Notes and Editorial Reviews
This CD is a ravishing collection of understated music for solo violin and a gem of a recording for those who are interested in the obscure byways of 20th century music.
Jon Leifs, perhaps the most well known Icelandic composer of the modern era, is represented by his two-movement Studies. Alternately lyrical and impassioned, this work is especially memorable for its Bach-like dissonant fugue of the second movement. Hallgrimur Helgason's Sonata is a melancholy and heavily chromatic work with echoes of Baroque music that brings to mind the music of Max Reger. Atli Sveinsson's 'Melody and Doubles with Fugue' is remarkable for its variety of effects, such as the soaring lines juxtaposed against quiet murmurings as the violin is plucked down
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into the lower depths of the instrument. Finally, the brief 'Adagio' by Tryggvi Baldvinsson is a quiet lament punctuated with the occasional scurrying figure and is based on what appears to be an ancient folk melody.
Rut Ingólfsdóttir is to be commended for putting together a unique CD of Icelandic composers who convince, through the power of these works and Ingolfsdottir's committed playing, that by the late 20th-century we had only just begun to plumb the depths of Icelandic composition. Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Etudes for Violin, Op. 3 by Jón Leifs
Performer:
Rut Ingólfsdóttir (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1924; Iceland
Date of Recording: 1998
Venue: Skálholt Cathedral, Reykjavík, Iceland
Length: 7 Minutes 56 Secs.
2.
Sonata for Violin solo by Hallgrimur Helgason
Performer:
Rut Ingólfsdóttir (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: Iceland
Date of Recording: 1998
Venue: Skálholt Cathedral, Reykjavík, Iceland
Length: 14 Minutes 4 Secs.
3.
Dimension by Magnús B. Jóhannsson
Performer:
Rut Ingólfsdóttir (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: Iceland
Date of Recording: 1998
Venue: Skálholt Cathedral, Reykjavík, Iceland
Length: 9 Minutes 48 Secs.
4.
Melody and Doubles with Epilogue by Atli Heimir Sveinsson
Performer:
Rut Ingólfsdóttir (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: Iceland
Date of Recording: 1998
Venue: Skálholt Cathedral, Reykjavík, Iceland
Length: 22 Minutes 57 Secs.
5.
Adagio for Violin by Tryggvi Baldvinsson
Performer:
Rut Ingólfsdóttir (Violin)
Period: 20th Century
Written: Iceland
Date of Recording: 1998
Venue: Skálholt Cathedral, Reykjavík, Iceland
Length: 6 Minutes 43 Secs.
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