Preludes

Late in his career, Holmboe wrote 10 preludes for a small ensemble. The only recording thus far calls them "preludes for sinfonietta" although Rapaport's catalogue of Holmboe's works does not use that term.

While each prelude was written for a different group of performers, they undoubtedly form a set. The instruments involved are almost identical - 1 flute, 1 oboe, 1 clarinet, 1 bassoon, 2 French horns, 1 trumpet, 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello and 1 double bass. The only variation is the addition of different percussion and piano.

Each prelude also has a title in English (all were dedicated to the English musicologist Robert Layton):

• To a Pine Tree, op.164 (M.325)
• To a Dolphin, op.166 (M.327)
• To a Maple Tree, op.168 (M.329)
• To a Willow Tree, op.170 (M.331)
• To a Living Stone, op.172c (M.335)
• To the Seagulls and Cormorants, op.174 (M.337)
• To the Pollution of Nature, op.180 (M.344)
• To the Victoria Embankment, op.184 (M.351)
• To the Calm Sea, op.187 (M.354)
• To the Unsettled Weather, op.188 (M.356)

The only recording is by Giordano Bellincampi and the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen. The preludes were recorded in 1998-9 and released in two separate volumes in 2000-1 (in total the works are fractionally too long to fit on a single disc).

One peculiarity to note with these recordings is the way the numbering is presented. For example, To the Unsettled Weather is listed as "op.188, no.10" giving the impression that there are at least 9 other works in op.188 that aren't included. In fact the "no.10" simply indicates that it is the 10th prelude.

Volume 1 (Da Capo 8.224123) includes the longer works in the series (although none is more than 12 minutes in length). The 10th, 5th, 8th, 3rd and 2nd preludes are presented in that order.

Volume 2 (Da Capo 8.224124) includes, in order, the 6th, 9th, 1st, 7th and 4th preludes. It also includes two of Holmboe's chamber works (also the only recording in both cases). The Sonata for trombone and piano, op.172a (M.333) is in fact the original version of the same music as To a Living Stone, although neither volume makes any mention of that fact. The other work is Music with Horn, op.148 (M.308) which is for violin, French horn and piano.

To the Seagulls and Cormorants from this volume also appears on Da Capo's compilation from its Holmboe recordings, The Key Masterpieces (Da Capo 8.226101-02).

Sinfonias for Strings (Kairos)

In the case of Sinfonias I, II, III and IV, op.73a to 73d (M.194, 196, 200 and 215), some explanation is required as to why you might see either these titles or Kairos, op.73 and be talking about the same music. Well, almost the same...

The first three sinfonias are all single-movement works for strings. The fourth sinfonia, written a few years later, is a work in four movements titled Preludio, Interludio I, Interludio II and Postludio.

Each of the works is capable of performance on its own, and indeed this is the way they were initially performed. However, Holmboe also directed that the sinfonias could be combined into a single large work, Kairos, by playing them in the following sequence:

Preludio - Sinfonia I - Interludio I - Sinfonia II - Interludio II - Sinfonia III - Postludio

There are two recordings available of the sinfonias/Kairos, each of which uses a different strategy to present the compound nature of the work.

The first recording is by Hannu Koivula and the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, made in 1997 but not released until 2004 (Da Capo 8.226017-18). This 2-disc release presents the sinfonias sequentially on one disc and Kairos on the second (note that the spelling in the image is 'Chairos', even though Da Capo's website now uses 'Kairos').

Sinfonia I from this recording also appears on the Da Capo compilation of its Holmboe recordings, The Key Masterpieces (Da Capo 8.226101-02).



The second recording is by Owain Arwel Hughes and Camerata Wales, made in 2005 but not released until 2009 (BIS CD 1596). This is a single disc release which has Kairos, followed by Sinfonia IV in whole form.

On both of these releases, judicious track selection will enable you to hear any one of the five possible works.

Chamber symphonies and symphonic metamorphoses

In addition to the symphonies, Holmboe wrote a number of other works with titles indicating they are symphonic in nature.

These include three chamber symphonies:

• Chamber Symphony No.1, op.53 (M.171)
• Chamber Symphony No.2 'Elegy', op.100 (M.240)
• Chamber Symphony No.3 'Frise' ('Frieze' in English), op.103a (M.246)

There is only a single recording of these works (although there are also recordings of op.103b, a version of op.103a arranged for unaccompanied choir). They are performed by John Storgårds and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, recorded in 2011 and released on Da Capo CD 6.220621. As a modern recording, it is widely available including for download or streaming.

Another group of works are the four symphonic metamorphoses, which have individual titles:

• Epitaph, op.68 (M.189)
• Monolith, op.76 (M.207)
• Epilog (Epilogue in English), op.80 (M.213)
• Tempo variabile (an Italian title meaning both "variable tempo" and "changeable weather"), op.108 (M.254)

Again, there is only a single recording of this group of works, this time performed by Owain Arwel Hughes and the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. The recordings were made in 1996-7 and released on BIS CD 852. This is also widely available.

