ARCHORA (2022)

Quasi-Stravinskian conflicts abound in one, tautly written movement; through subterranean drones and pulses overlaid with chord clusters and brittle, percussive slaps.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is about mass and density, how different planes of sounds collide and combine, and how intricately detailed textures evolve over time. Those qualities make the orchestra the obvious medium for her work, and it has largely been through her sequence of strikingly effective orchestral scores that the Iceland-born composer has become recognised as one of the most distinctive voices in European music today. Only eight weeks ago the CBSO introduced Thorvaldsdottir’s magnificent CATAMORPHOSIS to the UK, and the BBC Philharmonic’s Prom under Eva Ollikainen began with the world premiere of another immensely impressive study in sonority, ARCHORA, co-commissioned by the BBC with five other orchestras.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s newest work, ARCHORA, was given a terrific Proms premiere... [It] is a score that will travel far, and not just because it is a co-commission by many of the world’s leading musical organizations. ... Full of surprises yet satisfyingly logical, Thorvaldsdottir’s brand of Nordic spectralism is summed up in this work.

Following the UK premiere of METACOSMOS at the Proms in 2019, Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir returned with a world premiere of a BBC co-commission, ARCHORA. From the former highly impressive Proms debut, one saw some similar trademarks in tonight’s equally striking work... Thorvaldsdottir uses the orchestra to create remarkably haunting atmospheres and textures.