It is good to have the chance to get acquainted with a cross-section of Icelandic orchestral music, in thoroughly well-prepared performances, moreover, and sympathetic recordings. That, and the chance to enjoy some unpretentious, mild-mannered pieces, is in a nutshell what this disc offers.
Pall Isolfsson's March and Ovenure are in relaxed-Walton vein, well-shaped if rather discursive and promising more than they ultimately deliver. Similarly ingratiating, and unashamedly sub-romantic, are Arni Bjornsson's two Romances warmly played by Sigrun Edvaldsdottir. The two movements of Jon Leifs's incidental music to Galdra-Loftur (''Loftur the Magician'') are more obviously Nordic in tone, without suggesting an imagination stretched much beyond the obvious while the Sibelianisms of Karl Runolfsson's On Crossroads are scarcely more individual.
An informative disc, then, but one of slender musical rewards.'