The Symphonies

Vagn Holmboe wrote 13 numbered symphonies:

• Symphony No.1 for chamber orchestra, op.4 (M.85)
• Symphony No.2, op.15 (M.107)
• Symphony No.3 'Sinfonia Rustica', op.25 (M.126)
• Symphony No.4 'Sinfonia Sacra', op.29 (M.132)
• Symphony No.5, op.35 (M.145)
• Symphony No.6, op.43 (M.155)
• Symphony No.7, op.50 (M.167)
• Symphony No.8 'Sinfonia Boreale', op.56 (M.175)
• Symphony No.9, op.95 (M.235)
• Symphony No.10, op.105 (M.250)
• Symphony No.11, op.144 (M.304)
• Symphony No.12, op.175 (M.338)
• Symphony No.13, op.192 (M.362)

Despite more than one commentator praising Holmboe as one of the finest symphonists of the 20th century, there is little competition between recordings. The only complete set, and the only recording for 10 of the 13 symphonies, is the set made by Owain Arwel Hughes and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, recorded between 1992 and 1996 for the BIS label.

The set also includes the only recording of the Sinfonia in Memoriam, op.65 (M.185).

The catalogue number for the complete set is BIS CD 843/846. The individual discs are still generally available as follows:

• Symphonies 4 and 5 (BIS CD 572)
• Symphonies 6 and 7 (BIS CD 573)
• Symphonies 1, 3 and 10 (BIS CD 605)
• Symphonies 8 and 9 (BIS CD 618)
• Symphony No.2 and Sinfonia in Memoriam (BIS CD 695)
• Symphonies 11, 12 and 13 (BIS CD 728)

The only symphonies for which alternative versions have been recorded are numbers 7, 8 and 10.

Symphony No.7 was recorded by John Frandsen and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. This recording was released in the Dansk Musik Antologi (Danish Music Anthology) LP series, as Deutsche Grammophon DMA 018, around 1971. The record also includes compositions by Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.

For Symphony No.8 there are two alternative recordings.The first performance is by Jerzy Semkow and the Royal Danish Orchestra, in around 1967/8. There are at least 2 different editions of this recording on LP. Perhaps the most readily available is on the Turnabout label (TV 34168S) where it appears with Per Nørgård's Constellations. There is also an EMI edition (2903161) which just has the symphony. There is also reportedly a Fona edition (M7 for mono, S7 for stereo) but I have not confirmed its existence.

The second alternative recording of Symphony No.8 is performed by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. This was released in 2010, although it possibly dates back to a live performance in 2002. As far as I'm aware there is no CD version, but this is available on a number of download and streaming services.

Finally, Symphony No.10 was recorded in 1975 by Sixten Ehrling and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. This was released on a Caprice LP, CAP 1116, and appears with Sinfonia Breve by Gösta Nystroem.

An introduction: Some notes on record companies and recording availability

Vagn Holmboe was from Denmark. This is relevant to understanding that the great majority of recordings of Holmboe's music come from smaller record labels in Denmark, Sweden and to some extent Norway.

There are in fact recordings that were issued on more prominent labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Decca and EMI, but it seems that many of these were on LP and relatively few have ever found their way onto more modern formats, making them difficult to obtain.

The most readily available modern recordings are dominated by two record companies: Da Capo in Denmark (with a Holmboe page) and BIS in Sweden (with a complete list of recordings including Holmboe's music).  Some of the older CDs might now be out of print, but they are still not that difficult to find second-hand and everything is also available on download or streaming services. Recordings from these two companies will form the backbone of any modern Holmboe collection.

Other small Danish record labels have also contributed significantly to the Holmboe catalogue, such as Danacord (http://www.danacord.dk/index2.html), Danica and Classico. Purchasing CDs might be somewhat more difficult in these cases, but the recordings are available for download from sources such as iTunes or Classics Online or on streaming services like Spotify. Classico in particular seem to have done a very good job in this area. The Fona label also contributed a considerable number of Holmboe recordings in the LP era, but these do not seem to be available in any other format.


If you are looking for a particularly rare or obscure recording, such as one that was only ever issued on LP, then Denmark and nearby would seem to be a good place to look. In doing research for this discography, I found Plade-Klassikeren very helpful so that is one option I would suggest.

There is also the possibility that someone, somewhere has put what you're looking for on Youtube, although I would strongly encourage you, wherever possible, to listen to this music by methods that reward the musicians and provide them with an incentive to make more recordings. 

When talking about recordings, particularly rarer ones, I have tried to provide information about the catalogue number, performers and titles that would maximise the chances of finding a copy. Online stores are not entirely consistent with the way that they label classical music recordings, and different search terms might yield very different results.

An Introduction: Some notes on the cataloguing of Holmboe's music

Over the course of his long career, Vagn Holmboe wrote close to 400 separate works. He appears to have been fairly conscientious about cataloguing them himself, which is undoubtedly unhelpful.

