Aequilibria

For chamber orchestra
Duration 14 min.
Instrumentation: afl.bcl.bn / hn.tbn / pf / str[1.1.1.1.1]

Commissioned by BIT20 Ensemble and premiered in Bergen in September 2014, conducted by Baldur Brönnimann.

Aquilibria was among the NY Times’s “25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2018”, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble and conducted by Steven Schick.

The work is featured on Anna’s 2018 portrait album on Aequa (Sono Luminus).

Selected reviews:
”Mostly, [Thorvaldsdottir’s] works are dark meditations that first tap into a sense of melancholy desolation, but then gradually and relentlessly morph into strange, otherworldly structures. You hear that most directly in “Aequilibria” for large chamber ensemble (2014), the biggest work on “Aequa.” A cello drone gives way to busy, distant- sounding string and wind passages; brass writing moves between ominous, sustained tone, textured buzzing and Wagnerian heft, and a mournful alto flute line hovers briefly over a bleak ensemble texture. Shortly before the piece ends, unexpected percussion bursts and delicate piano tracery push the music toward an eerie landscape— a musical equivalent of magical realism.” - Allan Kozinn, The Wall Street Journal

"[Aequilibria] serves as something of a paradigm for [Thorvaldsdóttir’s] work as a whole. … The way that Þorvaldsdóttir creates textural fabrics of pure obfuscation is rather marvellous to behold." - Simon Cummings, 5:4

Instrumentation:
Alto flute, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trombone, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello & double bass.