Rendezvous at Harpa With Renowned Composers

An exciting event is coming up at Harpa Concert Hall tomorrow afternoon, April 3, at 4 pm. Beloved Icelandic soprano Diddú and acclaimed saxophonist Sigurður Flosason team up with five instrumentalists of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in a one-hour musical program, featuring chamber works and songs of different styles and origin. The event takes place in the Northern Lights Hall.

The program includes the following works:

Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet, which he completed in 1914. Among the three pieces, he was particularly fond of the third one and claimed that a certain section of it was “some of the best music of that time.”

Jazz-legend Chick Corea composed his set of twenty short pieces for piano, Children’s Songs, in the span of 13 years, starting 1971. In an arrangement for soprano saxophone and string quartet, Sigurður Flosason and the string players will give you a glimpse of Corea’s creativity.

Diddú will sing several songs composed by Jóhann G. Jóhannsson to the lyrics of Halldór Laxness and Þórarinn Eldjárn.

Some of Italian Nino Rota’s most treasured tunes will be presented in Jóhannsson’s musical medley arrangement for alto saxophone and string trio, Themes from Fellini’s films. 

You will hear a work by Elena Katz-Chernin, an Uzbekistan-born composer, well known for her diverse musical works, of which Russian Rag is the most popular one.

Finally, Rendezvous is a collection of twelve miniature pieces for violin, tenor saxophone and marimba recently written by J.G. Jóhannsson (premiere). 

For classical music enthusiasts, Harpa is clearly the place to be tomorrow afternoon.