During his maturity, Holmboe used the traditional opus numbers to list his works. There are 197 opuses in total, the last being the string quartet that Holmboe was working on at his death which was completed by a distinguished pupil. In contrast to some other composers, the opus number is generally a very good guide to when Holmboe composed a piece. It is also the number that is most commonly used on recordings, and so it is the primary method used in this discography along with a work's title.

There are, however, a few things to take note of. When an opus consisted of more than one work, Holmboe would use letters after the opus number to distinguish them. So, for example, the Two Border Ballads op.110 consist of two discrete works for choir, A Lyke-Wake Dirge (op.110a) and The Wee Wee Man (op.110b).

The relationship between works within an opus varies. Holmboe would sometimes reuse the same opus number when he undertook a major revision of a work. For example, the originally published version of the piano piece I Venti is now labelled as op.99a, with the revised version from a few years later known as op.99b. Holmboe also used the same opus number when arranging a work for different forces - op.103b is a version for choir of the same music as op.103a for chamber orchestra.

On some occasions Holmboe labelled a work with 'a' because he intended to add a 'b', but the second work did not eventuate. So for example Beatus vir is op.96a but there is no op.96b.

Not all of Holmboe's works have an opus number. There are works from his youth, which predate his decision to declare his career as a professional composer fully established with his opus 1. There are also pieces that he did not assign an opus number to, such as works written for a specific occasion, for children or for particular amateur groups.

To deal with this, Canadian musicologist Paul Rapoport developed a system of Meta numbers which comprehensively catalogues all of Holmboe's works, as far as possible in chronological order of initial composition. Occasionally this means the sequence is not the same as for opus numbers. The 1996 version of Rapoport's catalogue, The Compositions of Vagn Holmboe (published by Wilhelm Hansen), can be regarded as definitive for all but a few compositions and is a primary source relied on here.

Meta numbers are not used as often on recordings. The BIS record label, though, has made use of them alongside opus numbers, and they are provided in the discography as an aid to identifying a piece.

An Introduction: What's this all about?

Hello, and welcome to a Vagn Holmboe discography.

I suppose the first thing to address here is: who is Vagn Holmboe? Although if you've found this blog you might already know the answer to that question. Nevertheless, it's worth briefly providing an answer.

Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996) was a Danish classical composer, certainly held in high regard in local circles but still not all that widely known outside Scandinavia. His career was lengthy, with his earliest known compositions written in 1926. The composition he assigned as "opus 1" was a suite for orchestra written in 1935, and he continued to produce works at a steady rate for the next 60 years. He was still working on new compositions at his death.

The style of his music is often called 'neoclassical', as he continued to use traditional musical forms like symphonies in a period where many composers did not, and he did not follow some more avant garde trends. However, his musical language is definitely of the 20th century. It also, particularly in the earlier part of his career, has elements taken from folk music, both from Denmark and from Romania, the homeland of his wife, Meta May Holmboe (nee Graf). She was a pianist and also became a photographer - her images have been used on the covers of recordings of her husband's compositions.

Comparisons are often made between Holmboe and more well-known composers. My own preferred comparison is with Sibelius, as I think that they share a similar approach to developing musical material, allowing it to evolve in a gradual and organic fashion. It's also common to see comparisons to Bartók (partly from the folk element) and sometimes Hindemith. Another perhaps more surprising comparison is with Haydn, who was one of Holmboe's own favourite composers.

It will come as no surprise to say that I love Holmboe's music.

But why a discography? Partly it's a result of my somewhat obsessive nature. When I find a topic I'm interested in, I tend to want to investigate as far as possible. Partly it was because of frustration on my part at the difficult of finding the information I wanted, at least all in a convenient location. I've been aware of some resources for discovering news about Holmboe recordings, but every now and then I would stumble across something I hadn't heard of and then wonder what else I was missing.

But it's also in large part because it seemed doable.

This is both good and bad. The bad aspect is that there really aren't that many recordings of Holmboe's music, certainly not when you compare it to the seemingly endless stream of recordings of the most popular works of great composers like Mozart, Beethoven or Mahler. While there certainly are works of Holmboe's for which multiple recordings exist, there are also many for which there is only one readily available recording, or only one that I'm aware of despite extensive research into fairly obscure corners, or no known recording at all.

The good aspect is that a complete discography is both a manageable task and useful. It's possible to let people know what exists and for this to be meaningful information. The lack of competition also means that it's not really necessary to enter into discussion of which recording is the best one to have. In many cases, the best recording to have of a work is whichever one you can successfully get your hands on.

The form of this discography is likely to develop over time. A blog is perhaps not ideal, but I don't currently have enough knowledge to build a self-contained website. My initial plan is to take a thematic approach, dealing with groups of works such as orchestral, chamber or choral music, as this is the way the music most often appears on recordings. Over time I hope to develop other useful catalogues such as by chronology/opus number and by the composition's title, but meanwhile the Blogger search tool might also prove useful.

I hope that this project does prove useful to people. I also hope that if people find information that appears to be incomplete or inaccurate in some way, they will get in touch and contribute to making a better discography.