(World Première Recording) Few composers have been as consistently preoccupied with their national origins as Jón Leifs, who only found his calling as a composer...

(World Première Recording) Few composers have been as consistently preoccupied with their national origins as Jón Leifs, who only found his calling as a composer when he encountered a collection of Icelandic folk music. From the very beginning, Iceland, its music and myths, its landscape and climate furnished him with the material for almost all of his compositions. And from the very beginning Leifs knew that he wanted to create a great oratorio using texts from the Edda, Iceland's national treasure. The scoring is among Leifs' most colourful and inspired, including the composer's signature Nordic lurs and an extended percussion section. This landmark in Icelandic music is performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Schola Cantorum choir under the baton of Hermann Bäumer - a constellation that last came together on disc on the highly acclaimed Viking's Answer, the previous Leifs' release on BIS.