Jón Leifs - Vikingasvar and works for voices and orchestra (Hermann Bäumer)

Information

Composer: Jón Leifs

• Viking's Answer (Víkingasvar), Op. 54
• The Lay of Helgi the Hunding-slayer (Helga kviða Hundingsbana), Op. 61
• Gróa's Spell (Grógaldr), Op. 62
• Jónas Hallgrímsson in memoriam (Jónasar minni Hallgrímssonar), Op. 48
• Spring Song (Vorvísa), Op. 46
• Landfall – Overture (Landsýn – forleikur), Op. 41
• Iceland Cantata (Þjóðhvöt – Íslandskantata), Op. 13

Guðrún Edda Gunnarsdóttir, alto

Ólafur Kjartan Sigurðarson, tenor

Hallgrímskirkja Motet Choir

Schola Cantorum

Fóstbræður Male Choir

Kársnesskóli boys’ choir

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Hermann Bäumer, conductor

Date: 2004

Label: BIS

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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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