

The De Capo recording is lovely - rich and full - and you have the choice at Da Capo or eclassical of lossless, CD or files all the way up to 24/192. I took the highvalue lossless from eclassical, and very fine it is.

Best new release this year, so - D-N-M! Do. Not. Miss.[/

It is tempting but I hope that the High Res versions are an improvement over Da Capos SACD recording of the Nielsen
Symphonies with Gilbert/NYP. BIS set the sonic standards for Holmboe recordings

[jayne lee wilson]

Rest assured, Richard, these Holmboe Concertos sound NOTHING like those disappointing, recessed Nielsen performances! Taped in the Geerhalle (and not live!), they are set quite close, full, smooth but detailed and immediate, with a natural perspective on the soloists. I haven't heard the 24-bit efforts, but on past experience they would be "the same only more so"! The lossless is lovely, and great to play loud (around $10 from eclassical). (The mastertape was a dxd - 24x352.8, recorded by Timbre Music, whose relation to Da Capo I don't know!)
If you heard last year's Da Capo release of the Holmboe 3 Chamber Symphonies, the perspective is similar but fuller and smoother. That Nielsen appears to have been a rare blot on Da Capo's copybook, they're usually very consistent - Carnegie is a recalcitrant acoustic though.

[jayne lee wilson]

Listening to the last 3 Holmboe symphonies again (1980, 1988, 1994), I'm struck by how austere and remote they seem - abstract, Castalian patternings of line and rhythm - like an oracle that goes on speaking after we have ceased to listen to it, or those poetic utterances on the car radio in Cocteau's Orphee. So it's the human presence, via the solo instrument, that is most remarkable about the new concerti (1979, 1992). This is never more apparent than at the start of the 2nd Violin Concerto's affetuoso movement, a moment of astonishing warmth and tenderness to catch the breath of even the most seasoned Holmbolian! If anyone else here listens to it, I wonder if they'll be reminded of the same lovely moment in a Roussel symphony as I was...

Never mind Brahms, we need a Holmboe thread (but as Kurt Masur said to Colin Davis, as Davis was about to start his Bruckner cycle with the LSO - "is anyone coming?")
Now, I have to get back in that big black car...

[richardfinegold]

Listening to the last 3 Holmboe symphonies again (1980, 1988, 1994), I'm struck by how austere and remote they seem - abstract, Castalian patternings of line and rhythm - like an oracle that goes on speaking after we have ceased to listen to it, or those poetic utterances on the car radio in Cocteau's Orphee. So it's the human presence, via the solo instrument, that is most remarkable about the new concerti (1979, 1992). This is never more apparent than at the start of the 2nd Violin Concerto's affetuoso movement, a moment of astonishing warmth and tenderness to catch the breath of even the most seasoned Holmbolian! If anyone else here listens to it, I wonder if they'll be reminded of the same lovely moment in a Roussel symphony as I was...

Never mind Brahms, we need a Holmboe thread (but as Kurt Masur said to Colin Davis, as Davis was about to start his Bruckner cycle with the LSO - "is anyone coming?")
Now, I have to get back in that big black car...

I have many of the BIS Hughes recordings, and some of the smaller Concerto type efforts on older Da Capo issues. I think VH suffers for his productivity; to much of his music sounds alike. He did write some strikingly original sounding works, and if there was less to choose from, perhaps his more original works would get more attention.

[jayne lee wilson]

I should have added that I find the Symphonies 11-13 very compelling too - it's quite feasible to listen to them as a trilogy, especially as the solo flute that features in the 1st movement of No.11, ending it quietly, is there again at the very end of No.13...all 3 form an arch, with greatest energy and power in 12.

The 11th on its own should be enough to get anyone into Vagn Holmboe. But - repeated listening required!
While I'm still around, shamelessly replying to my own thread, I would also commend the choral Beatus Parvo, on a BIS album with earlier piano/wind concertos, as another especially fine utterance.