I collect cello concerti. That's really what I would consider my "area", if I had one, of classical music, since I've played the cello basically all my life. Not so much recently, but I'm making an effort to change that. Anyway, one of the CDs I ordered a while ago from Archiv Music was a recording pretty low in the BIS catalogue, BIS CD-78: Vagn Holmboe Cello Concerto. It's a fair piece at best; I've listened through it three times, perhaps, since buying the CD. My protocol states that the CD is immediately ripped to iTunes, the cello concerto listened to, and the other tracks dumped into the master Classical playlist for rotation (e.g. randomization).
It was a mere ten minutes ago that iTunes' faithful randomizer landed me on a choral work by Vagn Holmboe: Benedic Domino, Op. 59. It's a delightful piece, although it doesn't sound particularly modern, but I've never been one to bash a composer for failure to use a modern idiom, so any lack in modernism didn't, for me, diminish the value of the piece. Also on the CD is a fine little 12-minute brass quintet, Op. 79, certainly worth a spot in performence (perhaps next to one of Gunther Schuller's); as well as Triade Op. 123 for Trumpet and Organ, an odd piece that has its moments. But certainly, the hidden gem is Vagn Holmboe's Benedic Domino; for fans of vocal/choral music it is absolutely worth listening to.
And, to continue what appears to be an emerging theme of insomnia treatments, Doxylamine seems not to affect me in the least. As for the picture, a google search for "Holmboe" came up with that on something like the third page. Somehow (ha ha) I liked it better than all the other pictures, so posted it was.
