Vagn Holmboe - Concertos for Orchestra (Owain Arwel Hughes)

Information

Composer: Vagn Holmboe

• (01-02) Concerto No. 8 (Sinfonia Concertante), Op. 38 (M. 148)
• (03-11) Concerto No. 10 (Træ, Messing og Tarm), Op. 40 (M. 150)
• (12) Concerto giocondo e severo, Op. 132 (M. 288)
• (13-17) Den Galsindede Tyrk, ballet suite, Op. 32b (M. 242)

Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
Owain Arwel Hughes, conductor

Date: 2003
Label: BIS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Chamber orchestra concertos and a little known ballet suite in BIS’s reignited series

Why, I wonder, has it taken BIS so long to release these recordings (made between May 1998 and June 1999)? Perhaps Dacapo’s four-disc series of all 13 numbered concertos, issued in 1997-99, for once stole their thunder. In any event, the disc’s appearance now marks the Tenth anniversary of their first issue (Symphonies Nos 4 and 5, 6/93).

It is clear from the outset of No 8 (1945) that Owain Arwel Hughes takes a quite different view of the music to Hannu Koivula on Dacapo. Where the Finn achieves a touch more impulse the Welshman underscores the music’s internal cohesion; Hughes also plays down the Hindemithian overtones. In the variations of the second, final movement – as well as in the Tenth’s nine contrasting sections – it is Hughes whose account flows more succinctly (a virtue heard again in the 1977 Concerto giocondo e severo), Koivula preferring to emphasise the contrasts. Both ways work and there is little to choose between the performances; BIS’s sound, though, is more resonant and spacious.

Holmboe devotees will be particularly keen on the other two works, both novelties. The Cheerful and Severe Concerto is a single (12-minute) movement, though like the Tenth (1945-46) divided into sections; here, though, they are compressed to form a compellingly fluent design in the composer’s late, luminous style. More fascinating still is the suite, made (with some recomposition) in 1969 from the music of the still-unperformed ballet Den Galsindede Tyrk (1942-44). The opening ‘Dance of the Executioner’ has echoes of the contemporaneous Fifth Symphony, while later movements – for instance, the central ‘Dance of the Trees’ – point towards the Sixth and Seventh (1947-50). But the music also seems eminently danceable, making its neglect all the more astonishing. Heartily recommended.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
https://www.amazon.com/Holmboe-Concertos-Concerto-Giocondo-Ill-Tempered/dp/B0000D9PK5

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vagn Holmboe (20 December 1909 – 1 September 1996) was a Danish composer and teacher. Holmboe studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen under Knud Jeppesen (theory) and Finn Høffding (composition). He composed about 370 works, including 13 symphonies, three chamber symphonies, four symphonies for strings, 20 string quartets, numerous concertos, one opera, and the late series of preludes for chamber orchestra, as well as much choral and other music. His students included Per Nørgård, Ib Nørholm, Bent Lorentzen, Arne Nordheim, Egil Hovland and Alan Stout.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagn_Holmboe

***

Owain Arwel Hughes CBE (born 21 March 1942 in Ton Pentre, Rhondda) is a Welsh orchestral conductor. He studied conducting under Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink and Rudolf Kempe. Hughes became well known after a rousing televised performance of William Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast, which won the praise of the composer himself. He later hosted a BBC series, The Much-Loved Music Show. Hughes has made numerous recordings, championing less well-known composers, including recording a complete cycle of the symphonies of the Danish composer Vagn Holmboe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Arwel_Hughes

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!