{"title":"Iceland Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eorchestra.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIcelandic national orchestra with a notable focus on contemporary Nordic and Icelandic composers, including Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Daníel Bjarnason. Also records Arvo Pärt. Repertoire skews atmospheric and contemporary. 'European Itage' corrected to allowed tag.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"jon-leifs-saga-symphony-osmo-vanska-iceland-80693","title":"Jón Leifs: Saga Symphony \/ Osmo Vänskä, Iceland Symphony","description":"Classical Music","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44625277190378,"sku":"7318590007303","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2262950_6f252436-9e0b-42f9-a72f-273e0cce773e.jpg?v=1786741697"},{"product_id":"skalkottas-mayday-spell-bass-concerto-etc-christodoulou-240724","title":"Skalkottas: Mayday Spell, Bass Concerto, Etc \/ Christodoulou","description":"\u003cp\u003eIncludes work(s) by Nikos Skalkottas. Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Nikos Christodoulou. 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Like other musicians, he was forced by the lack of opportunity in Iceland to study abroad but, unlike others, he was able to return and work as the Organist at Reykjavík Cathedral to support his activities as a composer. His music for the early Ibsen play The Feast at Solhaug, performed in 1943 in Norwegian on Norway’s National day, was his theatrical début. This was followed in 1945 by the more ambitious score for Úr Myndabók Jónasar Hallgrímssonar. Jórunn Viðar started her advanced training at Ísólfsson’s conservatory, followed by studies in Berlin and then at the Juilliard School. In New York she met a fellow Icelander and dance student, Sigríður Ármann. The two of them collaborated on Eldur (Fire), which would be the first ballet for the new National Theatre in Reykjavík, presented in May 1950. Their second collaboration for the National Theatre, Ólafur Liljurós, opened in 1952 and is based on a traditional Nordic legend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012571549930,"sku":"095115531921","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4182404-2961154.jpg?v=1786636070"},{"product_id":"arvo-part-complete-symphonies","title":"Arvo Part: Complete Symphonies","description":"The four symphonies of Arvo Part were composed over a span of forty-five years, and bear little or no relationship with one another - four individual pieces that represent his output at separate parts of his creative journey. The First Symphony was composed in 1963, shortly after Part had graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory. It's two-movement structure looks to the baroque - Canons and a Prelude and Fugue - but the harmonic language is extremely advanced, giving off a distinct whiff of twelve-tone serialism. The Second Symphony, from 1966, in three movements, again employs a combination of serialism and textures hinting at Penderecki and the Polish school. Also in three movements, the Third Symphony (1971) reflects the time Part spent in the late 1960s studying chant and mediaeval music. Symphony No. 4 'Los Angeles' came much later (in 2007 - 08) and now the style is directly inspired by sacred music. Part took as his models two great litanies of the Orthodox Church: the Canon of Repentance, and the Canon to the Holy Guardian Angel. Unusually scored for strings, harp, timpani, and percussion, this final work is also cast in three movements. With her elegant, expressive body language, natural stage presence, and infectious musicality, Eva Ollikainen is one of the leading conductors of our time. This former student of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2020.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46012597633258,"sku":"0095115537220","price":19.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4491353-3522659.jpg?v=1786672681"},{"product_id":"dacapo-consgisladottir-orchestral-works","title":"Bára Gísladóttir: Orchestral Works [Book + CD] \/ Ollikainen, Iceland Symphony Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eBára Gísladóttir (b. 1989) considers sounds, instruments, and ensembles as living organisms. In COR, Hringla, and VAPE, the Icelandic composer and double bassist engages with the largest musical organism of all: the symphony orchestra. Inspired by death metal or techno as much as by Scelsi or Penderecki, the foreboding atmosphere of her music is cut through with irony, puns, and black humor. After all, organisms themselves – especially human bodies – contain the potential for both comic excess and self-annihilation. In these three works, we follow Gísladóttir’s fascination with language and coincidence; we hear an uncompromising interrogation of the body’s excesses and ailments; and, most of all, we see life, vaporous and between states, neither dark nor light.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dacapo Classical","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012632269034,"sku":"747313695928","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4327376-3148485.jpg?v=1786645916"},{"product_id":"alfven-complete-symphonies-suites-rhapsodies-niklas-willen","title":"Alfvén: Complete Symphonies; Suites; Rhapsodies \/ Willén","description":"\u003cp\u003eHugo Alfvén’s music has always been close to the hearts of the Swedish people, and ranks among some of the most significant and representative of the spirit of the country. Alfvén is known as a cheerful entertainer in compositions such as Den forlorade sonen (‘The Prodigal Son’), but his symphonies reveal a different, more elegiac and often more dramatic side. The success of Alfvén’s symphonies fundamentally changed Sweden’s musical climate and, with a substantial collection of further orchestral music representing his gloriously rich and varied style, these recordings sweep us into the remarkable world of Scandinavian landscape and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePast praise for previously released volumes included in this set\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSymphony No. 5; Andante Religioso \/ Willén, Norrköping Symphony\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Norrköping Symphony plays with confidence and fervor. Alfvén was nothing if not expansive, and if his formal touch was never all that deft, he did know how to fill up time with arresting ideas, glowingly scored. A serenely lovely Andante religioso makes a perfect encore, one that puts the finale of the symphony’s straining for heroic effect in its proper perspective in the gentlest and most affecting way. Naxos’ sonics for this production are also excellent. Very enjoyable indeed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Prodigal Son, Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 11 \/ Willén, Ireland NSO\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eListen as Niklas Willén teases the skittish polka from “The Prodigal Son” ballet suite, or steers his players through the vehement fugue that rounds out his Symphony No. 2, and you’ll appreciate why this release commands unreserved praise. These works come to life in Willén’s hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWillén’s reading of the Symphony's Andante conjures a huge range of textures and sonorities, with the dark-hued horns and sombre lower winds particularly impressive. The players give all they have in music that’s probably new to them, and that extra effort is just one of the factors that makes these performances so compelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- ClassicsToday.com (\u003cstrong\u003e10\/10\u003c\/strong\u003e; David Hurwitz)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSymphony No. 3; Skerries; Dalecarlien Rhapsody \/ Willén, RNSO\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you haven’t heard these charming, folk-music-inspired gems of late Romantic music, then here’s an excellent place to start. The Symphony also sounds consistently fresh and lively, though it’s hard to shake the impression that the composer was happier writing programmatic works in free form than in indulging the more intellectual rigors of symphonic development. In Willén’s sympathetic hands, however, none of its four movements outstays its welcome. In any event, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra plays with confidence and evident enjoyment, and the recorded sound is very good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- ClassicsToday.com\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012643049706,"sku":"747313701537","price":54.