Vagn Holmboe - Concertos for Piano, Clarinet and Oboe; Beatus parvo (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Vagn Holmboe

• (01) Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, Op. 17
• (03) Concerto No. 3 for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 21
• (05) Concerto No. 7 for oboe and orchestra, Op. 37
• (07) Beatus parvo, for choir and orchestra, Op. 117

Noriko Ogawa, piano
Martin Fröst, clarinet
Gordon Hunt, oboe

Danish National Opera Choir (7-10)
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
Owain Arwel Hughes, conductor

Date: 2004
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/composer/holmboe-vagn/holmboe-concertos-for-piano-clarinet-and-oboe-beatus-parvo

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Review

A splendid coupling of three early concertos and a charming choral piece

A word about nomenclature. Holmboe composed 13 chamber concertos between 1939 and 1956 as a series with small-orchestral accompaniment, similar but not so homogeneous a set as Hindemith’s Kammermusiken. Much later the composer renamed them just concerti, which is how BIS in its continuing series (coupled with other concertante works; this is the third issue) refers to them. Dacapo’s integral set of the 13 curiously retained the chamber tag.

Irrespective of titles, they make a fine set. As I wrote of Dacapo’s initial release, the concertos are extremely diverse and may surprise those who know only the symphonies and quartets. Hannu Koivula’s nicely paced and well-thought-through interpretations for Dacapo, although a touch studio-bound, set a formidable standard to follow. As with the Brass and Orchestral Concertos (3/97, 2/04), Owain Arwel Hughes more than rises to that challenge with tempi usually a touch swifter and more urgent, and the recorded sound more resonant, giving a warmer sound picture of each work.

This is particularly true in the First Concerto for piano, strings and timpani, where Ogawa is more sympathetically placed and not recessed as was Anne Oland. Ogawa’s technique is also the stronger and she shapes Holmboe’s neo-romantic lines even more splendidly than her rival.

In the Clarinet and Oboe Concertos honours are a little more even, though I think Martin Fröst and Gordon Hunt just shade the decision. There’s a ‘bigness’ to Fröst’s tone that Niels Thomsen cannot quite match and Hunt’s incisive playing strikes as me as just about perfect. There is nothing inadequate about the Dacapo issues, mind you, but if you are in two minds about buying this newcomer consider the bonus of Holmboe’s charming cantata Beatus parvo, a kind of concerto for amateur forces full of that marvellous luminosity that characterised so much of his music in his last decades. Strongly recommended.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Holmboe_Concertos.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/vagn-holmboe-concertos-for-piano-clarinet-and-oboe-beatus-parvo-mw0001421207

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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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