BBC SO Total Immersion: Icelandic Chill - Chamber and Choral Icelandic Treasures

The human voice is the oldest of all instruments, and in the untamed landscape of Iceland, song can often be the strongest sound of all. Sofi Jeannin conducts the BBC Singers in a voyage of discovery through Iceland’s centuries-old vocal tradition: timeless harmonies, both ancient and ultra-modern.

First, though, the superb young artists of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama perform chamber music by Icelandic composers. “Everyone in my family was musicians, so it was the normal thing to do in my household” says composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, and amid the epic solitude of Iceland this is music with an intensely human soul – finding beauty in isolation, and glowing with emotion in the long Northern nights.