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4144552-2920398.jpg?v=1786665650"},{"product_id":"thorvaldsdottir-archora-aion","title":"Thorvaldsdottir: ARCHORA | AIŌN \/ Ollikainen, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNote: this double-disc release contains both a CD and a Blu-ray Audio disc. The former will play on any CD player, and the latter will play on devices with Blu-ray read capability.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnna \u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eÞorvaldsdóttir writes: \"\u003c\/span\u003eThe core inspiration behind ARCHORA centres around the notion of a primordial energy and the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm – a world both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The piece revolves around the extremes on the spectrum between the Primordia and its resulting afterglow – and the conflict between these elements that are nevertheless fundamentally one and the same. The halo emerges from the Primordia but they have both lost perspective and the connection to one another, experiencing themselves individually as opposing forces rather than one and the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"AIŌN is inspired by the abstract metaphor of being able to move freely in time, of being able to explore time as a space that you inhabit rather than experiencing it as a one-directional journey through a single dimension. Disorienting at first, you realize that time extends simultaneously in all directions and whenever you feel like it, you can access any moment. As you learn to control the journey, you find that the experience becomes different by taking different perspectives - you can see every moment at once, focus on just some of them, or go there to experience them. You are constantly zooming in and out, both in dimension and perspective. Some moments you want to visit more than others, noticing as you revisit the same moment, how your perception of it changes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"As with my music generally, the inspiration behind ARCHORA and AIŌN is not something I am trying to describe through the music or what the music is “about”, as such. Inspiration is a way to intuitively tap into parts of the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the music I am writing each time. It is a fuel for the musical ideas to come into existence, a tool to approach and work with the fundamental materials, the ideas and sensations, that provide and generate the initial spark to the music - the various sources of inspiration are ultimately effective because I perceive qualities in them that I find musically captivating. I do often spend quite a bit of time finding ways to articulate some of the important elements of the musical ideas or thoughts that play certain key roles in the origin of each piece but the music itself does not emerge from a verbal place, it emerges as a stream of consciousness that flows, is felt, sensed, shaped and then crafted. So inspiration is a part of the origin story of a piece, but in the end the music stands on its own.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThorvaldsdottir is ultimately more concerned with inner than outer forms, and – as conductor Eva Ollikainen and the ISO reveal in this thrilling release – finding an organic unity which stems from the perpetual transformation and refinement of material at often microscopic levels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eArchora\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2022) and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAiōn\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2018) are fundamentally abstract, unleashing primordial energies in shifting layers of sound to different yet related ends. The former explicitly aims to explore these energies alongside ‘the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm…both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere.’ Quasi-Stravinskian conflicts abound in one, tautly written movement; through subterranean drones and pulses overlaid with chord clusters and brittle, percussive slaps. \u003cem\u003eAiōn\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2018) appears to pre-echo this material in longer and more overtly symphonic guise[.]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn effect, both works demonstrate the inseparability of time and space – and their key lies finally in Thorvaldsdottir’s extraordinarily subtle, constantly shifting details of foreground and background.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- BBC \u003cem\u003eMusic\u003c\/em\u003e Magazine (\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e★\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e★\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e★\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e★\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e★\u003c\/b\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBoth pieces confirm the impression that Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Eva Ollikainen, its chief conductor, offer glowing performances that have been beautifully captured by Sono Luminus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- New York Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis music is quite compelling when played as cleanly as it is here by what might be called the home team, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra…This is a good introduction to the work of this increasingly popular orchestral composer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e-- AllMusic.com\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Iceland Symphony Orchestra, led by Eva Ollikainen in \u003cem\u003eArchora\/Aion\u003c\/em\u003e and Daníel Bjarnason in \u003cem\u003eAtmospheriques\u003c\/em\u003e heroically delivers performances of a group of totally exposed works in which each section of the orchestra is asked to play immensely complex music. The engineering of both albums is impeccable, the liner notes clear and concise. The results are nothing short of impressive.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e-- All About the Arts\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"bodytext\"\u003eEva Ollikainen [conducts on this] Thorvaldsdottir album, which pairs\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eARCHORA\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2022) with the three-part\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAION\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(2018). Both composer and conductor have significant ties to the ISO: whereas she holds the title of Composer-in-Residence, he's the orchestra's Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, positions he assumed in 2020. According to the composer, the inspiration behind\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eARCHORA\u003c\/em\u003e, which the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Ollikainen premiered in August 2022 at the BBC Proms, comes from the idea of primordial energy as well as “the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm—a world both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere at the same time.