27. February 2026

New Album – Daníel Bjarnason and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra

SONO LUMINUS RELEASES THE GROTESQUE & THE SUBLIME, RECENT WORKS BY COMPOSER/CONDUCTOR DANÍEL BJARNASON – FEAST, FRAGILE HOPE, AND INFERNO – WITH THE COMPOSER LEADING THE ICELAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Album also features pianist Frank Dupree and percussionist Vivi Vassileva

“The star performers … are the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, well directed by Daniel Bjarnason, whose understanding of the various styles, the underlying expressivity and sheer virtuosity of interpretation are wholly involving.”

(Gramophone on the album Concurrence)

Nordic music scholar Andrew Mellor, in the booklet notes for The Grotesque & The Sublime, points out that Bjarnason's music takes “a more thematic, less spectral approach than that of Icelandic fashion but one that still sees Bjarnason reveling in the properties of sound itself. The composer's storytelling instincts lie behind the satisfying dramatic through-line that can be sensed in many of his scores and which is often realized by the carrying of one musical idea through to an end point.”

The first work on the album, the piano concerto FEAST, illustrates Mellor's point about minimal materials. Composed for Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, FEAST is for the most part an extensive working out of the simple rising motif that opens the piece. But – unusually for the composer – added to that purely musical idea is a pre-existing narrative: the short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. Bjarnason originally had in mind using the Covid-19 pandemic as a departure point for reflecting on mass afflictions throughout the ages and their influence on collective memory and archetypes. Already fascinated by the tradition of the Dance of Death, he happened upon Poe's work and was struck especially by the images of the impenetrable gates behind which the celebration was happening and the pendulum clock with chimes seemingly counting down the hours of life. Bjarnason's own program note to the work calls it both “a solemn reminder of death's inescapable embrace” and “a monument to life's fleeting beauty,” adding that the title “serves as a reminder to savor life's banquet with fervor and abandon while we still can.” FEAST was first performed by Ólafsson with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2022.

The music of Jóhann Jóhannsson has had a great influence on the current generation of Icelandic composers, of whom Bjarnason himself is an important figure that Andrew Mellor refers to as the nation's “foremost conductor.” Fragile Hope is Bjarnason's tribute to Jóhannsson and an ode to that period in Iceland's musical history when a distinct national aesthetic was emerging. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra had commissioned Bjarnason to compose a work reflecting on Icelandic nature, to which that aesthetic is inevitably and logically linked. The composer describes the piece as “a reflection on the beauty [Jóhannsson] brought to the world, through both light and shadow.” At the climax is a direct melodic reference to “Odi et Amo” from Jóhannsson's music for the Icelandic play Englabörn, which would become his breakthrough album in 2002. Fragile Hope was premiered under the baton of Christian Karlsen in 2024 at the Gothenburg Concert Hall.

Inferno refers to Dante's poem, but unlike the specificity of FEAST the narrative serves only as a vague symbolic background. The solo instruments – comparatively few for a contemporary percussion concerto – were chosen from the collection of Austrian percussionist Martin Grubinger, for whom the piece was written. Focusing on dark timbres, Bjarnason also selected instruments that would symbolically illustrate the journey to the underworld, beginning in the first movement with the tuned marimba and progressing to the txalaparta – a traditional Basque instrument made of wooden planks, with no fundamental pitch but a rich overtone spectrum. The soloist also plays drum kit, wood blocks, Japanese taiko drums, kick drum and timpani. The composer describes the txalaparta timbre as sounding “like she [soloist Vivi Vassileva] is in a ghost-world, trying to find the colors of life, but voiceless.” Inferno was first performed by Grubinger and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tomas Djupsjöbacka in 2022 at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. Bjarnason revised the work in 2024.

Daniel Bjarnason
Frank Dupree, piano
Vivi Vassileva, percussion
Daníel Bjarnason, conductor
Iceland Symphony Orchestra

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Daníel Bjarnason is one of Iceland's foremost musical voices today, in demand as a conductor, composer and programmer. He is Artist in Collaboration with The Iceland Symphony Orchestra, an appointment that follows his tenures as Principal Guest Conductor and Artist in Residence. 2025 saw the world premieres of two major works - a song cycle Hands on Me, premiered by the LA Philharmonic, and Bjarnason's first symphony-length work, I Want To Be Alive - Trilogy for Orchestra, premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Gustavo Gimeno. The latter is already scheduled to be performed by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Equally in demand as a conductor, Bjarnason has been invited by orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Tokyo Symphony orchestras. harrisonparrott.com/artists/daniel-bjarnason

Described as “an artist who thrills her audience, exploring and shifting the limits of the percussive world,” Vivi Vassileva is being celebrated not only for her technical perfection, but her astonishing virtuosity, combining agility and power in her performance, leading a new generation of percussionists in their pursuit to showcase percussion as the instrument of the 21st century. Recent highlights include the premiere of the percussion concerto A Savage Beat by Sauli Zinovjev with Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, concerts with Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Residentie Orchestra, a tour with Luxembourg Philharmonic, and recordings of two highly renowned percussion concertos, Daníel Bjarnason's Inferno with the Iceland Philharmonic Orchestra, and Gregor Mayrhofer's Recycling Concerto with the SWR Symphony Orchestra. Since 2023/24, she has been leading the Percussive Planet series at the Wiener Konzerthaus, which she took over from her former teacher Martin Grubinger. Vivi Vassileva is passionate about commissioning new works to expand the percussion repertoire, including works by Avner Dorman, Bushra El-Turk, Gregor Mayrhofer and Sauli Zinovjev. Renowned for her innovative programming style, Vivi Vassileva offers new, accessible and engaging ways for audiences to connect with percussion, such as the Recycling Concerto featuring instruments made from recycled materials, blending musical invention with environmental consciousness.

Frank Dupree, winner of the International Classical Music Award and the Opus Klassik, stands as one of the most versatile pianists and conductors of the new generation. Known for his infectious energy and unbridled enthusiasm, Dupree captivates audiences not only as a soloist, sharing the stage with renowned orchestras worldwide, but also as a play/direct artist, conductor, and the leader of his own jazz ensemble, the Frank Dupree Trio. Dupree's recordings of Nikolai Kapustin's piano concertos have attracted much international attention (New York Times: “One of the most entertaining and put-on-repeat recordings [of the] year”). From 2023, Frank Dupree has been the Artistic Partner of the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, performing several projects each season as both conductor and soloist. Recent highlights are his solo debut with London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano, hr-Sinfonieorchester / Patrick Hahn, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra / Santtu Matias Rouvali, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and Bern Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. In chamber music, he performed at New York Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tonhalle Zürich, Konzerthaus Wien, Brucknerhaus Linz and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.