Barbican, London This celebration of Iceland’s outsize musical talents was a mixed bag, but highlights such as Bára Gísladóttir’s double bass concerto and Daníel Bjarnason’s I Want to Be Alive revealed singular and innovative voices Despite its modest population of about 400,000 – that’s roughly the size of Bristol – Iceland punches significantly above its weight, artistically. Musicians from Víkingur Ólafsson to Björk, and composers from what has been called the First Icelandic School regularly top the bill in concert halls worldwide. But is there such a thing as an Icelandic sound? An afternoon programme of chamber and choral music suggested not. Casting its net wide, the 20th-century European mainstream was much in evidence. Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Seven Epigrams for violin and cello, stylishly performed by Phoebe Rousochatzaki and Kosta Popovic, might have been by Schnittke. A homage to leading Soviet artists, it included a suitably jittery portrait of Shostakovich. Continue reading...