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"bodytext\"\u003eCertainly that primordial character is felt during the ISO's twenty-one-minute rendering, which blossoms from its opening moments into a dense, enigmatic mass whose orchestral tendrils intricately entwine. Again, melody is more hinted at than explicitly stated, with fragments from different instruments coalescing into a whole ever threatening to combust. Glissandos sometimes punctuate the opaque clusters of strings, woodwinds, and horns that make up the ever-morphing mass. Despite the music's heaviness, mobility is very much present as the material moves fluidly through contrasting episodes of volume and mood, its unfolding rather akin to the unregulated flow of impressions coursing through consciousness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bodytext\"\u003eAs powerful as \u003cem\u003eARCHORA\u003c\/em\u003e is, it's dwarfed, at least in terms of duration, by \u003cem\u003eAION\u003c\/em\u003e, whose three movements total forty-one minutes. Here, time—so critical a dimension of Thorvaldsdottir's music—expands and contracts as the music splinters, its movements less predicated on the conventional idea of one-directional development and more on the abstract concept of a centre that's collapsed and catapulting its parts into space. Epic rumblings and agitated, even violent activity surface during “Morphosis”; with ascending and descending flute patterns accenting string drones, the opening of “Transcension” suggests it'll be peaceful, but disturbance eventually emerges in the form of aggressive string plucks and thunderous drums. Harrowing at times too is “Entropia,” which works its way through disorienting passages of cyclonic swirl, percussive clatter, and blustery horns before exiting in a controlled blaze. Words like \u003cem\u003eoceanic\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eengulfing\u003c\/em\u003e help characterize the work's portentous soundworld, as well as Thorvaldsdottir's work in general.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bodytext\"\u003e-- Textura\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"CD + Blu-Ray","offer_id":46012666970346,"sku":"053479226808","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4202514-2973754.jpg?v=1786635302"},{"product_id":"the-grotesque-the-sublime","title":"The Grotesque \u0026 The Sublime","description":"Daníel Bjarnason is a hub-like figure in the group of composers who could be said to constitute a First Icelandic School. But he also stands slightly apart from his peers. As the nation's foremost conductor, he has premiered and recorded works by it's central protagonists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir and others (notably on the Sono Luminus series Emergence, Recurrence and Occurrence). But Bjarnason's own music has long sprawled beyond the borders of the school's distinct aesthetic and incorporated non-abstract forms such as opera, dance and film scores. While some Icelandic orchestral music enacts a gradual transformation on a vaporous orchestra, akin to the shifting shape and colour of a North Atlantic cloud, Bjarnason's formative orchestral works often cleave to a solid, defined musical object which might be distorted or obscured before emerging again intact. His music has never shied away from the slow, drone-lagged music of Icelandic archetype but it has also used more varied tempi and more urgent rhythmic profiles. It has also deployed different time scales in parallel - notably in works such as Emergence and From Space I Saw the Earth, in which planes of music operating at different speeds momentarily sync. This brings to his music a sense of what the late Danish composer Per Nørgård described as 'the timeless forces of existence - nature in the broadest sense.' Those works had their roots in breakthrough concertos for cello and piano, Bow to String and Processions, both of which thrive on the process of expanding strong, fertile material by zooming deep in or stretching wide out - a more thematic, less spectral approach than that of Icelandic fashion but one that still sees Bjarnason reveling in the properties of sound itself. - Andrew Mellor","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray + CD","offer_id":46012678471914,"sku":"053479228703","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4469973-3473492.jpg?v=1786668704"},{"product_id":"thorvaldsdottir-aerial","title":"Aerial \/ Anna Thorvaldsdottir","description":"\u003cp\u003e“I am really excited about our upcoming release of Aerial on Sono Luminus this year! The album was originally released in 2014 on Deutsche Grammophon and now the journey of the album continues with Sono Luminus in a remastered version by their very own Daniel Shores. The orchestra piece Aeriality is at the center of the album which also features Into Second Self, Ró, Tactility, Trajectories and Shades of Silence. It was quite a personal journey to record these pieces in Iceland, working with long time collaborators such as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Caput Ensemble and Nordic Affect. It is such a joy to continue the collaboration with Sono Luminus that we have grown for many years now with releases of, now, all my portrait albums to date! The new release of Aerial will also feature percussion quartet Aura performed by the LA Percussion Quartet.” (Anna Þorvaldsdóttir)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has emerged as one of the most talented Nordic composers in recent years. Her voice is quite different from that of other contemporary composers, and thankfully her orchestral music has become widely performed and recorded by the leading orchestras world-wide and acclaimed by reviewers and the musical public alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe opening work on this disc - Into-Second Self - is for seven brass instruments and percussion. It opens with rumbling, whistling effects as if we are in a dark threatening tunnel, creating an atmospheric roar of sound with the percussion generating what is like an ancient Celtic chant on the horns and trombones. This is heard in an unearthly harmony by evoking sounds of aircraft and loud thuds on the drums, a shimmering of bells becoming increasingly loud then settles into silence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten for flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, two violins, viola and cello, Rö, opens with a jangle on percussion and piano chords aided by the bass clarinet and the strings harmony. We hear sudden noises against the wind of the flute and bass clarinet with a hint of an idea on the wind against the loud disharmony on the percussion - all broken by a bagpipe-like noise and a twanging idea, all of which creates a world of mystery, yet is brought to a terrible halt with thuds on the keyboard before a slow descent into quiet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnder the baton of Ilan Volkov, Aeriality opens with a loud chord from the orchestra offering exciting harmony, and the entry of the piano is heard against strings and woodwind babbling in a dynamic pulse - as if we are hearing the movement of great bodies in space, or on the earth - is this the cosmos? There is a constant flow of sound and dissonance with occasional noises and murmuring on the strings, growing steadily louder with roars from the brass and a shrill woodwind theme emerge together in a great potent idea leading to a low-pitched drone of noise against a twitter of woodwind invoking birds calling out in the wind, yet the