VAGN HOLMBOE (1909-1996): String Quartets, Vol. 2 - No. 2, Op. 47, No. 14, Op. 125 and Quartetto Sereno, Op. 197 (ed. Per Nørgård [b.1932]).

Description: Volume 2 of this fresh, exciting series exploring the endlessly fascinating cycle of quartets by one of the major proponents of the genre in the 20th century. Holmboe was already well practiced in writing quartets by the mid-1940s, but he discarded 10 or so that preceded his acknowledged First of 1949 (01W009). The 2nd was written almost immediately afterwards. Holmboe's style is his own, and remarkably consistent throughout his long career, but traces of his four main influences are all over this work; Nielsen's energy and long-breathed melodic memorability; Haydn's clarity and economy; a certain harmonic astringency from Bartók (and also the work’s symmetrical five-movement form); and the rhythms and modalities of Eastern European folk music. The first movement strides into view and embarks on a lively narrative like the account of a journey's beginning, with some drama along the way. The second movement is pensive and nocturnal in mood; the central scherzo lively and brittle, bursting with the uninhibited energy of a folk dance; the brief, muted second slow movement a gently grieving elegy. The finale is clearly inspired by folk music of the Balkans, with its 5/8 meter, stamping and clapping accents (not literally!), and brash dissonance. No.14 (1975) is condensed and compact even though it traverses six contrasting movements. The first three movements are linked; played throughout with mutes, the first is a "dreamlike" fantasia, in intertwining counterpoint; then a scurrying sotto voce scherzo; then a more extrovert fast movement. The fourth and fifth movements are also linked; a more emotionally open answer to the first movement with a similar polyphonic texture, and a second scherzo, scampering and pizzicato throughout. The breezy, energetic finale welcomes the light of day, bringing together ideas from the previous movements, now in bold colors. Holmboe was working on Quartetto sereno at the very end of his life. He dated the first movement, permeated by autumnal leave-taking, two months before his death. He did not finish the second movement, which was completed by his former student, with whom he had reconciled after being musically "estranged" for thirty years, Per Nørgård, who described working on the sketches as "an intense experience". The movement begins energetically, in contrast to the first, but halfway through it changes to a serenely beautiful elegiac Adagio, which becomes increasingly hesitant and faltering as it falls silent. Nightingale String Quartet.