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Sunday, January 20, 2019

Vagn Holmboe - Requiem for Nietzsche (Michael Schønwandt)


Information

Composer: Vagn Holmboe
  1. Requiem for Nietzsche, Op. 84: Part One: Prelude in the desert. Basel
  2. Requiem for Nietzsche, Op. 84: Part Two: The friends. Sils Maria. The third temptation
  3. Requiem for Nietzsche, Op. 84: Part Three: The moment. Gondola song. Jena
  4. Requiem for Nietzsche, Op. 84: Part Four: Ecce Homo. Weimar
  5. Requiem for Nietzsche, Op. 84: Part Five: Asgaardsreisen

Helge Rønning, tenor
Johan Reuter, baritone

Danish National Concert Choir
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Michael Schønwandt, conductor

Date: 2002
Label: Dacapo
https://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recordings/holmboe-requiem-for-nietzsche

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Review

Eagerly anticipated and worth the wait

Holmboe’s Requiem for Nietzsche is his largest choral work‚ yet it is also one of his least known‚ despite a flurry of other Holmboe recordings. Composed during 1963­64‚ it sets a series of 11 sonnets by the distinguished poet Thorkild Bjørnvig which together‚ to quote Paul Rapoport’s fine accompanying note‚ ‘create a symbolic interpretation of Nietzsche – his expectations‚ aspirations‚ discoveries‚ conflicts and tragic decline’.

Holmboe responded to Bjørnvig’s remarkable sequence with one of his richest and stylistically most diverse scores‚ incorporating some of his most adventurous writing for chorus as well as orchestra. It is also one of his most exploratory in expression‚ the music teeming with ideas‚ the scoring varying from massive tumultuous outbursts to delicate duos and trios – for instance‚ the spectral tenor solo midway through Part Three. It is no easy ride‚ however‚ and this is music that requires close attention and repeated hearings. To those familiar with Holmboe’s output‚ the tonal landscapes of Requiem for Nietzsche are not dissimilar to some of the later motets and the Ninth Symphony (1967­69).

The performance is as committed as the music‚ the orchestra alternately shimmering with that beguiling Nordic luminosity that suffuses so much of Holmboe’s work‚ and charting the depths of Nietzsche’s despair. Both vocalists are very fine‚ rich toned and beautifully balanced by sound engineer Jørn Jacobsen. The sound‚ although a little distant‚ catches the full range of this wonderful score in full depth‚ nowhere better than in the concluding fifth section‚ with its final climax and radiant close. This definitely will feature in my Critics’ Choice later this year.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Holmboe_Nietzsche.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Oct02/Holmboe_Requiem_Nietzsche.htm

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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

***

Michael Schønwandt (born 10 September 1953 in Frederiksberg) is a Danish conductor. He studied in Denmark, and later continued musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Schønwandt was principal guest conductor of the Théâtre National de La Monnaie (1984-87) and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (1987-2000). He has also served as chief conductor of the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester (1992-98). From 2000 to 2011 he was Music Director of the Royal Danish Orchestra. From 2015 Schønwandt is principal conductor of the Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier in France.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sch%C3%B8nwandt

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