HLíF SIGURJóNSDóTTIR

• Hróðmar Ingi Sigurbjörnsson: Kurìe

“Hlif Sigurjonsdottir provides us with an absorbing unaccompanied program... The music has a contemporary modern flair, to be sure, yet often enough there are Bachian roots in the way the melodic development freely unwinds… every composer has his or her own distinctiveness so that the program maintains interest and generates appreciation throughout... Every work poses a interpretive puzzle that Ms. Sigurjonsdottir solves and realizes with poetic grace and, as needed, considerable technical abilities. She would seem the ideal medium of these works… Hlif gives us a detailed and beautiful reading of these works. Concentrated, focused and impressively linear and often contemplative, or alternately stirring. The more I listen to this one, the more I find to appreciate. The music...stays with you long after the performances are done. Very worthwhile music in peerless performance! Highly recommended.”

Gapplegate Classical Review [30 April 2015]

“Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir plays six examples of ways in which contemporary composers have [attempted to produce solo-violin music of substantial interest]... these pieces all show an understanding of the violin’s technical and expressive capabilities, and all make suitable demands of the soloist without being display pieces for their own sake – indeed, several lean far more to the contemplative side than to that of virtuosity... The music is varied and sometimes clever, with the two longest works here – both of them collections of comparatively short movements – being the most intricate and involving... [the composers] write more than adequately for solo violin and all are treated with equal care and attentiveness in Sigurjónsdóttir’s performances.”

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [April 2015]

“One of the greatest delights of writing about music is unexpectedly encountering a recording of unfamiliar repertory that after a single hearing has managed not only to introduce a previously-unknown artist but also to enrich and enlarge one’s understanding of a beloved instrument... I cannot deny that, before hearing this disc, my appreciation of music for unaccompanied violin did not extend much beyond Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1001 - 1006 Sonatas and Partitas. In this case, ignorance was at best false bliss: not knowing the music on Dialogus was tantamount to a drastically compromised awareness of the violin’s capabilities. Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir is not only a world-class violinist. In the context of this disc, she is also an amazingly effective educator who enlarged the understanding of this writer, who at heart was still a daft boy who erroneously thought that he knew a thing or two about the fiddle... Ms. Sigurjónsdóttir is indeed a musical sorceress... Dialogus is a disc from which I learned much about an instrument I mistakenly thought that I knew intimately. Beautifully recorded, thoughtfully presented, and sumptuously played, the music on this disc unveils new possibilities for the violin… this talented lady transforms her strings and bow into conduits for an electrical surge of discovery. If more discs shared the zeal that makes Dialogus such a success, who would dare suggest that Classical Music is an expiring art?”

Joey Newsome, Voix des arts [April 2015]

Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir was born in Denmark, of a Danish mother and Icelandic father, and grew up in Iceland. Upon graduation from the Reykjavík College of Music, she furthered her violin studies at the Universities of Indiana and Toronto where her teachers were Franco Gulli and Lorand Fenyves, and at the Banff School of Fine Arts. Later she took private lessons in New York from the renowned violinist and teacher Gerald Beal. During the time of her studies, she was fortunate to work with many of the leading musicians of the twentieth century, including William Primrose, Janos Starker, Georges Janzer, György Sebok and the members of the Hungarian quartet; Zoltán Székely, Mihaly Kuttner, Denes Koromzay and Gabor Magyar. Hlíf has given numerous concerts as a soloist and with various ensembles and orchestras. She has premiered a number of works, some of which were dedicated to her.

Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir er fædd í Kaupmannahöfn en ólst upp í Reykjavík. Hún nam fiðluleik hjá Birni Ólafssyni konsertmeistara við Tónlistarskólann í Reykjavík og fór síðar til framhaldsnáms við Háskólana í Indiana og Toronto og Listaskólann í Banff. Einnig nam hún hjá Gerald Beal fiðluleikara í New York borg. Á námsárum sínum kynntist hún og vann með mörgum merkustu tónlistarmönnum tuttugustu aldarinnar, þar á meðal William Primrose, Zoltan Szekely, György Sebök, Rucciero Ricci og Igor Oistrach. Hlíf hefur haldið fjölda einleikstónleika og leikið með sinfóníuhljómsveitum og kammersveitum víða um Evrópu, í Bandaríkjunum og Kanada. Hún hefur frumflutt mörg tónverk sem samin hafa verið sérstaklega fyrir hana. Hlíf hefur leikið inn á upptökur fyrir útvarp og sjónvarp og nokkra geisladiska við frábæran orðstír. Í ágúst 2008 kom út tvöfaldur geisladiskur með leik hennar á öllum þremur sónötum og þremur partítum eftir Johann Sebastian Bach.

www.HlifSigurjons.is
  JÓNAS TÓMASSON
VETRARTRÉ / WINTER TREES (1983)
góð tré / good trees
sorgmædd tré / sad tree
óð tré / mad trees
þögul… / quiet ...

RÚNA INGIMUNDAR
AÐ HEIMAN / FROM MY HOME (2012)

KARÓLÍNA EIRÍKSDÓTTIR
HUGLEIÐING / MEDITATION (1996)

HRÓÐMAR INGI SIGURBJÖRNSSON
KURÌE (2012)

ALFRED FELDER
TILBRIGÐI VIÐ / VARIATIONS ON VICTIMAE PASCHALI LAUDES (1987)

MERRILL CLARK
SEIÐKONAN / THE SORCERESS - SIGURJÓNSDÓTTIR SONATA (2010)
Preludio
Song
Fuga
Waltz Scherzo
Ciaconna
 



MSR Classics