sudden crashes on the percussion are like chains breaking against rocks then disappear into silence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTactility opens with a mysterious hovering sound on harp and percussion and a dull throbbing sound, yet the harp hints at Japanese music, interrupted by thuds on the drums, and a rustling sound pattering away in the background, then we hear the effect of the wind blowing against the window ending with an inflection on the harp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComposed for piano and electronics, Trajectories opens with a stirring rise in noise and an enormous build in tension with chimes of momentous chords on the piano, lending the impression of ‘something trying to escape’, all in dreadful harmonies, dissonance and a ripple of piano chords repeated amid the chime of a clock, rippling and tapping on the keyboard and an all-powerful throbbing noise before suddenly dying away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe composer uses an ensemble of baroque instruments for her Shades of Silence, which opens with high shrill notes on strings, creating an amazing acoustic effect enhanced by the pizzicato strings in rising and falling dissonance, of sharply brutal music on the harpsichord that strangely creates an almost magical effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAura, the final piece here, written for four percussionists, starts with an eerie atmosphere of a strange whispering ringing on the percussion with a chiming xylophone and ringing tubular bells, creating an amazingly catatonic effect, against a rustling, loud throbbing noise ‘like whales in the sea.’ For anyone unaware of this young Icelandic composer, this disc will prove an enlightening experience, and can only whet one’s appetite for her more recent compositions. Thorvaldsdottir herself was responsible for the engineering on four of the seven recordings, adding another credit to her talents; the sound quality is splendidly ambient throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- MusicWeb International (Gregor Tassie)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012679848170,"sku":"053479702524","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4085600-2830731_2192e077-87a4-4409-8227-a06ced4d4e85.jpg?v=1786690934"},{"product_id":"thorvaldsdottir-rhizoma-justin-dehart-caput-ensemble-iceland-396878","title":"Thorvaldsdottir: Rhizoma \/ Dehart, Caput Ensemble, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe present release is the exciting Sono Luminus reissue of Anna’s Thorvaldsdottir’s now classic first album. Long out of print, Rhizoma will now be available once again, both physically and on all digital platforms. The original release has been completely remastered by Daniel Shores at Sono Luminus. This release includes the Sono Luminus recording of “Dreaming”, recorded in 2016 and featured on the album ‘Recurrence?’ Rhizoma was a press sensation when released back in 2011. \"[The music on Rhizoma] is meticulously crafted and beautifully put together. The result is enchanting and poetic.\" (Jónas Sen, Icelandic Newspaper \u003cem\u003eFréttablaðið\u003c\/em\u003e) “The album is full of soundscapes that fill the head of the listener. ... Their bare nature makes them incredibly intriguing, something that is difficult to achieve, as it is a thin rope to walk on.” (Elena Saavedra Buckley, \u003cem\u003eSequenza21\u003c\/em\u003e) “Rhízoma is modern composition at its very best” (Richard Allen, \u003cem\u003eA closer listen\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell0_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRhízōma\u003c\/em\u003e was originally issued on another pioneering American label, Innova, back in 2012. That disc was the first to be exclusively dedicated to Thorvaldsdottir’s music. There is one important difference with the reboot though: the orchestral essay \u003cem\u003eDreaming\u003c\/em\u003e has been re-recorded. This svelte new account benefits from the superb acoustics of Reykjavík’s splendid new Harpa Concert Hall.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell0_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell0_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eThis re-boot of \u003cem\u003eRhízōma\u003c\/em\u003e is unmissable. Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music might well oscillate between extremes of sensitivity and ferocity, but hers is an utterly independent and authentic voice. Hats off to Sono Luminus for continuing to recognise her stature and document her inexorable progress.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell0_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003e– MusicWeb International \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013035217130,"sku":"053479701824","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3856798-2630612.jpg?v=1786712621"},{"product_id":"occurrence-kuusisto-caroli-bjarnason-iceland-symphony","title":"Occurrence - Music of Icelandic Composers Vol. 3 \/ Bjarnason, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Occurrence is the third, and at least for now the last, in a hugely illuminating series devoted to works by contemporary Icelandic composers, as performed by Iceland’s 70-year-old national orchestra. Speaking for myself – and surely for many others, as well – the series has been a milestone project, one that any conscientious collector of symphonic music simply must have on the shelf. Across three albums now, Sono Luminus has capitalized shrewdly on swelling global interest in the music of Daniel Bjarnason and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, using their works as a means by which to introduce seven more composers with original, substantial voices. Three of the composers represented on Occurrence return from previous installments in the series. In addition to Bjarnson – who also has served as an insightful, sympathetic conductor throughout – we hear new works from Þuri´ður Jonsdottir, whose Flow and Fusion opened the initial disc, Recurrence, and from Haukur Tomasson, whose Piano Concerto No. 2 was a highlight of the second release in the series, Concurrence. These repeat engagements prove serendipitous, showing off fresh facets of these newly familiar creators. One, Bjarnason’s own Violin Concerto, scarcely requires introduction, having proved its merits and attractions already on concert platforms around the globe since its 2017 world premiere at the Hollywood Bowl. Pekka Kuusisto, the violinist for whom the piece was written, demonstrates his consummate skill as a technician, a melodist, a collaborator and – not least – a whistler, and the orchestral accompaniment, no surprise, is vivid and alert.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003e‘Recurrence’, ‘Concurrence’, and now ‘Occurrence’. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s three-disc survey of new orchestral music from its homeland has reached its end point and it’s easy to conclude that no country on earth has reinvented the language of the symphony orchestra on such distinctive and locally relevant terms as this one.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eSo much so that a Canadian such as Veronique Vaka can fall for Iceland and cook up a piece like Lendh, an extraordinary canvas with an umbilical connection to the landscape of the place. Lendh is a marvel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eHaukur Tómasson’s\u003c\/span\u003e In Seventh Heaven is full of ear-catching orchestration, as raw and unconventional as Jón Leifs’s, ulterior harmonies tugging while colours shift as rapidly as the Icelandic weather above. The orchestra’s handling of the exposed passages for high strings and characterised woodwind-writing demonstrate technically how far it has come in the past decade alone.