Subscribe to Dacapo's newsletter

Bo Holten

    composer
    conductor
    1948
    © Lars Skaaning

    Bo Holten is equally recognized as a conductor and composer. He was principal guest conductor of the BBC Singers from 1990 to 2006, and he conducted the Flemish Radio Choir in Brussels from 2006 to 2011, the last three seasons as chief conductor. In addition, he has guest conducted the Swedish Radio Choir, the Dutch Chamber Choir, the National Choir of Ireland and several other vocal ensembles.

    For almost 50 years, Bo Holten has been a driving force in the international movement for early music. His work with vocal polyphony has been groundbreaking in the Nordic countries, and he has brought many polyphonic masterpieces to their first performances in modern times. As a composer, he has written nine operas, most recently the Lutheran opera Schlagt sie tot! (released by Dacapo Records in 2021), five solo concertos, three symphonies, various orchestral works, chamber music and film music (for Lars von Trier and Bille August) and about 40 works for choir.

    • Nicolaus Gottschovius, Lupus Hellinck, Orlande de Lassus, Matthaeus le Maistre, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Mogens Pedersøn, Erasmus Rotenbucher, Arnolt Schlick, Ludwig Senfl, Johann Walter

      Reforming Hymns

      An exploration of the Danish Reformation hymnody from an international perspective.

    • Bo Holten

      The Emperor's New Clothes

      Et portrætalbum af Bo Holten med nyindspilninger af tre af hans mest populære koncertværker

    • J.P.E. Hartmann, Carl Nielsen, Thomas Laub, Thorvald Aagaard, Poul Schierbeck, Peter Heise, Bo Holten, Oluf Ring, Harald Balslev, Bo Gunge, Marianne Søgaard, Ernst A. Kiørboe, N.K. Madsen-Stensgaard, Haakon Elmer, Henrik Rung, Emil Hornemann

      Songs from the Borderland

      The history of the Danish-German borderland can be told through songs, here sung by Danish elite vocal ensemble Musica Ficta and conducted by Bo Holten.

    • Clemens non Papa, Conrad Rein, Thomas Stoltzer, Lucas Lossius, Johannes Alectorius

      Thomissøn's Easter

      Reconstruction of a Lutheran service in Ribe Cathedral, 1560, featuring Clemens non Papa’s ‘Missa Virtute magna’

    • Knudåge Riisager

      The Symphonic Edition Vol. 3

      Riisager’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony and other orchestral works from the 1940s. Witty, provocative and scintillating neoclassicism

    • Knudåge Riisager

      The Symphonic Edition Vol. 2

      Riisager’s orchestral music from the 1920s and 1930s is a virtuosic jumble of moods. Festive, cheeky and enthusiastic about the future

    • Bo Holten

      Venus' Wheel - Works for Choir

      New works by Bo Holten, one of the ablest choral composers and directors of our time, here fronting the Flemish Radio Choir

    • Erik Norby

      The Rainbow Snake - Orchestral Songs and Symphonic Works

      Orchestral magic in one of the most impressive orchestra pieces of the 1970s with sophisticated, almost Late Romantic sounds.

    • Poul Rovsing Olsen

      Piano Concerto and Orchestral Works

      Brilliant music from the 1950s by a composer with an unusually international outlook. A real discovery!

    • Knudåge Riisager

      The Symphonic Edition Vol. 1

      Blændende orkesterværker af Knudåge Riisager, der forenede et fuldtidsarbejde som embedsmand med en omfattende virksomhed som komponist

    • Carl Nielsen

      Cantatas

      First recordings of newly unveiled and festive works by the great Danish composer

    • Erik Bach

      Orkesterværker

      Classics and popular culture join hands in the orchestral music of Erik Bach

    • Emil Reesen

      Orchestral Works

      A Danish composer like no other: virtuosic, intriguing and bold

    • Emil Hartmann

      Orchestral Works

      Fuldmoden nationalromantik i største målestok

    • Thomas Koppel

      Los Angeles Street Concerto - Michala Petri plays Koppel

      The unique collaboration between the recorder virtuoso Michala Petri and the crossover composer Thom

    • Knudåge Riisager

      Ballet Music

      The Greenlandic orchestral explosion Qarrtsiluni and the masterpiece Moon Reindeer

    • Bo Holten

      The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

      Virtuoso, ecstatic choral music by a master of the art

    • Mogens Pedersøn

      Madrigals

      Denmark’s first international composer wrote his madrigals in 1608 as a pupil of Gabrieli

    • Medieval Music in Denmark

      The raw sound of the earliest Danish music from the 9th to the 15th century

    • Thomas Stoltzer, Melchoir Kugelmann, Jørgen Presten, Josquin de Prez, Nicolas Gombert, Heinrich Finck, Ludwig Senfl, Severin Tham

      Winds and Voices II

      Music from the Danish Court in the mid-1500s played from the original part-books

    • David Abell, Jørgen Presten, Paul Kugelmann, Melchoir Kugelmann, Heinrich Finck

      Winds and Voices. Music at the Court of King Christian III

      First recording of the unique festive repertoire for winds and voices from the Royal Danish Court around 1550

    randomness