Reykjavík Midsummer Music

„Nothing is more rewarding than watching dreams come true. Last year, Reykjavík Midsummer Music held great promise - and turned out to be spectacular. This year's festival already promises to excel the first one, though its vision and choice of works are decidedly different. Reykjavík Midsummer Music will be in a distinct key each year. It is very important to us in Harpa to support those who perform in our house and to contribute to the thriving musical life of Iceland. We are proud to be able to present, for the second time around, Reykjavík Midsummer Music, a music festival which has come to stay in Harpa.“

— Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir, Music Director, Harpa

Why anachronism?

The American pianist and scholar Charles Rosen was absolutely spot-on when he said that "the death of classical music is perhaps its oldest continuing tradition".

Reykjavík Midsummer Music 2013 takes part in this greatest epilogue in history with devotion and pride, this time examining the musical trends and currents that go in and out of vogue (and, very often, in again); how composers and audiences experience their place in history and how they deal with the anachronisms they harbour within themselves.

Involved are a hundred metronomes that instead of keeping time throw it off the track, brand new silent films, old-fashioned composers that turned out to be years ahead of their future, the almost incomprehensibly avant-garde madrigals of murderous genius Gesualdo, a peculiar ode to Beethoven, a 240 year old square piano making its Icelandic debut, and finally two memorable calls to a world of yesterday.

— Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson