For a country whose entire population is just over 400,000, Iceland is a major producer of adventurous, dramatic music — and that’s especially the case in the contemporary classical realm. Steve Seel devotes the first hour of this episode of Extra Eclectic to living Icelandic composers, including two works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, whose Cello Concerto Before We Fall was recorded on August 13 at this year’s BBC Proms Festival. In the second hour, we hear two works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, whose 90th birthday is on September 11 — his Variations for Arinushka for solo piano and the stirring “Prayer” from a cappella choral work Kanon Pokajanen.
Playlist
Polar: The Waves
Gabriel Olafs
Viktor Orri Arnason, conductor
Reykjavik Orchestra
Cello Concerto “Before we fall”
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Eva Ollikainen, conductor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Johannes Moser, cello
2025 BBC Proms Prom 35
Hear us in Heaven
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Hordur Askelsson, conductor
Schola Cantorum Reykjavik
Still/Sound
Olafur Arnalds
String Quartet
Olafur Arnalds, electronics
Mercury KX 2021
Blow Bright
Daniel Bjarnason
Daniel Bjarnason, conductor
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Dorian 70030
Variations for Arinushka
Arvo Part
Elena Riu, piano
Linn 111
Kanon Pokajanen (Canon of Repentance): Prayer
Arvo Part
Jaan-Eik Tulve, conductor
Vox Clamantis
Jaanika Kuusik, soprano
ECM 2466
Violin Concerto “Distant Light”
Peteris Vasks
Hugo Ticciati, conductor
O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra
Hugo Ticciati, violin
Signum 532
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