midi.is

Masterpieces by Jón Leifs and Sveinn Lúðvík
The Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra String Quartet

Rut Ingólfsdóttir, violin
Sigurlaug Eðvaldsdóttir, violin
Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir, viola
Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson, violoncello

3. Sunday June 3rd at 12.15 in Kaldalón
Jón Leifs   Quartetto I op. 21 Mors etr vita
Haukur Tómasson  Langur skuggi for stringseptet

Icelandic composer Jón Leifs (1899 –1968) is one of Iceland‘s most interesting composers. Many of his works are about Icelandic natural phenomena like in the piece Hekla he depicts the eruption of the volcano Hekla which he witnessed and Dettifoss (Op. 57) was inspired by the Dettifoss waterfall, the most powerful in Europe.

Jón Leifs wrote 3 string-quartets, Mors et vita op. 21, Vita et mors op. 36 and El Greco op. 64.

Mors et vita he wrote at the beginning of the World War II, when he lived in Berlin.

Vita et mors he wrote in Sweden 1948-1951 in memory of his younger daughter, Líf who drowned in a swimming accident off the coast of Sweden. Líf in Icelandic means vita which means life.

El Greco Jón Leifs wrote in 1965 after taking part in the ISCM conference in Madrid. He made a trip to Toledo to see El Greco‘s works. The string-quartet expresses his reflections on five of El Greco‘s paintings.