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eÞuríður Jónsdóttir's Flute Concerto, \"Flutter\", features sampled insect noises and other electronics, including a promotion of the ubiquitous Nordic pedal note to a general hum. Structurally it feels like a road movie – a journey through textural landscapes more than anything developmental.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eConductor Daníel Bjarnason own Violin Concerto has dedicatee Pekka Kuusisto’s puckish spirit all over it, from the infectious soloist whistling (used to moving effect when it returns late on as the violin’s sole accompanist) to the grunge-improvisatory elements and clear-cut, eyemoistening tune.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\" id=\"ctl00_MainContent_gvReviews_cell6_12_ASPxPopupControl1_ASPxLabel2\"\u003eAs an appendix we hear from a dead composer, Iceland’s great 12-tone pioneer Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson (1938-2005). His Adagio for strings and percussion of 1980 marked a shift in style following the death of his wife and a battle with the bottle. This is a bleak, translucent elegy that places unison sheets of wannabe-lyrical string melody over held pedal notes and drones, ending with a sudden rush of air as the last pedal falls away. A quizzical gesture to wrap up an outstanding and historic series, one that affects the mind as much as the ears. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dxeBase_PlasticBlue\"\u003e– Gramophone\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":46013076537578,"sku":"053479224323","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3890483-2660847.jpg?v=1789073457"},{"product_id":"norwegian-classical-favorites-vol-2-engeset-iceland-95374","title":"Norwegian Classical Favorites Vol 2 \/ Engeset, Iceland So","description":"\u003cp\u003eIncludes work(s) by Geirr Tveitt, various composers.  Ensemble: Iceland Symphony Orchestra.  Conductor: Bjarte Engeset.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013140304106,"sku":"747313201822","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/639744.jpg?v=1786695244"},{"product_id":"leifs-hekla-and-other-orchestral-works-shao-183687","title":"Leifs: Hekla And Other Orchestral Works \/ Shao, Iceland So","description":"Classical Music","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46019838148842,"sku":"7318590010303","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2263150.jpg?v=1786741937"},{"product_id":"leifs-vikingasvar-etc-baumer-gunnarsdottir-bjarnason-83570","title":"Leifs: Vikingasvar, Etc \/ Bäumer, Gunnarsdóttir, Bjarnason","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is possible that the reviewer who characterized Jón Leifs (1899-1968) as \"a composer in no danger of being lost in the crowd once his music is heard\" was thinking primarily of works such as Geysir (BIS-CD-830), Hekla (BIS-CD-1030) or Hafís (BIS-CD-1050) - works which contain some of the most astoundingly loud music ever recorded! If the present CD is less generous in terms of decibels or special effects such as the sound of Icelandic rock cascades, the music is still unmistakeably Jón Leifs. All but one of the works are for choir or solo voices and orchestra, and their subject matter is, as often with Leifs, either Iceland itself or the ancient myths of the country. Gróa's Spell and The Lay of Helgi the Hunding-slayer, for instance, are both based on texts from the Poetic Edda, while Landfall for male choir and orchestra was inspired by Leifs' first glimpse of land on his return to Iceland after the 2nd World War. Also included on this disc is the Iceland Cantata (from 1930), a work in seven movements for mixed choir and orchestra which Árni Heimir Ingólfsson, the expert on Jón Leifs, in his generously informative liner notes calls the composer's \"first real masterpiece, and one of the high points of his entire career.\" A curiousity for those who follow our Leifs series is Spring Song, a short work which is strikingly - for Leifs - light-hearted and joyous. As surprising will be the orchestration in Viking's Answer (Víkingasvar).The only instrumental work on the disc, it is scored for a wind orchestra with four saxophones (the only time in Jón Leifs' music), violas and double basses! As on previous CDs in the series, it's the Iceland Symphony Orchestra which gives us this rare - three of the works are World Première Recordings - opportunity to hear the music of their great countryman. (The orchestra's latest offering, Baldr BIS-CD-1230\/31, was termed an account of \"enormous conviction\" by the reviewer in BBC Music Magazine.)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46020440064234,"sku":"7318590010808","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2263195.jpg?v=1786749912"},{"product_id":"choralis-orchestral-works-761195128220","title":"Nordal: Chordalis; Orchestral Works \/ Gustavsson, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eJon Nordal celebrated his 90th birthday in March 2016. Nordal and the Iceland Symphony joined forces to celebrate his life and his creative works. Three pieces on this recording were written in the height of Nordal's creative years, 1973-1975. This recording is the Ondine debut for conductor Johannes Gustavsson and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ondine","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46025355919594,"sku":"761195128220","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3435716.jpg?v=1786701752"},{"product_id":"leifs-the-creation-of-the-world-baumer-80784","title":"Leifs: The Creation Of The World \/ Bäumer, Gudbjörnsson","description":"\u003cp\u003e(World Première Recording) Few composers have been as consistently preoccupied with their national origins as Jón Leifs, who only found his calling as a composer when he encountered a collection of Icelandic folk music. From the very beginning, Iceland, its music and myths, its landscape and climate furnished him with the material for almost all of his compositions. And from the very beginning Leifs knew that he wanted to create a great oratorio using texts from the Edda, Iceland's national treasure. The scoring is among Leifs' most colourful and inspired, including the composer's signature Nordic lurs and an extended percussion section. This landmark in Icelandic music is performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Schola Cantorum choir under the baton of Hermann Bäumer - a constellation that last came together on disc on the highly acclaimed Viking's Answer, the previous Leifs' release on BIS.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46026302292202,"sku":"7318599913506","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1632799_b1d99408-0489-4458-ae36-6552d3b1d277.jpg?v=1786748401"},{"product_id":"jon-leifs-edda-part-ii-the-lives-of-the-gods-7318599924205","title":"Jón Leifs: Edda, Part Ii: The Lives Of The Gods","description":"The music of Jón Leifs is often inspired by Iceland's powerful nature and literary heritage. From early on he was profoundly influenced by the medieval tradition of Icelandic literature, preserved in a handful of manuscripts, including the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Leifs' magnum opus is the Edda oratorio, a massive (although incomplete) work in three large parts which occupied him on and off for most of his composing career - from around 1930 to his death in 1968. A partial performance of Edda I - The Creation of the World - met with incomprehension, and Leifs only resumed work on his great project a decade later, completing the second part - The Lives of the Gods - in 1966. He immediately started on the third part of the oratorio, and was still working on it at the time of his death. Neither of the two finished parts were performed in his lifetime, Edda I receiving it's first complete performance in 2006 and Edda II in 2018, in conjunction with the recording of the present disc. Leifs' music is as ruggedly grandiose as it's subject matter and the score calls for vocal soloists, choir and large orchestra, making huge demands on the performers. Once again the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the intrepid Schola Cantorum join forces under the baton of conductor Hermann Bäumer, following up on their acclaimed recording of Edda I, which was described by reviewers as 'one of the recording events of the year' (Gramophone) and 'splendid in it's craggy and intensely individual lyricism and magnificence' (MusicWeb-International. 