BBC Full Immersion: Icelandic Chill review – Ambience, flower pots and drones on a diverse day of new music | classical music

DDespite its modest population of around 400,000 – roughly the size of the city of Bristol – Iceland punches well above its weight artistically. Musicians from Víkingur Ólafsson to Björk, and composers from the so-called First Icelandic School regularly top the bill in concert halls around the world. But is there such a thing as the Icelandic sound?

The Afternoon Program for Chamber and Choral Music suggested not to do so. By widening its network, the European mainstream of the twentieth century was increasingly visible. Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s seven pieces for violin and cello, elegantly performed by Phoebe Russochatzky and Kosta Popović, were probably composed by Schnittke. A tribute to major Soviet artists, it included an appropriately tense portrait of Shostakovich.

The choral works, performed flawlessly by the BBC Singers, were more idiomatically Icelandic, and were rooted in explicit Lutheranism. Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s sparse, resonant “Hear Us in Heaven” was the best; Hjálmar H Ragnarsson suggested the refreshing Ave Maria to Poulenc. More experimental works, such as Thorvaldsdottir’s twisting sequences For bass flute, clarinet, baritone sax, and bassoon, it was interesting, if less realistic, than its stunning orchestral pieces.

If anyone defines the current Icelandic aesthetic, it’s Thorvaldsdottir, so it was a shame that none of her music appeared in the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s evening concert. As it stands, a couple of works from previous projects have been reused with varying success. “Another Kind of Peace” by Ólafur Arnalds, here receiving its world premiere, was a collaboration with composer Victor Uri Arnason. A symphonic suite based on Arnalds’ album of the same name, it didn’t quite hide its ambient roots, coming across as a series of intros that generally went nowhere, and with beefed-up orchestrations that felt insufficiently differentiated.

Most successful was Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Dreamland Suite, arranged from his score for a 2008 documentary examining the impact of a hydroelectric power station in the country’s eastern highlands. Intermittently, and under the supervision of conductor Christian Carlsen, the music nevertheless failed to capture the visceral impact promised by movements with titles like Helter Smelter.

The most individual voice on display was that of Bára Gísladóttir, here performing the UK premiere of her double bass concerto, Hringla. Delivered to a high, sustained drone, sampling and playback in real time, they pitted their rousing lines against an orchestra often required to explore expansive techniques. It was a turbulent and special thing, and a strangely beautiful thing.

Daniel Bjarnason’s I Want to Be Alive was the night’s longest work, a 40-minute triptych about the dangers of unbridled artificial intelligence refracted through the mythical prisms of the Echo, Narcissus, and Pandora’s box. The abrupt, shifting opening movement gave way to reflective central vocal clusters, before the colorful rhythm section, flower pots and all, built up to the lively, predatory finale. Bjarnason’s work could usefully lose 10 minutes, but what a sonic fantasy it is.