A Vagn Holmboe discography

Holmboe wrote works for a wide variety of instruments and combinations of instruments. I have divided up Holmboe's chamber music into various categories simply for the convenience of keeping the discography entries relatively manageable. This entry deals with chamber music for strings, including works that also include a piano. The string quartets have their own entry. Chamber music including winds or brass are dealt with here.

Piano Trios

Holmboe's Piano Trio, op.64 (M.184) and Nuigen (Now-Again), op.129 (M.283) for piano trio both appear, performed by Trio Ondine, on a disc of Danish piano trios called Passage (Da Capo 8.226009). The same performance of Nuigen is included on Da Capo's Holmboe compilation The Key Masterpieces (Da Capo 8.226101-02).

There is another recording of the op.64 trio, by the Jalina Trio on a disc called Now! Denmark (Classico CLASSCD 485). The disc has also been included in a 10-disc box set called Spirales: Snapshots Of Contemporary Classical Music (Classico/Membran 233317).

Piano Quartet and String Trio

There is only one recording each of Ballata, op.159 (M.320) for piano quartet and Gioco, op.155 (M.316) for string trio. Both appear on Ensemble MidtVest's Chamber Music (I) (Da Capo 8.226073) along with three more of Holmboe's chamber works (which, because they include flute, are dealt with in this entry).

Violin music

There is only one disc available of Holmboe's works for violin and piano or for solo violin (Da Capo 8.226063). The violinist is Johannes Søe Hansen and the pianist is Christina Bjørkøe. The works on the disc are:

Violin Sonata No.1, op.2a (M.82)
Violin Sonata No.2, op.16 (M.112)
Violin Sonata No.3, op.89 (M.227)
Haiduc (Marauders), op.193 (M.363)
Bagatelle No.1 'Arabesque' (M.11)
Molto allegro scherzando for solo violin (M.15)
Reminiscenser (Reminiscences) for solo violin (M.347)

Sonata for solo cello

The Sonata for solo cello, op.101 (M.241) is one of Holmboe's more popular works, having been recorded at least four times.

The first recording was by Gert von Bülow, who also gave the work's premiere. His recording was included in the Dansk Musik Antologi series (EMI 063-39371 (DMA 045)), along with several other works for solo cello. As far as I'm aware this is only available on LP.

Da Capo has released two different recordings. the performance by Morton Zeuthen is included in his disc of solo cello works, L'Homme Armé (Da Capo 8.226007) and it also appears on The Key Masterpieces (Da Capo 8.226101-02).

Jonathan Slaato of Ensemble MidtVest performs the sonata on that group's Chamber Music (II) (Da Capo 8.226074). The other four Holmboe works included are dealt with in this entry.

Finally, Diane Porteous performs the sonata for solo cello on a disc called Music for cello and piano II (Dunelm Records DRD 0229). I am unsure whether it can be obtained on CD, but download and streaming versions appear to be widely available.

Somewhat akin to Brahms, Holmboe attempted a considerable number of string quartets before completing what is now officially his first. Once that hurdle was overcome, however, he wrote quartets throughout the rest of his life, and was working on one when he died. The recorded works are as follows:

String Quartet No.1, op.46 (M.159)
String Quartet No.2, op.47 (M.161)
String Quartet No.3, op.48 (M.165)
String Quartet No.4, op.63 (M.183)
String Quartet No.5, op.66 (M.188)
String Quartet No.6, op.78 (M.210)
String Quartet No.7, op.86 (M.224)
String Quartet No.8, op.87 (M.225)
String Quartet No.9, op.92 (M.228)
String Quartet No.10, op.102 (M.243)
String Quartet No.11 'Quartetto Rustico', op.111 (M.262)
String Quartet No.12, op.116 (M.269)
String Quartet No.13, op.124 (M.277)
String Quartet No.14, op.125 (M.278)
String Quartet No.15, op.135 (M.291)
String Quartet No.16, op.146 (M.306)
String Quartet No.17 'Mattinata' (Morning), op.152 (M.312)
String Quartet No.18 'Giornata' (Daytime), op.153 (M.314)
String Quartet No.19 'Serata' (Evening), op.156 (M.313)
String Quartet No.20 'Notturno' (Nighttime), op.160 (M.322)
Sværm (Swarm), string quartet version, op.190b (M.360)
Quartetto Sereno, op.197 (posth.) completed by Per Nørgård

Kontra Quartet recordings

There is only one complete set of the quartets, performed by the Kontra Quartet (Da Capo 8.207001).

