Daníel Bjarnason (b. 1979)
The Grotesque & The Sublime
FEAST (2021)
Fragile Hope (2023)
Inferno (2021, rev. 2024)
Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Daníel Bjarnason
Frank Dupree (piano), Vivi Vassileva (percussion)
rec. 2025, Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavík, Iceland
Reviewed as a 16/44 WAV file download
Sono Luminus DSL-92287 Blu-ray/CD [71]

It is ten years this summer that little Iceland surprised everybody in the Euro 2016 by beating England and knocking them out of the competition. That golden age of football for the country saw them qualify for the World Cup two years later. It was not to last though. The overperformance of Iceland’s classical musicians has proved more lasting and durable. An Icelandic school of composition, already emergent, flourished, and much of the best contemporary post-minimalistic music of the last thirty years has originated from this island with a population comparable in size with Coventry.

The record label Sono Luminus has given us several fine albums, some of which are conducted by Daníel Bjarnason. In fact, for many years this fine composer was known mostly for his work in front of orchestras, baton in hand. Bjarnason is a couple of years younger than Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who I imagine many readers will know reasonably well. The only work of Bjarnason I knew at all well before picking up this new record was the Violin Concerto of 2017 (review), although I had heard a few others included in the same series of CDs (review) and the recommendable Atmospheriques compilation.

Iceland fascinates us here in the UK, I think. This land of fire and Ice is situated right on a constructive plate margin. The cracks, fissures, craters bubble with lava and those lagoons rich in the Earth’s minerals are sometimes bubbling also. We mustn’t forget the Northern Lights too. I would love to visit one day. When one thinks of the recent music produced by Iceland’s talented countrymen and women, we perhaps think of post-modernist, slow moving, reflective music, sometimes monotonous but most definitely in-motion and building momentum. This new record of three of Daníel Bjarnason’s recent works does not really fit that image. His harmonies do often develop over a long span, but the music is very often wild and fast; rhythms pound. There is atmosphere, yes; I can hear the steam rising and the earth cracking as we traverse, but the sound-world can change in an instant and we are thrust headlong into a ferocious rugged chase.

The first piece on the program is FEAST, a piano concerto written for the very famous Vikingur Ólafsson and premiered in LA in 2022. This is an extremely programmatic work, and the programme is based on the scary story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, the cold Prince Prospero, aware that plague has come to his lands, retreats to his castle with his noble friends. They party, but the masked figure of death arrives and pursues Prospero. All die from the Red Death. The concerto is in seven fairly equal parts and lasts around twenty-five minutes in this performance.

The concerto begins in the castle. Lively, bouncy rhythms and chords from both orchestra and soloist are balanced by more reflective reveries (1:00). The material is interesting and tuneful. Bjarnason is a skilled orchestrator and his experience in front of an orchestra pays off as he highlights once the woodwind, now the violins in this immersive performance. I was listening to the stereo version, but I imagine the glowing, pining motif (heard from 3:40) would sound stunning in DTS HD Master Audio which is possible, given this package comes with a Pure-Audio Blu-ray as well as the conventional CD.

We meet the ghostly figure in track 2. In my mind’s eye he isn’t veiled like a mummy or as blatant (and red) as that in the Vincent Price film; rather for me he is more like the terrifying figure that chases Michael Hordern in the classic 1968 Whistle and I’ll Come to You. Very slow, rising chords, in a motif already heard earlier, build the tension. It is repeated and percussive effects and wild woodwind add to the scene as we build and build before cascading down in a cadenza. Bells tolling take us to the next picture. This is a haunting section called “the brazen lungs of the clock” and feels like the very best type of film music. A dance section calls for virtuosic pianism and some skilled careful cueing as far as the conducting goes, I would think. The brass snarl as the pianist portrays what sounds like a pretty tense chase through Prospero’s castle. The Revelation would seem to be that this figure is in fact the plague itself. The soloist is resigned now, and the music is quietly lyrical in acceptance, the motif still intact. The final two sections of FEAST show death wreaking havoc in the castle. There is a danse macabre and a final skeleton procession.

I enjoyed the concerto. I don’t know why, but I was expecting it to be modelled in a similar way to the Adès concerto of 2019 (review). It isn’t really. I don’t think it is quite the equal of the earlier piece but certainly a worthy effort all the same. The pianist Frank Dupree is excellent and clearly believes in the work. I see he has given the piece in Germany as well as in Iceland.

A Fragile Hope dates from 2023. It was premiered the following year, and I believe was played in conjunction with images of sea life and environmental photography. The music is presented slowly, and layers are put before us. I think the upward slides one hears may possibly represent sea life, perhaps whales but maybe that is just my imagination. The piece builds in pace and intensity for sure and by the end we feel like we have been on quite a journey. In his brilliant liner notes, the expert Andrew Mellor tells us that A Fragile Hope is actually a tribute piece to Jóhann Jóhannsson (another Icelandic composer you should get to know). He writes of the classic traits of “gradual progress and vaporous changeability” in the music. How clever – I cannot improve on that. From 5:24 building to 7:40, we hear the main development of the work and the intense “slipstream of fluttering repeated notes”. The climax is a direct Jóhannsson quotation. I love the confidence of Bjarnason’s voice in this piece and his use of light and shade. I shall certainly return to this work. In this performance the running time is a little over 14 minutes.

The final piece on this new record is the percussion concerto Inferno. I see this has already been taken up by various soloists and by conductors like Gustavo Gimeno, Jukka‐Pekka Saraste, Elim Chan and Dima Slobodeniouk. It is a substantial work of more than thirty minutes duration over three movements. Although clearly based on Dante (Adès has composed a major ballet on the theme too which I would heartily recommend) this work isn’t anywhere near as programmatic as FEAST. Our soloist Vivi Vassileva mainly plays the marimba and another instrument based on wood blocks (but untuned) called the txalaparta. She has a range of drums too.

Throughout the piece I had a feeling of being zoomed in and out of the sound tapestry at different places. The first movement is quite a frenetic piece of music, slightly obsessive in temperament perhaps. I don’t know too may percussion concerti, so I didn’t have a lot to compare it with, but I was glad I stuck with it and after two or three hearings I started to follow the threads and feel the concept (I think). The second movement puts the timpani to the forefront but played by the regular percussion principals of the orchestra, I think. These partners could be the guide Virgil or maybe they are the oarsman taking them across the Styx. It is a very exciting listen at any rate. Inferno ends with a long contemplation starting at track 11 (1:20) called Dark Shores. Vassileva employs mainly the txalaparta in this finale. Bjarnason’s orchestration is remarkably rich and exotic, nonetheless. Rhythms are urgent and catchy with tempi changing all the time. A passacaglia-like bass is added to great effect at 7:32 but there are other features and augmentations too which catch the ear as we build towards the inevitable climax. It must be great fun to witness live.

The Iceland SO play marvellously in all three works on this record. They have been led since the pandemic by Eva Ollikainen; this year will see Barbara Hannigan take over as Chief Conductor. Still in his mid-forties, I don’t believe Daníel Bjarnason has yet composed his defining work. I really enjoyed listening to these three recent projects. I see that an even newer piece: I Want to Be Alive, premiered last year in Canada, will feature in the next BBC Total Immersion concerts which take place just before this review is published (February 2026). I shall be listening on the radio.

Philip Harrison

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Contents
One standard CD
One Pure Audio Blu-ray disc (plays on all Blu-ray players)

Technical Details
5.1 DTS HD MA 24/192kHz
9.1 Auro-3D 24/96kHz
2.0 LPCM 24/192kHz