Niklas Sivelöv is very happy and honoured to be appointed a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog by Her Majesty The Queen for his work with Classical Musicin Denmark as a performer and teacher.
Standing ovations at the Fabio Lozano Auditorium for Beethoven Concertos 2 & 3 with The Philharmonic Orchestra in Bogota and Maestro Gustafsson! It was recorded for TV and also recorded during the previous week for AMC/Amchara Classical as the 2nd volyme of 4 with the complete Concertos by Beethoven.
Beethoven Concertos 2 & 3Swedish pianist Niklas Sivelöv is one of the most versatile, bold pianists on the international music scene. The artist from Sweden combines flawless technique with a keen sense of musical depth. His interpretations are not only technically brilliant, but also characterized by an emotional authenticity that speaks directly to the listenerDirk Strauss The Merker Beethoven Sonatas opus 2 on Graf HammerklavierThe pianist, who has previously shown that he can interpret with the great romantic schwung, captures the essence of Beethoven by understanding and conveying how already in these sonatas strong l forces press on the music from within and push it forward with a hellish ferocity that is new and wild. A devilish madness that precisely makes the Viennese classic Beethoven point towards the following romanticism”6 star review by Thomas Michelsen Politiken Sivelov Symphonies no 1 & 5Robert McQuistonClassical Lost and Found, June 2023 Swedish conductor Joachim Gustafsson and the Malmö Opera Orchestra…deliver superb accounts of both selections. In that regard, the MalOpO musicians deserve a big round of applause for the many, demanding, solo-instrumental passages they play so well, particularly in the later symphony. That said, both works will leave listeners with a strong desire to hear Sivelöv’s other five works in this genre. © 2023 Classical Lost and Found Burkhard SchäferFono Forum March 2023 (4,5 Stars)Überhaupt is der Schwede ein Meister der Orkestrierung und Klangfarben auch in seiner “Concerto for Orchestra” betitelten Sinfonie Nr. 5 aus dem Jahr 2020. Das Werk versteht sich als ein Diptychon, dessen zwei Sätze nich konstrastieren, sondern ihr musikalisches Material wechselseitig spiegeln Stephen GreenbankMusicWeb International, January 2023 The recorded sound is exemplary, allowing all the instrumental details to be fully savoured. The Malmö Opera Orchestra under the inspirational direction of Joachim Gustafsson offer enthusiastic and convincing performances… Sivelöv’s music has an appealing freshness and makes for a compelling listen. © 2023 MusicWeb International Stephen PageLark Reviews, December 2022 Further exciting contemporary Swedish sounds are to be found on this CD. The two symphonies here by Sivelöv date from 2013 and 2020. Both make great use of variety of timbre, tonality and rhythm. There is a stark, stripped back feel to the opening of the 5th Symphony which contrasts hugely with some of the more energetic writing of other movements here. © 2022 Lark Reviews Barry ForshawClassical CD Choice, November 2022 …it…rewards close attention, particularly performances as persuasive as they are here. Niklas Sivelöv has proved a prolific symphonist over the past ten years or so, with six completed symphonies and a seventh currently in progress. © 2022 Classical CD Choice Thomas MichelsenPolitiken November 2022 Sivelövs musik kendte jeg ikke. Nu har jeg opdaget den, og han er en skøn symfoniker, der kan skrive bredt, mørkt og manende for orkester. En ensom orientalsk stemme dukker op i den nordiske kontekst, for verden i dag er globaliseret. Men det dystre og kompakte er helt tydeligt musikkens dna, og for mig at høre er denne musik et indre anliggende. Sjæl og psyke er fortættet til intense noder. Efter et skrig, som kunne være malet af Edvard Munch, graver symfonien sig ind i sig selv – meget nordisk, personligt og privat forekommer det mig – inden Sivelöv med inspiration fra gode gamle Stravinsky lader musikken slutte dansende, med neoklassicistiske rytmiske træk i en stampende katastrofeopspændt og måske lige lovlig lang, men tydeligvis så meget desto mere ægte følt finaleafslutning. Beethoven Concertos vol. 1Camilla LundbergOpus MagasinTransatlantic TitanNiklas Sivelov is a wide-ranging and creative pianist who is also successful as a composer.I like his vigilant playing for example in the finale of the 4th concertoIt would be nice if this project could develop into a more extensive collaboration between Latin America and Scandinavia Emilio Sanmiguel El SemanaThe performance of the pianist Sivelöv is excellent, managing to blend the piano with the orchestra. And Gustafsson knows exactly what he does; energetic enough in turning the Bogota Philharmonics into an international phenomenon.” Bach WTCClassics TodayJed DistlerCollectors familiar with the subjective, Romantically tinged 5-CD WTC cycles by Roger Woodward and Andrei Vieru will find Lepauw’s likeminded conceptions more