Una Sveinbjarnardóttir: Ea Fantasia
Sono Luminus

When not leading the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra or fulfilling her duties as concertmaster of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO), violinist Una Sveinbjarnardóttir (b. 1975) performs and records with artists such as Björk, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Sigur Rós, Ben Frost, and Víkingur Ólafsson. She's also a founding member of Siggi String Quartet, partners with Arngerður María Árnadóttir in the violin/organ-duo Translations, and is a composer too, with string quartets and film and theatre pieces among the works she's created.

But as her latest Sono Luminus release, Ea Fantasia, shows, Sveinbjarnardóttir is as comfortable playing alone and in this case presenting ten favourite solo violin pieces, mostly written by Icelandic composers and the titular one by her. According to Sveinbjarnardóttir, playing Karólína Eiríksdóttir's Meditation in 2006 was the spark that lit the fire for Ea Fantasia, which follows her earlier recording of solo violin pieces, Umleikis, by a dozen years. Recorded in Iceland in January 2025, Ea Fantasia features pieces written for her, including John Speight's two-part Soliloquy, and recent commissions by composers who also play the violin, Lilja María Ásmundsdóttir's Fragile Stillness and María Huld Markan's Aria.

The set begins, however, with Alia Fantasia by Nicola Matteis Jr., the London-born son of Italian composer Nicola Matteis. Rapid arpeggios arrest the ear immediately as the violinist makes her methodical way through a piece whose progressions and patterns call Pärt's Fratres to mind. An exercise in controlled ecstasy, the work captivates as both a musical expression and example of Sveinbjarnardóttir's command of her instrument. Like those that follow, Alia Fantasia provides a riveting account of her artistry and technique, the latter of which is always used in service to the material in play. In ranging dramatically in mood and tone, the works likewise draw on the violinist's highly developed capacity for emotional expression. Each setting is passionately delivered, articulates something different from the others, and reflects complete investment on the part of the performer.

Delivered at a less frenzied pace than Alia Fantasia is Ásmundsdóttir's Fragile Stillness, which inhabits a calm, ethereal space of harmonics and ghostly bow textures that creak, whistle, flutter, and tremble. Written in 1996 for violinist Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir, Eiríksdóttir's riveting Meditation emphasizes Sveinbjarnardóttir's exemplary bow technique and vibrato control, which work to maximize the work's plaintive dimension and supplicating character. The dividing line between the movements in Speight's Soliloquy is easy to discern when the opening one's slow, ponderous, and inwardly probing and the second's furious, aggressive, and intense.

In writing Ofdune, Veronique Vaka Jacques, a Canadian-Icelandic composer and classical cellist, used the winding of a river through hills and valleys in North Iceland as a blueprint. While admittedly that background does help facilitate visualization, doing so is easy when the music, twisting and turning, undertakes its slow and steady descent, in places thinning out and in others flowing forcefully. One of the recording's most haunting settings is Markan's Aria, the writing of which was inspired by Maria Callas and her vocal artistry. The finesse of Sveinbjarnardóttir's lyrical expressions honours Markan's attempt to distill the essence of the singing legend into solo violin form. Lovelier still is Sveinbjarnardóttir's elegiac treatment of Jón Nordal's Each Tiny Step, whose nostalgic longing is delivered with heartfelt sincerity by the violinist.

A recording such as Ea Fantasia shows that the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra are fortunate indeed to have a player of such exceptional calibre as Sveinbjarnardóttir in their respective folds, as are the many solo artists whose recordings have clearly benefited from her contributions to them. Ea Fantasia definitely proves that her playing's as compelling when heard alone as it is in other contexts.

August 2026