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Its two acts last about 90 minutes, and fans of this expert at composing musical natural disasters will be delighted to learn that it contains  \u003ci\u003eboth\u003c\/i\u003e a hurricane and a volcanic eruption. Subtitled a \"choreographic drama\", it would make quite an impression on stage, assuming it ever could be staged as the composer intended; but until then we have this superb second recording (the first, by Paul Zukofsky and a talented band of Icelandic students and \"ringers\", was very good but no match for this fully professional effort).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The story, such as it is, begins with the creation of life itself, and of man. Baldr, one of those typical Norse hero types, is a favorite of Odin, and thus hated by Loki. In part one, Baldr meets and marries his beloved Nanna despite Loki's attempts to thwart their union (he has the hots for Nanna too) by summoning up a hurricane. In part two, Odin demands that all things on earth, both living and dead, swear not to harm Baldr, and they all do except (there's always a catch) for the lowly mistletoe. In \"The Throwing Game\", the Gods check out the efficacy of Baldr's protection by throwing all manner of deadly objects at him, and Loki naturally gets someone to hurl the mistletoe at Baldr, who promptly falls to the ground and dies. After his cremation, there's a huge volcanic eruption after which Odin and the chorus pronounce a final benediction.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Leifs conceived the work in the mid-1940s in part as a protest against the Nazi appropriation of Norse mythology for political and racial ends (he was living in Germany with his Jewish first wife for much of World War II), and very consciously wished to reclaim these stories in what he saw as their original form. Aside from using the old Icelandic texts for the brief sung passages, in Baldr Leifs perfected his mature musical style based on the irregular rhythms and primitive parallel harmonies of Icelandic folk music. The addition of hammers, rocks, chains, gunshots, and other such noise-making instruments to the percussion section gives his output a hard, brutal, primal quality unmatched in 20th century music, and conductor Kari Kropsu and the Iceland Symphony have a field day (as do BIS' engineers) bringing this richly evocative score to deafening life. Turn it way up: if you don't risk your speakers, it isn't an authentic Leifs experience.\u003cbr\u003e --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026439065834,"sku":"7318591230311","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2262597.jpg?v=1786741710"},{"product_id":"sibelius-finlandia-karelia-suite-etc-sakari-iceland-64125","title":"Sibelius: Finlandia, Karelia Suite, Etc \/ Sakari, Iceland So","description":"SIBELIUS: Finlandia \/ Karelia Suite \/ Lemminkainen Suite","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026529636586,"sku":"636943426524","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/280812_68652d0e-ab85-4b11-a0be-db327bd05486.jpg?v=1786758787"},{"product_id":"sibelius-symphony-no-4-5-sakari-iceland-234598","title":"Sibelius: Symphony No 4 \u0026 5 \/ Sakari, Iceland Symphony","description":"SIBELIUS: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026539925738,"sku":"636943437728","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/302536.jpg?v=1786758989"},{"product_id":"tomasson-flute-concertos-1-2-skima-7318590014196","title":"Tomasson: Flute Concertos 1 \u0026 2 \/ Skima","description":"Classical Music","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026587144426,"sku":"7318590014196","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2263485_05436ba1-8949-4afd-b737-f31ed6e56cea.jpg?v=1786746481"},{"product_id":"williamson-orchestral-works-vol-2-095115140628","title":"Williamson: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 \/ Gamba, Iceland Symphony","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027546558698,"sku":"095115140628","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1030161.jpg?v=1786628357"},{"product_id":"dindy-symphonie-italienne-poemes-rivages-gamba-iceland-213486","title":"D'Indy: Symphonie Italienne, Poemes Rivages \/ Gamba, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eD'Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as 'The Samson of Music' for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator, and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d'Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies, and employing Franck's well-known 'cyclic method'. The exclusive Chandos artist Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra here return with Volume 4 of Chandos' highly acclaimed series devoted to these unjustly neglected orchestral works. Of Symphony No. 3 on Volume 3, released in 2010, Classic FM said: 'Following their first two much-praised discs, Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony further champion the lushly colourful and impressionistic orchestral music of Vincent d'Indy. It's a fascinating work that mixes straightforward militaristic passages with a high-Romantic, 20th-century language that's part Expressionist, part Impressionist'. Symphonie italienne was written when d'Indy was in his late teens. It was strongly inspired by his travels in Italy, and the four movements bear the respective titles 'Rome', 'Florence', 'Venice', and 'Naples'. Heavily indebted in style to Mendelsohn, Schumann, and Berlioz, this tuneful work was a tremendous if ambitious undertaking for the comparative novice, and shows early signs of the composer's strong intellectual musical mind. D'Indy composed the Symphonie Suite Poème des Rivages, his late orchestral masterpiece, in 1919 - 21. It is a work of outstanding technical accomplishment and poetic inspiration, which succeeds in combining the solid post-Franckian structures with the textual and colouristic fluidity of Debussy. The orchestral forces, including four saxophones, create an almost visual impression of light and atmosphere, in the manner of Claude Monet. Its well-received premiere took place in New York on 1 December 1921 under d'Indy's direction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027572084970,"sku":"095115166024","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1813474.jpg?v=1786701324"},{"product_id":"dindy-orchestral-works-vol-1-rumon-gamba-79473","title":"D'indy: Orchestral Works Vol 1 \/ Rumon Gamba, Iceland So","description":"\u003cp\u003eD'Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as 'The Samson of Music' for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. Today the music of d'Indy is sadly neglected, which is why Chandos and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra have decided to embark upon a series devoted to his orchestral works with conductor Rumon Gamba. