HALLGRIMSSON, H.: Cello Concerto / Herma (Mork, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Storgards)

Chronique

Icelandic composer Haflidi Hallgrímsson began his career as a cellist and was the principal cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra before retiring to devote himself to composition. It's especially fitting, then, that the Scottish Chamber Orchestra plays two of his works for cello and orchestra on this CD, his Herma (1995) and Cello Concerto (2003). Hallgrímsson wrote the concerto for featured soloist Truls Mørk, who has performed it, as well as Herma, many times. Mørk, who won a Grammy for his performance of the Britten cello suites, plays with intensity, full conviction, and a richly varied palette of tonal colors, and he highlights the warm lyricism of the solo line. Both works hover between a dark tonality and atonality. Hallgrímsson's voice is essentially impressionistic and evocative, and his music is its most appealing when he's expressing a slightly edgy melancholy with delicacy and transparency, as at the closing of Herma. Both works are satisfying in their construction and emotional trajectory, and conductor John Storgårds captures both the music's sense of drama and its many moments of iridescent timelessness. These are attractive works that are not undemanding, but do reward attentive listening with their quiet colors and strong lyrical impulse. Ondine's sound is clean and warmly atmospheric, but not especially deep.
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