Jón Leifs - Edda, Part 1. The Creation of the World (Hermann Bäumer)

Information

Composer: Jón Leifs

• Edda, Part 1: The Creation of the World

Gunnar Guðbjörnsson, tenor

Bjarni Thor Kristinsson, bass-baritone

Schola Cantorum

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Hermann Bäumer, conductor

Date: 2007

Label: BIS

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Review

Jón Leifs was a true original and his Edda oratorio cycle was one of his most original inspirations. Planned in the 1920s as a single oratorio on the Völuspá, it grew into an epic tetralogy – though without a hint of Wagnerian romanticism – covering the world’s creation, its gods, “Twilight” and “Resurrection” setting a patchwork text which reads like a compendium on each subject. Sadly, Leifs only lived to complete the first two parts.

The 13 movements of “The Creation of the World” (1932-39) tell of the giant mir and his death at the hands of Odin and his brothers and their fashioning of the Earth, Sea and Heavens – and the first men –from the corpse; the remaining sections then describe its nature. To relate this epic narrative Leifs deployed a huge orchestra with a large percussion section (including rocks struck with hammers), organ, ocarina, bagpipes and a quartet of lurs, reconstructions of ancient Viking horns. Yet the orchestration – occasionally unleashed to sensational effect – is mostly used with restraint, nowhere more so than in the huge eighth movement, “Night, Morning”, where the dynamics rarely rise above piano.

This performance, recorded in the wake of the work’s long overdue complete premiere in 2006, sounds thrilling, the BIS surround engineering catching the huge dynamic range, weight and delicacy of sound. Bäumer holds everything together with finesse and the orchestra play the atmospheric accompaniment marvellously. The main plaudits go, however, to the chorus who sing their extremely difficult parts with compelling conviction. Leifs’s slightly ungainly style may not be to everyone’s taste but his score is far more varied than first impressions suggest. Like it or loathe it, this is one of the recording events of the year.

— Guy Rickards

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Jón Leifs (1 May 1899 – 30 July 1968) was an Icelandic composer, pianist and conductor. Born in Iceland, he left for Germany in 1916 to study at the Leipzig Conservatory, graduating in 1921. During this period he also encountered Ferruccio Busoni, who urged him to "follow his own path in composition". Beginning with piano arrangements of Icelandic folk songs, Leifs started an active career as a composer in the 1920s. In 1945 he moved back to Iceland, and became a fierce proponent of music education and of artists' rights. Most of his works is inspired by Icelandic natural phenomena and classic Icelandic sagas.

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Hermann Bäumer (born 28 January 1965 in Bielefeld) is a German trombonist and conductor. He received his degree in trombone from the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, and studied conducting at the Hochschule "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig while being a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. From 2004 to 2011 he was General Music Director of the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra and received an ECHO Klassik for his recording of Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Symphonies. Since 2011 Bäumer has been Chief Conductor of the Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra and General Music Director of the Mainz State Theater.

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