Attacca!

Barbara Hannigan, the new principal conductor and artistic director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducts a unique season opening concert where time and space merge. The concert is entitled Attacca!, a term used in music when sections or works are performed without a break between them. The evening begins with moving music for percussion and brass by American composer Charles Ives, which leads us into the premiere of Undark by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's new composer in residence, Hugi Guðmundsson. Together, we will also get to experience the most famous silence in music history for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

This famous work is by the experimentalist John Cage, who wanted to awaken the listener to awareness of their own body, their environment, and the fact that there is no such thing as absolute silence. The concert ends with Mahler's First Symphony resounding in all its grandeur.