Vagn Holmboe - Concertos for Recorder and Flute (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Vagn Holmboe

• (01) Concerto for Recorder, Strings, Celesta and Vibraphone, Op. 122 (M. 276)
• (04) Concerto for Flute and Orchestra No. 1, Op. 126 (M. 279)
• (07) Concerto for Flute and Orchestra No. 2, Op. 147 (M. 307)

Dan Laurin, recorder
Manuela Wiesler, flute

Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
Owain Arwel Hughes, conductor

Date: 1998
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/composer/holmboe-vagn/holmboe-concertos-for-recorder-and-flute

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Review

Dan Laurin's spirited way with the soprano, alto and sopranino recorders lights up the Recorder Concerto a work already illuminated by icy cold string writing. The hiccuping solo writing cannot help but invoke recall of the Nielsen flute concerto. Memorable incidents are plentiful; I single out the optimistic piping and the fey chase with celesta and vibraphone. Put behind you any thoughts of school recorder bands. Dan Laurin sweeps such dullard heresy away amid some of the sweetest and most unsentimental of writing.

The first of Holmboe's pair of Flute Concertos starts with that typical double and triple blow impact which also lends an imperious air to the Cello Concerto. Holmboe casts a mysterious oriental cloak over the capricious reflections especially in the finale. Fast forward only six years to the Second Concerto and Holmboe permits himself writing in a much more direct language. In both flute works the music patters and chimes in the second movement. The celesta dance at 1.03 in the magical andante devozione of No. 2 recalls the 'music box' moments from Malcolm Arnold's Fifth Symphony.

The star here is the thoroughly grown up Recorder Concerto but the Flute Concertos have powers to charm and shiver.

Unlike the brass concertos all three works are products of the period 1974 to 1982.

The usual un-gauzed BIS recording quality makes an unglamorous but true-hearted advocate for the music.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/holmboe-18
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/b/bis00911a.php

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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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