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Klassisk

Hafliði Hallgrímsson is 80 this year and remains as clear-sighted and emotionally focused a creative artist as ever. Internationally, his reputation was founded on his wonderful violin concerto (with string orchestral accompaniment), Poemi (1983), which won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1986 [and is still available on the Icelandic Music Information Centre’s own label, 511013]. His later works may not quite have matched that work’s celebrity status but concertos such as Rima (1993), Herma (1994) and Ombra (1999)—recorded on the Icelandic Smekkleysa label sixteen years ago and reviewed by me for the now defunct, much lamented Nordic Sounds in August 2005)—showed how deeply his art had developed further in the ensuing decade-and-a-half.

That sense of a musical journey, of development and expansion, is illustrated wonderfully on this new disc of violin pieces, played with flawless intonation and exceptional musicianship by Peter Sheppard Skærved. The music has its roots in the 1990s, first with the title work Offerto, written in memoriam the Icelandic abstract artist Karl Kvaran in 1991, and then with the Klee Sketches, the first few of which were written at Skærved’s request in 1995 for a concert in an art exhibition in Mexico City. Three years ago, the composer happened upon them again and decided to revise—and in some cases recompose—these delightful miniatures, in the process extending the sequence to fifteen pieces.

The set is divided into two beautifully balanced books, allowing players to easily programme the whole set (as here, separated by Offerto) or smaller groupings; Nos 1-7 are in Book 1; Nos 8-15 in Book 2. ‘Beautifully balanced’ is the watchword here—that phrase neatly describes each piece individually as well the make-up of each Book, and Skærved’s immaculate playing. An hour of unaccompanied violin playing might not sound as if would be to everyone’s taste but trust me—you will never hear a more perfectly attuned and harmonious player than Skærved, whether with his instrument or in putting his considerable expertise at the service of the composer. This disc is just a joy from first note to last.