Vagn Holmboe's music was profoundly influenced by Eastern European folk music, which he encountered through his Romanian pianist wife, Meta Graf, during ethnomusicological field studies.
Recording & Production
This album is part of a 'colossal project' by the Nightingale String Quartet to record Vagn Holmboe's complete string quartets, with the first album receiving rave reviews and an 'Editor's Choice' from Gramophone.
Composition History
Vagn Holmboe discarded all ten string quartets he had written before 1949, considering his String Quartet No. 1 (subtitled 'In Memoriam Béla Bartók') as his true first work in the genre.
Performer Biography
The Nightingale String Quartet, based in Copenhagen, was the first ensemble ever to receive Gramophone's 'Young Artist of the Year Award' in 2014.
Composition History
Vagn Holmboe's final work, Quartetto sereno, was incomplete at his death and finished by his former pupil, Per Nørgård, to whom Holmboe had dedicated an earlier quartet.
Composer Biography
Vagn Holmboe, the composer, originally wanted to be a painter but his father, who knew too many 'ill-fated painters', steered him towards music.
Composer Biography
Vagn Holmboe was accepted into the Royal Danish Academy of Music by the national composer Carl Nielsen, who reviewed Holmboe's string quartet manuscript.
You might also enjoy...
Durosoir: Quatuors a cordes
American String Quartets 1900-1950, Vol. 1
Arnold Cooke: Complete String Quartets, Volume One
