Reykjavík Grapevine - feb. 2021, Blaðsíða 24

Occurrence: Iceland
Symphony Orchestra
Project, Vol. 3
Conductor and composer Daníel Bjarnason talks
throu$h the new album track by track
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick
Track By Track
Pick up ‘Occurrence’ at
shop.grapevine.is or check it out on
all streaming platforms.
The finale in the trio of albums from
the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in
collaboration with Sono Luminus,
‘Occurrence’ presents works by five
contemporary Icelandic composers:
Daníel Bjarnason, Veronique Vaka,
Haukur Tómasson, !urí"ur Jónsdót-
tir and Magnús Blöndal Jóhannsson.
The effort follows 2019’s ‘Concur-
rence’—which is currently nominat-
ed for a Grammy Award in the Best
Orchestra Performance Category—
and 2017’s ‘Recurrence’ in showcas-
ing the brightest of Icelandic compo-
sition.
We sat down with the album’s
conductor and composer of one of
its tracks, Daníel Bjarnason, to talk
about how he approached bringing
each song to life.
Violin Concerto
Composed by Daníel Bjarnason
and featuring violin soloist Pekka
Kuusisto
I wrote this concerto for my friend,
violinist Pekka Kuusisto, who I
have known for many years and
always wanted to do something
with. It was actually supposed to
be premiered at the Reykjavík Fes-
tival in LA in April 2017, but it was
postponed because I was finish-
ing my opera ‘Brothers’, which was
taking up all my time and energy.
Coming out of that and into this
was kind of a relief. It was fun to
go into a piece that was completely
different from the opera—light-
hearted and playful. The piece fo-
cuses on Pekka as a narrator and
protagonist. I see him as a some-
what devilish figure seducing the
orchestra and leading it on, even
astray. He gets to play around a lot
and improvise in this piece, which
he does wonderfully, so in the end,
it’s really a celebration of Pekka.
Lendh
Composed by Veronique Vaka
I’ve known Veronique for a few
years and have become well-ac-
quainted with her
process and how
she writes, struc-
tures and maps
out her pieces vi-
sually before she
starts composing.
She’s interested
in topography and
often uses land-
scape as an inspi-
ration, so getting
into that mindset
help ed me ap -
proach this piece.
It’s slow-moving
but there’s a lot
of detail involved.
The challenge of conducting this
work was bringing out the topog-
raphy but also making sure that
the details come alive as well.
In Seventh Heaven
Composed by Haukur Tómasson
Vibrant and rhythmic like most
of Haukur’s music, this piece is
also very bright and energetic. It’s
a playful, celebratory work made
for the opening of Harpa. I’ve con-
ducted a lot of Haukur’s music
and it’s always really challenging
for the orchestra, but at the same
time rewarding to play. I think this
piece is a good snapshot or show-
case of what Haukur can do with
an orchestra in seven minutes.
Flutter
Composed by +urí!ur Jónsdóttir
and featuring flute soloist Mario
Caroli
“Flutter” is unique. It has the flute
as the main voice and it’s a tricky
piece for the flautist. Working
with Mario was really amazing, as
he had done the piece before and
knew it well, so he brought an au-
thority into the performance and,
by extension, the recording ses-
sion, which was wonderful. It’s
a little bit similar to Veronique’s
piece as it has a lot of detail, but
you need to be able to zoom out
and see the larger picture as well.
As a conductor, it’s about bringing
out these wonderful colours and
textures in the orchestra and mak-
ing space for Mario
to do his thing.
Adagio
Composed by Magnús
Blöndal Jóhannsson
We decided to end
the trilogy with this
adagio, even though
M a g n ú s B l ö n d a l
Jóhannsson is slight-
ly outside the cat-
egory of most of the
composers on these
three albums. He’s
from an older gen-
eration, but we just felt it would be
so good to have a new recording of
this piece. Magnús was one of the
pioneers of modernism in Icelan-
dic music and had a troubled life
and career as a composer. This is
a nod to him and the composers of
his generation who paved the way
for my generation, and the genera-
tions before and after mine, that
are making the music we’ve been
recording for these albums.
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24The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2021
Daníel is here to write symphonies and kick ass and he's all out of sheet music
Music
“Veronique is
interested in
topography and
often uses land
as an inspira-
tion, so getting
into that mind-
set helped me
approach this
piece.”