Further Information

This year Hafliði is celebrating his eightieth birthday. Such an occasion inevitably invites an assessment of a long carrier both as a cellist and a composer.
He has felt the need for some time to give some order to and make a selection from old recordings of himself as a cellist. He has the following to say on that subject:

As we sat down one day for our evening meal in our flat in Edinburgh many years ago, one of our two younger sons surprised me by asking; “ Daddy, I have seen you play the cello many times in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but I have never heard you play as a soloist”. Are there any recordings ?.

This remark prompted me to start to look out for recordings of my playing as a cellist.

In the State Broadcasting Corporation (Rúv.) in Reykjavík, I found a number of recordings that I had made in the past, and I was reasonably satisfied with.
I also found a box in a cupboard in our flat with a number of cassettes, with recordings from various recitals I had given over the years.
None of the recordings that have been selected here, were made with the thought, that they might be released on a CD in the future.

The idea of releasing a CD of my cello playing rarely entered my head, and if that idea presented itself, it was soon forgotten.

I look upon the selection of these old recordings more as an archive recordings, that give an idea of what my playing was really like ,”warts and all”.
There are recordings of chamber music, as I always felt at my best as a musician when performing chamber music, and playing in chamber groups became over the years an important part of my life.

Our plan when selecting recordings for release, was to try to give a wide-ranging examples of my cello playing, and what I liked performing during the years from c. 1970 to 1985.

Some recordings have been left out as there is a limit to what can be presented on two CD´s.
For that reason there are only one or two movements from some of a very substantial works. The final selection gives a good idea of the cello music that interested me from the classical period, and the 20th century.

In preparation is a double CD and a approximately 50 pages of texts and photos where Hallgrímsson looks back on his carrier as a cellist. The recordings are mostly live from concerts in Reykjavík and London.

Hallgrímsson is accompanied by:

Anna Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Piano
Manuela Wiesler, Flute
Robert Bottone, Piano
Philip Jenkins, Piano
Ólafur Vignir Albertsson, Piano
Halldór Haraldsson, Piano
Einar Jóhannesson, Klarinet
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Cond. Guido Ajmone-Marsan