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Vagn Holmboe counts as one of the greatest 20th-century composers of string quartets. Holmboe's music is dynamic, organic and alive, and his musical language is rooted in the Nordic landscape but also reveals his keen interest in the folk music of Eastern Europe. This unique collection comprises all Holmboe's string quartets in the highly acclaimed recording by the Kontra Quartet, who enjoyed a close collaboration with the composer.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Holmboe was a natural string quartet writer. There is a luminous quality to these quartets, they are serious but never neurotic. Together they form an epic northern journey. I keep coming back to them.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"Controlled ecstasy" is how the late Danish composer Vagn Holmboe described his music. It's a remarkably apt assessment, given the intense and affecting emotional currents that course through his music. That emotive quality achieves perhaps its greatest range and highest pitch in his 21 string quartets, which make a welcome reappearance in this lavish Dacapo box set. The remarkably prolific composer (in addition to his quartets, he wrote 13 symphonies, chamber and string symphonies, numerous concertos, choral music, etc.) is widely recognized as Denmark's most important musician after Carl Nielsen. Stylistically, Holmboe was a classicist, who didn't venture deep into the waters of radical experimentation like many of his contemporaries. This doesn't mean his music isn't modern and adventurous. While he generally worked within tonal compositional parameters, he often walked the line between tonality and dissonance. Holmboe's music is never predictable. One is continually surprised at the melodic directions and shifting levels of urgency in these works. Those who like to classify composers mark him as being influenced by the Second Viennese School; he's also been compared to Bartok and Carter, although Holmboe is a bit less astringent than either of them. The most important thing to realize is that these are among the greatest and most affecting string quartets of the 20th century. And it's unlikely that they will ever be given better interpretations than these recorded by the Kontra Quartet. Simply superb.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is my first experience of Holmboe's music and it's rather a heavy listen, there being something of an unremitting intensity about the music. The performances and recordings are excellent, and Dacapo Records and the Kontra Quartet are to be complimented on an excellent presentation of quite demanding repertoire (I should reiterate my comments from an earlier review where I indicated that I am not sufficiently qualified to debate the technicalities of composition - this is purely a personal reaction to the music as I hear it).
If you are interested in contemporary 20th Century chamber music this will probably be your cup of tea - I would think that people who have an affinity with the quartets of Shostakovich and Robert Simpson would probably feel at home with this music.
If you are interested in contemporary 20th Century chamber music this will probably be your cup of tea - I would think that people who have an affinity with the quartets of Shostakovich and Robert Simpson would probably feel at home with this music.
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