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d'Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies and employing Franck's well-known 'cyclic method'. This is the first foray by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for Chandos into the realm of French repertoire after recordings of music by Malcolm Williamson. On the most recent Williamson release, American Record Guide commented, 'Rumon Gamba's direction of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra is superb, as is the shape and conviction of all these interpretations. The sound is vibrant and clear'. Previous releases with Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra: Williamson, Vol.1: CHAN10359 Williamson, Vol.2: CHAN10406\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027572412650,"sku":"095115146422","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1334178.jpg?v=1786672593"},{"product_id":"williamson-orchestral-works-vol-1-095115135921","title":"Williamson: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 \/ Gamba, Iceland Symphony","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027574706410,"sku":"095115135921","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/804258.jpg?v=1786627425"},{"product_id":"wiren-orchestral-works-gamba-iceland-symphony-87153","title":"Wiren: Orchestral Works \/ Gamba, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cp\u003eBright and lively music from the Swedish composer Dag Wiren is unveiled here in surround-sound by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Rumon Gamba, only a few years after the completion of their Grammy-nominated and highly acclaimed series devoted to the neglected orchestral treasures of Vincent d’Indy. In this unique recording Gamba uses the large body of a full symphonic string section, rather than the somewhat smaller-scale chamber orchestra setup that has tended to be used for this music in the past. The effect is a more complete expression of the wit and strength of these works. Designed to ‘entertain and amuse,’ as the composer put it in a note, the widely popular Serenade for Strings is here given an even more brilliant and powerful touch. Other, lesser-known works on the album similarly showcase a composer of fascinating range, who could write light and humorous pieces such as the Sinfonietta and the lively Symphony No. 3, as well as powerful rhythmical, and serious works, of which the later Divertimento is an example.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027694997738,"sku":"095115519424","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3763380.jpg?v=1786684693"},{"product_id":"gounod-symphonies-nos-1-2-tortelier-iceland-52829","title":"Gounod: Symphonies Nos. 1 \u0026 2 \/ Tortelier, Iceland Symphony","description":"\u003cimg src=\"\/graphics\/features\/gramophone_choice.jpg\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  After winning the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand in 1839 and spending two years in Rome, Gounod should have gone on to study in Germany, but he managed in 1842 to persuade the authorities that he should remain in Rome to work on a symphony. In 1843 he visited Mendelssohn who (while trying to dissuade him from wasting his time on Goethe’s Faust!) urged him to write another symphony. We do not know how much of the First Symphony Gounod had completed by then, but it is not surprising that Mendelssohn figures as one of the key influences on both symphonies. After performances of individual movements in 1855, premieres were given of the First on 4 March that year and of the Second on 13 February 1856. Yan Pascal Tortelier and his Iceland Symphony Orchestra demonstrate outstanding precision and musicality in these unjustly neglected works.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  -----\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  REVIEW:\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  There’s a spring in Tortelier’s step with the Icelanders, a sappy bounce to the opening Allegro molto. The strings are alert and light and the woodwinds attack Gounod’s melodious writing with élan. If Haydn is the influence on the First, it is Beethoven who looms large over the Second.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  – Gramophone","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"SACD","offer_id":46027732910314,"sku":"095115523124","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3905529.jpg?v=1786704537"},{"product_id":"dindy-orchestral-works-vol-3-gamba-iceland-115500","title":"d'Indy: Orchestral Works Vol 3 \/ Gamba, Iceland SO","description":"\u003cp\u003eRumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra follow their Grammy-nominated volume 1 and Editor's Choice winning Volume 2 with four rare orchestral works from Vincent D'Indy's legacy. The previous volumes have obtained such comments as '...superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d'Indy's orchestra output' (Gramophone) and 'this series is going to be virtually definitive' Musical Opinion Composed in 1916-18 at the climax of the Great War, d'Indy's last symphony is a valid reflection of his intense patriotism. In its dramatic theatric and tonal conflicts it well portrays the heightened emotions of exaltation and terror experienced by the French nation. D'Indy's seven-variation programmatic work, Istar, Op.42 is a beautiful, flowing work set in the underworld and inspired by the sixth canto of an ancient Assyrian epic poem called Izdubar that was probably written around 2000 B.C. The unconventionally conceived yet well integrated work Choral Varie for Saxophone Solo ans orchestra, Op.55 employs an eclectic variety of styles. Like certain other French composers such as Bizet, D'Indy well understood the saxophone's expressive potential. The solo role is taken by one of Iceland's most prominent musicians, Sigurður Flosason, who has twice been nominated for the Nordic Music Prize, and four time winner of the Icelandic Music Awards. Volume 3 is completed by D'Indy's last orchestral work, Diptyque Mediterraneen, Op.87. It reflects the Indian summer which his happy second marriage brought him in his final decade. There is a certain similarity with the earlier Ardeche-inspired Jour d'ete a la montagne in its illustration of the sacred rhythms of nature during the course of the day, but here the influence of Debussy is clearly apparent in its superb Mediterranean-like clarity of texture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027733106922,"sku":"095115158524","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1626627.jpg?v=1786727647"},{"product_id":"sibelius-suites-pelleas-et-melisande-king-christian-79459","title":"Sibelius: Suites - Pelleas et Melisande, King Christian II, Swanwhite \/ Sakari","description":"I cannot remember having enjoyed this music more. Petri Sakari’s performance is totally unaffected, plain and full of enthusiasm; the players sound as if they are enjoying this score and communicate their pleasure.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  – Gramophone, reviewing original release\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  -----\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  This reissue features performances of incidental music by Jean Sibelius, recorded in 1992 by Petri Sakari and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Sakari’s recordings with this orchestra during the 1990s made a significant contribution to the discography of Scandinavian music, notably of works by Grieg, Sibelius, and Madetoja.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Sibelius composed the score for  \u003ci\u003eKing Christian II\u003c\/i\u003e, a play by his friend Adolf Paul, in 1898 and it anticipates the richly romantic sound of the First Symphony. Here the usual suite is expanded by the inclusion of two movements from the incidental music not usually heard: the Menuetto and \"The Fool’s Song.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Maurice Maeterlinck’s much-performed yet complex psychological drama  \u003ci\u003ePelléas et Mélisande\u003c\/i\u003e inspired works by Debussy, Fauré, Schoenberg, and Sibelius, whose incidental music consists mainly of interludes in a uniquely dark, subdued, and typically Nordic vein.