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She makes music that shifts from barely-there sonorities to viscera-quaking climaxes – and top orchestras the world over want to perform it. Our writer joins the composer for tea at her sanctuary in the rolling English countrysideArtists’ workspaces are often revealing. Think of maverick painter Maggi Hambling’s studio, which she once described as “the largest ash-tray in Suffolk”. Or the dark, solid Brontë parsonage on the edge of the windswept Pennines. Or Gustav Mahler’s composing huts where he retreated from urban life – and his punishing conducting schedule – to concentrate on producing symphonies.The thought of Mahler constructing those vast musical architectures in such tiny spaces can be mind-boggling, but it’s nothing in comparison to the cognitive dissonance of visiting Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir at home in rural Surrey. Continue reading...