Jón Leifs - String Quartets (Yggdrasil Quartet)

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Composer: Jón Leifs

• (01) Mors et vita. Quartetto I, Op. 21
• (02) Vita et mors. Quartetto II, Op. 36
• (05) El Greco. Quartetto III, Op. 64

Yggdrasil QuartetFredrik Paulsson, violin
Per Öman, violin
Robert Westlund, viola
Per Nyström, cello

Date: 1994
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/composer/leifs-jon/leifs-the-three-string-quartets

These three quartets epitomise Icelandic composer Jón Leifs (1899-1968) as the musical pioneer and free-thinker that he was. Written without preconception, they demand the same of their listeners. The First is an austere, ever-unpredictable single movement, based on the parallel fifths of the medieval tvísöngur; the passionate and searching Second, in memory of his drowned daughter, perhaps the greatest of them all. The Swedish Yggdrasil Quartet does Leifs proud in performances of real understanding and conviction. -- Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine

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Jón Leifs (1 May 1899 – 30 July 1968), was an Icelandic composer, pianist, and conductor. Born in Iceland, he left for Germany in 1916 to study at the Leipzig Conservatory and graduated in 1921. During this period he also studied composition with Ferruccio Busoni. Beginning with piano arrangements of Icelandic folk songs, Leifs started an active career as a composer in the 1920s. In 1945 he moved back to Iceland, and became a fierce proponent of music education and of artists' rights. Most of his works is inspired by Icelandic natural phenomena and classic Icelandic sagas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3n_Leifs

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The Yggdrasil Quartet was formed in 1990. Its members studied at the same time at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, went on to further studies with György Kurtag and Norbert Brainin. During the 1990s, the quartet emerged as one of the most exciting new string quartets and has become a champion of new quartet music in Europe. Contemporary composers have been attracted by their virtuosity and sympathy for modern style. Their first recording was a set of string quartets by Icelandic composer Jon Leifs, which won the Cannes MIDEM Award for the best chamber music disc of 1996.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yggdrasil-quartet-mn0002186899

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