Vagn Holmboe - Chamber Symphonies (John Storgårds)

Information

Composer: Vagn Holmboe

• (01) Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 53
• (05) Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 100
• (09) Chamber Symphony No. 3, Op. 103a

Lapland Chamber Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor

Date: 2012
Label: Dacapo
https://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recordings/chamber-symphonies

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Review

Lapland ensemble record the Dane’s chamber symphonies

If you do not know them (and how would you? Only No 1 has even been broadcast in the UK – a fine account conducted by the late Richard Hickox in the early 1980s), Vagn Holmboe’s three Chamber Symphonies are superb encapsulations of his full-orchestral symphonic manner on a small scale. Holmboe confirmed to me once that they could be considered part of his main symphonic canon (unlike the Chairos sinfonias, which he felt used a quite different medium). The First was composed just before Sinfonia boreale (Symphony No 8, 1951-52), with which it shares an atmosphere of high endeavour. The grandeur Holmboe elicits from his small ensemble and basic thematic material is a lesson in compositional craft, the creation of a whole (considerably) greater than the sum of its parts. Long a favourite score of mine, John Storgårds and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra do it full justice.

They are equally on their mettle in Nos 2 (1968) and 3 (1969-70), contemporary with the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies. The Second’s title, Elegy, may, as annotator Jens Cornelius suggests, derive from Holmboe’s self-questioning after his resignation from teaching but its atmosphere – and length, at 29 minutes, the longest of the three – suggests deeper concerns. The Third, Frise (‘Frieze’) was written to mark the creation of a ceramic frieze in an Aalborg school; abstract in design, its musical argument (which he decanted into a miniature cantata profana) again compels attention across six concentrated movements that give the impression of expansiveness. Excellent performances, superb sound: you will not hear a finer disc this year.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
https://www.allmusic.com/album/vagn-holmboe-chamber-symphonies-mw0002381876
https://www.audaud.com/vagn-holmboe-chamber-symphonies-chamber-symphony-no-1-chamber-symphony-no-2-elegy-chamber-symphony-no-3-frise-frieze-lapland/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Holmboe-Chamber-Symphonies-Vagn/dp/B0081UG17M

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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

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John Storgårds (born 20 October 1963 in Helsinki) is a Finnish violinist and conductor. Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius, and study conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He was Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2015. Storgårds was also Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2009. He has made a number of international recordings for Ondine, Sony and BIS Records, including recordings of music by Andrzej Panufnik, John Corigliano, and Per Nørgård.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Storg%C3%A5rds
http://www.johnstorgards.com/

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