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Altogether sweeter is the delicate and poetic score for  \u003ci\u003eSwanwhite\u003c\/i\u003e, August Strindberg's \"idealistic play of pure beauty.\" Sibelius condensed the original music into a charming concert suite of seven movements, five of which are recorded here.","brand":"Chandos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027738251498,"sku":"095115182826","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2591707.jpg?v=1786746169"},{"product_id":"hugo-alfven-symphony-no-4-niklas-willen-203902","title":"Hugo Alfvén: Symphony No 4 \/ Niklas Willén, Iceland So","description":"Hugo Alfvén (1872–1960) was approximately contemporaneous with a number of late and post-Romantic Swedish composers that included, among others, Peterson-Berger (1867–1942), Stenhammar (1871–1927), Otto Olsson (1879–1964), and Ture Rangström (1884–1947). Alfvén’s style, like that of his compatriots, is a generally satisfying fusion of late Romantic and post-Romantic trends with elements of Scandinavian nationalism. He wrote five symphonies, a considerable volume of choral music, and a number of folk-based tone poems and rhapsodies, of which Midsommarvaka (“Midsummer Vigil”) is probably the work by which he remains best known today.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Skerries,” generically, refers to small rocky islands that pepper a coastline. Alfvén grew up in such an island landscape, the Stockholm archipelago. Nearly two decades before he completed his Fourth Symphony, “From the Outermost Skerries,” he had composed the tone poem, A Legend of the Skerries. Like Mendelssohn, Alfvén was also a talented watercolorist, and his musical works have about them the feeling of vast watercolor canvases. Beyond the washes of color, it is difficult to put a precise style to this music. It is more gestural than melodic—i.e., sweeping passages of great dramatic urgency—and more episodic than developmental. The orchestral effects, from huge swells to the most delicate atmospherics in the winds, harp, and piano are quite masterful, though I’d hesitate to call them novel. Much of the writing and the sound world it evokes bear a resemblance to Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, written just three years earlier. But I detect other influences too. Alfvén’s Fourth, not completed until 1919, contains distant echoes of Liszt and Wagner, especially in the first movement; while the third movement contains even closer echoes of Mahler. The repeated appearance of an otherworldly disembodied sound, wordless vocalise for soprano and tenor, adds another dimension of mystery and beauty to the piece. Think of it as an extended Scandinavian La mer.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The Festival Overture of 1944 is a much later work, but one that is more conservative and backward looking. The insert note does not say if the piece was specifically intended for some public event or ceremony, but it is definitely of a character that would be suited to such a purpose. Pomp and Circumstance it’s not, but it makes for an effective crowd-pleaser.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e As for the performances, once again we are faced with a bang-for-the-buck dilemma. Järvi’s set on BIS can now be had in a five-CD box that contains all five Alfvén symphonies, plus a generous offering of suites and rhapsodies, for just under $60. The Fifth Symphony and some of the other pieces were recorded more recently than the bulk of the material, which goes back to the late 1980s. Järvi is expert in this music, the Stockholm Philharmonic is top-drawer, and BIS’s sound is demonstration quality.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e For Naxos, Niklas Willén has now given us four of the five symphonies (I expect the fifth will follow soon), though not all with the same orchestra. Still, they are superb, and at Naxos’s prices, even five separate CDs cost considerably less than the BIS set. If you already have the Järvi, there is not enough difference between the two to warrant adding the Willén, and vice-versa. If you have neither, I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help to you this time. I like them both equally. I’d say buy the Naxos CD first, just to see if the music is to your taste. If it is, then you can decide later which way to go.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Jerry Dubins, FANFARE\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46028023496938,"sku":"747313228423","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/697949.jpg?v=1786819459"},{"product_id":"sibelius-tone-poems-petri-sakari-iceland-so-234684","title":"Sibelius: Tone Poems \/ Petri Sakari, Iceland So","description":"Petri Sakari knows this music, obviously loves it, and paces it to perfection. Indeed, his performance of The Bard may just be the finest available, particularly in the work's latter stages and final climax. The dark timbres of the lower winds--bass clarinet and bassoon particularly--not only add immeasurably to the atmosphere that colors the opening of Pohjola's Daughter, but also help to create the deep currents of The Oceanides and overshadow the pine forests of Tapiola. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra plays with complete security, and Sakari ensures that textures and balances retain the necessary transparency without sacrificing power. Indeed, the all-important bass drum part in En Saga seldom has registered with such dynamic accuracy (though as with all of these Naxos productions, make sure to turn the volume up to enjoy the best sound).\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e That said, there is one big fly in this particular musical ointment. The Iceland orchestra has a comparatively small string section, and while this fact certainly contributes to the clarity noted above, it robs the climaxes of sheer heft. This is particularly true during the headlong rush to the big cymbal crash in En Saga, the huge final wave in The Oceanides, and above all the great storm music in Tapiola. To his credit, Sakari doesn't push his players beyond their natural ability. For example, in Tapiola he cleverly ensures that the storm remains a background to the ferocious eruptions in the brass and timpani, but it's still impossible not to feel the lack in those moments (such as the ensuing dissonant shriek) where a big string sound is absolutely essential.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e So is this disc recommendable? Certainly it is. But if you are one of those people whose preferences in this music demand Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic strings, you might be happier elsewhere. Still, there's far too much worth hearing to dismiss this issue for that reason alone. Sakari and his players capture the music's dark colors and primal qualities as do few others, and when all is said and done they offer a quintessentially Sibelian listening experience.\u003cbr\u003e --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46028027199722,"sku":"747313529926","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/483788.jpg?v=1786818745"},{"product_id":"christian-lindberg-conducts-jan-sandstrom-7318590017487","title":"Christian Lindberg Conducts Jan Sandstrom","description":"Classical Music","brand":"BIS","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46232711364842,"sku":"7318590017487","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2263736.jpg?v=1788465846"}],"url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/iceland-symphony-orchestra.oembed?page=2","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}