The separate volumes are often still available and may even still be cheaper in some formats (at least some download stores appear to have failed to pass on the sharp discounting of the CD edition of the box set).

Volume 1: Quartets 1, 3 and 4 (Da Capo DCCD 9203)
Volume 2: Quartets 2, 5 and 6 (Da Capo 8.224026)
Volume 3: Quartets 7, 8 and 9 (Da Capo 8.224073)
Volume 4: Quartets 10, 11 and 12 (Da Capo 8.224101)
Volume 5: Quartets 13, 14 and 15 (Da Capo 8.224127)
Volume 6: Quartets 17, 19 and 20 (Da Capo 8.224128)
Volume 7: Quartets 16 and 18, Sværm and Quartetto Sereno (Da Capo 8.224131)

The recording of String Quartet No.4 also appears on Da Capo's compilation from its Holmboe recordings, The Key Masterpieces (Da Capo 8.226101-02), and one movement of the Quartetto Sereno appears on Two Centuries of Danish Classical Music: An Anthology in Sound (Danish Music Information Centre MICD 4).

Copenhagen Quartet (Københavns Strygekvartet) recordings

The other major sequence of recordings is on LP by the Copenhagen String Quartet, who gave the premiere of most of the quartets from no.7 onwards. However, their recordings only cover quartets 1 to 10, 15 and 16, and it appears they have never been made available in a more modern format.

Quartets 1 and 4 were originally released in about 1963 (Fona LPK 538 and LPKS 538, mono and stereo respectively). At some point, quartets 7 and 8 were also released (Fona LPK 543), and quartet no.8 also appeared with Nielsen's 4th quartet (Turnabout TV 34217S).

Quartets 1 to 10 were then released in the early 1970s on a series of 5 LPs with similar covers as follows:

Quartets 7 and 8 (Fona TF 108)
Quartets 1 and 4 (Fona TF 109)
Quartets 3 and 5 (Fona TF 110)
Quartets 2 and 6 (Fona TF 111)
Quartets 9 and 10 (Fona TF 133)

The recordings of quartets 1, 4, 7 and 8 appear to be the same as on the previous releases, but I am not certain of this. The recording of String Quartet No.1 was released again in the Dansk Musik Antologi Series, coupled with two of Holmboe's choral works (EMI DMA 076).

The recordings of quartets 15 and 16 were released on an EMI disc that was part of the Dansk Musik Antologi series (EMI 6C 065-39452 (DMA 048)).

Other recordings

As far as I'm aware, other recordings of the string quartets are only available on vinyl with one exception.

String Quartet No.1 was recorded by the Erling Bloch quartet, who premiered the work, on three 78 rpm discs (HMV DB 20137-39).

String Quartet No.2 was recorded in 1954 by the Musica-Vitalis Quartet (Decca LXT 5061/London LL 1078). It appeared with Nielsen's 2nd quartet (although it seems the London version has the spelling "Nielson"!).

In 2016 the recording was reissued by Forgotten Records (fr 1035), with the Nielsen quartet and also Nielsen's piano suite Den Luciferiske.

String Quartets 3, 4 and 6 were all recorded by the Koppel Quartet, who had also premiered these three works. Quartet No.3, recorded in 1954, was coupled with Nielsen's 4th quartet (Decca LXT 5092/London LL 1119). This pair of recordings have been included in a 2015 box set called DECCA SOUND - THE MONO YEARS 1944-1956 (Decca 4787946), making this the only performance other than the Kontra series that is definitely available in a more modern format.

Quartet No.4 was recorded in 1959 and coupled with a cello sonata by Hermann Koppel (the member of the quartet was Julius Koppel) on an LP called Music at Louisiana (LRLP 3003)

Quartet no.6 was coupled with Quartetto Brioso, op.21 by Per Nørgård (Wilhelm Hansen LPWH 3011).

Finally, String Quartet No.11 was recorded by the Scandinavian String Quartet who also premiered the work. It was again coupled with Nielsen's 4th quartet (EMI 6E 061-38119).