{{Primary sources, date=August 2010 ''Maximus Musicus'' is an Icelandic children's franchise, including books, CDs, DVDs and family concert programs, aimed at introducing symphonic music to children. The story and part of the music was written by

Hallfríður Ólafsdóttir Hallfríður Ólafsdóttir (12 July 1964 – 4 September 2020) was an Icelandic flautist, music pedagogue and writer. She did chamber music for the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted orchestra with several symphony orchestras and was a flute t ...

, principal flautist of the

Iceland Symphony Orchestra Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands (Iceland Symphony Orchestra) (ISO) is an Icelandic orchestra based in Reykjavík, Iceland. Its primary concert venue is the Harpa Concert Hall. The Iceland Symphony is an autonomous public institution under the aus ...

. The books are illustrated by Þórarinn Már Baldursson, a violist in the

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

. Conductor and pianist

Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...

is the program's patron.

Books

The first book introduces Maximus, a mouse that finds his way into a concert hall, and enjoys many adventures as he explores the world of the symphonic orchestra rehearsing there. It was first published in Iceland in 2008 along with an audio CD. The second book of the series tells of Maximus exploring a school of music. It was published in 2010 along with an audio CD.

Concerts

Each story of Maximus is designed to be performed by a full symphonic orchestra, a narrator and

silent actor A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

playing the part of Maximus. Accompanying the performance are illustrations from the books, projected to an onstage screen. The story is told to an abridged

Boléro ''Boléro'' is a 1928 work for large orchestra by French composer Maurice Ravel. At least one observer has called it Ravel's most famous composition. It was also one of his last completed works before illness forced him into retirement. Co ...

, the first movement of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

’s Fifth and Copland’s

Fanfare for the Common Man ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' is a musical work by the American composer Aaron Copland. It was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens and was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that year b ...

as well as Maxi’s Song, composed by author Hallfríður, and the Icelandic all-time favourite “

Á Sprengisandi Á, á ( a-acute) is a letter of the Chinese (Pinyin), Blackfoot, Czech, Dutch, Faroese, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Lakota, Navajo, Occitan, Portuguese, Sámi, Slovak, Spanish, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Western Apache languages ...

” by

Sigvaldi Kaldalóns Sigvaldi Kaldalóns (Stefánsson) (13 January 1881 – 28 July 1946) was an Icelandic composer and doctor. Unlike the avant-garde composers of his day, he wrote in a traditional romantic style and composed many of Iceland's most famous and widely ...

Reception

Maximus Musicus became very popular upon introduction in Iceland in 2008 and was both financially and critically successful for both authors and the ISO, as the family-concerts were uniformly sold out. The second installment became no less of a success on its release in 2010. Maximus Musicus has gained international attention as the program has been translated from the Icelandic into English, German, Dutch, Portuguese (Brasil) and Korean. The series is published domestically by Forlagið and internationally by Schott. The concert program has been performed live in Iceland, the Netherlands, Germany, the US and Australia.

External links

MaximusMusicus.com

Maximus on Facebook
Icelandic books