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Bo Holten

    composer
    conductor
    1948
    Agnete Schlichtkrull

    Bo Holten (conductor) is equally recognized as a conductor and composer. In 1979 he founded Ars Nova Copenhagen which he conducted until 1996, when he founded the vocal ensemble Musica Ficta for whom he is conducter, composer and artistic director. Holten regularly conducts the best choirs in Europe; from 1990 to 2006 he was one of the principal conductors of the BBC Singers, and from 2008 to the end of 2010 he was the chief conductor of the Flemmish Radio Choir in Brussels.

    Bo Holten's work with Danish orchestras is constantly on the increase and has earned him praise for recorded interpretations of music by Carl Nielsen, Frederick Delius, Thomas Koppel, Emil Hartmann, Knudåge Riisager and Emil Reesen. As a composer Holten has produced no fewer than six operas, five solo concertos, two symphonies, various orchestral and chamber works, film music and some 35 choral pieces. In 2002 Dacapo issued a CD with a selection of his music for voices a cappella sung by the BBC Singers. In the spring of 2009 Holten had a major success at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen with his opera The Visit of the Royal Physician, which he conducted himself, and which is available on DVD from Dacapo.

    • 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