Iceland Symphony Orchestra: Concurrence
Sono Luminus

Sono Luminus's presentation of music by young Icelandic composers continues apace with the release of its second compendium. A rewarding volume, Concurrence features works by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir (b. 1977), Haukur Tómasson (b. 1960), Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir (b. 1980), and Pall Ragnar Pálsson (b. 1977) in a diverse set-list that includes a piano concerto, soloists, and orchestral settings. Recorded in Reykjavík, Concurrence features the Daníel Bjarnason-conducted Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO) plus pianist Víkingur Ólafsson and cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir and is the second in a planned trilogy of albums from Sono Luminus and the ISO, following as it does 2017's Recurrence.

In liner notes, Steve Smith poses the same question he did when contemplating the first volume: “Can you hear a country in its music?” It's a provocative and not unreasonable question, calling as it does into question stereotypical views about Icelandic music non-natives might bring to the album series. At the risk of oversimplifying, I'm betting some would come to the project anticipating brooding, expansive, and chilly sound paintings heavy in atmosphere and rich in texture. In truth, some of those expectations are borne out by the material, but in being so varied Concurrence resists being reduced to a one-dimensional template.

Thorvaldsdóttir's advice to those performing Metacosmos, that they should treat its material like an ecosystem whose elements emerge from and flow in and around one another, offers a helpful entrypoint to the thirteen-minute piece. As much as flow is part of the design, so too are startling ruptures and tone clusters. Woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion all figure equally in the unfolding of Thorvaldsdóttir's design, its collective mass of sound textures swelling and decompressing fluidly like some elemental natural phenomenon. Disturbances abound, yet peaceful episodes appear alongside unsettling passages, too, never more hauntingly than during the work's elegiac close. While connections from Thorvaldsdóttir to Ligeti and Sibelius could be proposed, Metacosmos ultimately impresses as a thoroughly original creation.

Considerably less brooding is Tómasson's Piano Concerto No. 2, which features a performance by Ólafsson marked by assured technical execution and lyrical expressivity. He's prominent, of course, but so too is the orchestra, which engages with him conversationally throughout in a lively, action-packed dialogue. Their interactions are less combative than rooted in communal support, the pianist and orchestra in this instance generating a dense web of interlaced material over a seventeen-minute span. Like all the pieces on Concurrence, Tómasson's is a single-movement work, but it's not without contrasting parts. In this case, a robust introductory section gives way to an initially slow and austere passage that builds thereafter in intensity until the bustling activity of the intro reinstates itself.

Sigfúsdóttir, a violinist and amiina member as well as composer, is represented by Oceans, whose slow, gliding movements and overlapping layers aligns it closely to Metacosmos in spirit and style. Ethereal tone clusters lend the material an ineffable quality, yet the music's carefully calibrated rise and fall, impassioned outpourings, and melodic flourishes imbue it with humanity; moments even arise that seem almost pastoral, though they're offset by the material's oft-dark and mystery-laden tone.

Cellist Thorsteinsdóttir is featured in Pálsson's album-closing Quake, the title immediately alerting the listener to expect tectonic tumult. And, sure enough, the sound design is agitated, filled as it is with an ever-mutating mass of orchestral detail that requires Thorsteinsdóttir to navigate through the landscape with care. At times she rises above the ruptures with upper-register bowings, the total sound mass advancing like an unpredictable geological force.

January 2020