Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new release, the 14th volume in the esteemed Thomas Jensen series, includes previously unpublished broadcasts of 20th-century music, not only by figures closely associated with Thomas Jensen such as Carl Nielsen and Niels Viggo Bentzon, but also Ole Schmidt and Gunnar Berg, who wrote outside the Danish mainstream. Jensen's catholic taste and sympathy with diverse strands in European modernism is attested by his careful shaping of masterpiece by Henze, Honegger and Prokofiev.

HOLMBOE Sonatas for Guitar: No. 1; No. 2. Five Intermezzi for Guitar. Duo Concertato for Violin and Guitar. Parlare del più e del meno. Canto e Danza for Recorder and Guitar. Seven Folk Ballads for Recorder and Guitar • Jesper Sivebæk (gtr); Johannes Søe Hansen (vn); Bolette Roed (rcr) • DACAPO 8.226143 (71:20)


Danish composer Vagn Holmboe began writing for the guitar late in his career, at the age of 70, and then continued to create works for the instrument for another 13 years. It’s not clear what drew him to the instrument. He said little about it other than to comment that he wanted to write for it, and so he did. He first composed more formal works—two sonatas—to avoid folk associations. Each is a suite of thematically related pieces, worked out in the organic way that he typically developed his material, and very concise, especially the second of these. Folk qualities were impossible to avoid, however, as a quick listen to almost any of the works here will demonstrate. Still, this is hardly Holmboe taking up “light music” at the end of his life, for there is much complexity and sophistication of invention, as well. The Five Intermezzi , which followed two years later in 1981, are of a similar character, but the composer is starting to actually embrace the folk connections, using a folk-like melody of obvious Spanish flavor as a unifying theme, and adding characteristic rhythmic percussive effects and shifting meters as well.


In 1983, he went further with Seven Folk Ballads , employing actual folk tunes from England, Israel, France, Ukraine, and his native Denmark. The original intent was to create duos for balalaika and guitar, but eventually the composer opted for the more complementary sound of the recorder. The setting of each tune, beginning with the familiar The Three Ravens from England, captures the character of the folk melody with simplicity and grace. In the Duo Concertato for Violin and Guitar (1986) the violin adds an Eastern European quality as the two instruments engage in a witty and sometimes dramatic conversation. In the last solo work, the introspective Parlare del più e del meno (1988), the conversation becomes a monolog, internalized in five very short movements of great density, rhythmic freedom, and centered calm, while the last chamber work for guitar, Canto e Danza , written in 1992 when Holmboe was 83, is a set of variations on a Spanish harvest song, in three contrasting movements, followed by a lively baroque dance movement which sounds like the work of a much younger man. His exploration of the instrument was thorough, to say the least.


The stylistic rather than strictly chronological structuring of the CD program, working from the more serious sonatas to the encore-like folk ballads, works beautifully. The performers, all outstanding Danish musicians, capture the delicate personality of each work perfectly, most especially guitarist Jesper Sivebæk. The engineering is first-rate, with a palpable sense of those performers in a real space. There are fine notes on the music. The music has charm and substance. I really can’t think of a better way to invest 70 minutes, whether for heart or head.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

Recording information: Carl Nielsen Academy of Music (08/16/2008-08/17/2008); Carl Nielsen Academy of Music (09/20/2008).

A most promising start to an essential, richly recorded survey', observed Gramophone about the first volume of Vagn Holmboe's complete string quartets by the Nightingale String Quartet. In this, the second instalment, the Nightingale's continues convincingly with energetic, precise, yet lively and poetic interpretations of the Holmboe quartets, which stand amongst the most significant contributions to the genre in the 20th century. Nightingale String Quartet is based in Copenhagen and is made up of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola, and Louisa Schwab, cello. All the members of Nightingale String Quartet studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where Professor Tim Frederiksen has been their faithful mentor ever since the Quartet was founded in 2007.

After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find. Nightingale String Quartet is based in Copenhagen and is made up of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola, and Louisa Schwab, cello. All the members of Nightingale String Quartet studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where Professor Tim Frederiksen has been their faithful mentor ever since the Quartet was founded in 2007.

-----

REVIEW:

Vagn Holmboe’s 20 numbered string quartets constitute one of the 20th century’s most substantial and rewarding bodies of work in the genre. Collectors have come to know these compositions largely through the Kontra Quartet’s complete recorded cycle on Dacapo. The label now launches a new Holmboe project with the young Nightingale Quartet, whose Rued Langgaard quartet cycle set reference standards. In every way they match the Kontra’s technical polish, ensemble discipline, and textual integrity. Yet their interpretations sometimes differ.

For example, the Nightingale’s leaner spelling out of the gorgeously dense chords in the third-movement introduction of the First quartet contrasts to the Kontra’s massive and fuller-bodied impact. On the other hand, the second movement’s slithery Presto passages gain from the Nightingale’s faster tempo and lighter articulation.

Although the Third quartet’s five-movement “arch” form (slow-fast-moderate-fast-slow) owes an obvious debt to Bartók’s own Third quartet, Holmboe’s somewhat sunnier harmonic language goes its own way. It’s a toss-up between the Kontra’s intensely expansive, dynamically varied opening Lento and the Nightingale’s cooler temperament, brisker pace, and precisely calibrated attacks and releases. Some listeners may prefer the Nightingale’s supple scampering in the Allegro assai to the Kontra’s slightly heavier reading, yet the latter’s broader tempo allows the occasional “droning” bass lines to resonate more effectively.

My colleague David Hurwitz describes Holmboe’s late quartets as more complex but also more personal and concentrated, and that’s especially true of his three-movement No. 15. The Kontra’s slower unfolding of the fourth-movement introduction conveys a sense of mystery and otherworldliness that I feel digs deeper than the Nightingale’s drier reserve. But once the Allegro kicks in, the Nightingale’s gaunter, crisper approach better enlivens Holmboe’s knotty contrapuntal writing.

If this first volume is any indication, the Nightingale Quartet Holmboe cycle will complement rather than supersede the Kontra Quartet, and that’s all to our advantage. And to Holmboe’s advantage, of course!

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)