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Nightingale String Quartet is continuing their highly praised Holmboe series

© Julia Severinsen

Nightingale String Quartet is continuing their highly praised Holmboe series

On 27 May, the second album in the series with Vagn Holmboe's complete string quartets recorded by the Nightingale String Quartet will be released.

New release
17 May 2022

The Danish Nightingale String Quartet has plunged into the recording of one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe.

In January 2021, the quartet launched the series with the highly praised String Quartets Vol. 1. The album was selected for Gramophone Magazine's Recordings of the Year 2021 with the words: "The Nightingales bring light and shade to this marvelous music". The quartet received top grades in several other media and was named "Holmboe's new ambassadors" by the Danish newspaper Information

On Friday 27 May, the next album in the series will be released, presenting energetic, precise and poetic interpretations of Holmboe's String Quartets Nos. 2, 14 and the Quartetto Sereno. You can already now listen to three pre-released tracks from the album on Apple Music. Remember also to pre-save the album to your streaming service to have it added automatically to your library on the release date.

A life with string quartets

Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996) was composing nonstop for nearly three quarters of a century, but no other genre preoccupied him to the same extent as the string quartet. From he was a teenager and until he was on his deathbed, he composed over 30 works for string quartet, 22 of which are included in his official catalogue of works. 

Holmboe's quartets are captivating, bold works composed with spirit, poise and craft that can truly stand comparison with the greatest cycles of the twentieth century. The quartets are characterized by an exploratory tonality and rhythmic verve, a musical idiom is anchored in the Nordic landscape, but also reveals his great interest in East European folk music.

Quartet completed by Per Nørgård 

The new album presents three string quartets by Holmboe: String Quartet No. 2 from 1949 has the subtitle ‘In Memoriam Béla Bartók’, and is full of elements which pay homage to the Hungarian master. String Quartet No. 14 is composed more than 25 years later, but still there are basic features in common
arising from Holmboe’s great artistic integrity. The quartet has great density with beautiful order in its proportions, which is typical for his later works.

The album is completed with Quartetto sereno, Op. 197 posth. Holmboe worked on the quartet in his last days, but did not manage to complete it. Quartetto sereno was instead completed by his pupil, Per Nørgård, who had formed a relationship with the composer and his wife which Nørgård described as ‘symbiotic’.

‘I had the pleasure of completing his last quartet. I had the feeling – indirectly – that he wanted that. Indirectly, because we never, when I visited him in the hospital or at home, talked about his dying. But he talked about the last quartet – in detail! About “something” he could not find the solution to, explained Nørgård. ‘And when his family asked if I would finish the quartet, I thought, ‘I’ll try …!’’.

Nightingale String Quartet

This is not the first time that Nightingale String Quartet takes on the complete string quartets of a Danish composer. The quartet seriously made its mark on the international scene with its recording of all of Rued Langgaard’s string quartets, which appeared in 2012-14. The releases led to numerous fine reviews and prizes, and the quartet was the first ensemble ever to be chosen as ‘Young Artist of the Year’ at Gramophone Awards 2014.

The Nightingale String Quartet became internationally recognized with the recordings of Rued Langgaard's string quartets. Now the quartet is venturing out on the recording of all of the string quartets by Vagn Holmboe.
  • Vagn Holmboe

    String Quartets Vol. 2

  • Vagn Holmboe

    String Quartets Vol. 1

  • Rued Langgaard

    The String Quartets

  • Rued Langgaard

    String Quartets Vol. 3

  • Rued Langgaard

    String Quartets Vol. 2

  • Rued Langgaard

    String Quartets Vol. 1