This selection of recent works for solo violin, and for violin and strings, presents music by three highly-regarded contemporary Nordic composers, Finn Esa-Pekka Salonen (also renowned as a conductor), Icelander Haflidi Hallgrimsson and Dane Poul Ruders.

The CD title is taken from the first movement of Hallgrimson’s Offerto, an elegy dedicated to the memory of his friend, the Icelandic artist Karl Kvaran. The soloist is Sølve Sigerland, violinist of the Grieg Trio, and in Hallgrimsson’ Poemi, he’s accompanied by the Risør Festival Strings conducted by Per Kristian Skalstad.

Each movement of Edinburgh-based Haflidi Hallgrimsson’s solo violin piece Offerto has been given titles from Karl Kvaran’s paintings, and frequently the movement of the bow across the violin strings seems to echo or reflect the movement of the artist's brush across a canvas. The violin concerto Poemi is connected to another visual artist, namely Marc Chagall and his paintings with themes from the Old Testament.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is, of course, one of the most sought after conductors today, and he took lessons so that he could conduct his own music, which he has composed throughout his career. Lachen verlernt was written in 2002 and premiered that August by the violinist Cho-Liang Lin at the La Jolla SummerFest in California.

Poul Ruders is by now generally recognised as the most significant of modern Danish composers, and his works are performed more frequently around the world than almost all of his contemporaries. Variations for solo violin emerges as a melancholic but deeply-felt monologue, which only finds peace in the soft final bars.