consistently thought out and sustained, as well as sonically superior. Consider Lepauw a fascinating antipode to the straightforward and stylistically grounded Schiff, Hewitt, Ashkenazy, and Koroliov references, with the compelling individuality of Niklas Sivelöv’s extraordinary “48” splitting the difference. Sivelov Piano ConcertosHenry FogelFanfare, January 2021 All three concertos should provide pleasure to just about any listener. They are clearly modern works, but they are also strongly tied to tradition. Sivelöv manages to find a balance between the serious and the entertaining. As a successful pianist whose playing has been very positively reviewed in Fanfare by many critics, Sivelöv clearly wrote these concertos for himself to perform, which he does with gusto and technique to spare. Both conductors and ensembles provide strong partnerships. Let none of those small caveats discourage you from exploring Sivelöv’s highly engaging concertos. © 2021 Fanfare Read complete review Steve Arloff – MusicWeb International, October 2020 Niklas Sivelöv proves himself not just as a composer of huge creative talent but as a convincing exponent of his own music with pianistic gifts that are equal to his compositional ability. He is given great support from both conductors and musicians on a disc that is a revelatory introduction (for me at least) to a composer of considerable interest. © 2020 MusicWeb International Azusa Ueno- The Classic Review, October 2020 The “Concerto Classico” for Piano and Orchestra (1998) is his earliest large ensemble work, and reflects a composer in the process of integrating various influences. The first movement is somewhat reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with its punctuated phrasing and focus on wind instruments groups throughout. Jazz harmonies and rhythms drive the piece as a whole, giving it a tangible and sweeping energy. The second movement is of a very different nature: thanks to fine playing from the Malmö’s Symphony Orchestra’s strings, it displays Sivelöv’s penchant for refined dissonances. The orchestral opening is captivating, with the resonant cello and basses creating an expansiveness reminiscent of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. © 2020 The Classic Review Barry Forshaw Classical CD…
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The Spring of 2023 was very busy with the premiere of the 6th Concerto Earth Rites by Sivelov and the Concerto by Edward Smaldone, Prendendo Fuoco. The Sivelov concerto was premiered and commissioned by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Joshua Weilerstein . It was recorded and will be released in 2024 on Naxos. Prendendo Fuoco was premiered in New York at the Miller Theatre with the Orchestra of the League of Composers and Smaldone conducting. It will be recorded in April 2024 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Niklas performed as well several solo recitals during the Spring in Västerås, Riga, Tianjin, Port Washington and Birkerod featuring music by Bach, Beethoven, Abrahamsen, Nørgård, Eliasson, Saariaho a.o. In April Niklas was appointed new Guest Professor at the Tianjin Conservatory of Middle School in China.
MusicWeb International Niklas Sivelöv (b.1968)Symphony No. 1 (2013)Symphony No. 5 (2020)Malmö Opera Orchestra/Joachim Gustafssonrec. 2021, Malmö, SwedenNAXOS 8.574508 [59] Niklas Sivelöv is a Swedish concert pianist, composer and teacher. Born in Skellefteå in Northern Sweden, his ancestors hail from Karelia and Northern Finland. He’s recorded a substantial discography as a pianist, and his own compositions have registered a notable presence on both the Toccata and Naxos labels. MusicWeb colleagues have championed his cause with some positive reviews of his orchestral works (review), piano concertos (review) and solo piano music (review). In the last ten years Sivelöv the composer has been on a roll, having completed six symphonies, with a seventh in the pipeline. His symphonic journey began in 2013 following the birth of his son in July of that year. The First Symphony is in three movements. It bears the title ‘Nordico’, and draws its inspiration from the northern climes of Sweden, where he was brought up. Echoes of Sibelius are also present. The first movement makes a confident entry with epic force. The booklet notes refer to its “cinematic” character with its propulsive energy alternating with more spacious and expressive moments. The vivid orchestral colours are a consistently thrilling experience to behold. The central movement is a slow, sombre and elegiac affair. It was originally titled ‘Ode to Edward Munch”. Like the painter’s famous painting ‘The Scream’, the music is restive, brooding and edgy as it sleepwalks through alien and otherworldly landscapes. At the movement’s climax there’s an empty fermata bar, allowing the orchestral players their own “silent scream”. The composer originally titled the final movement “Firedance of the Witches”. Rhythmic tussles and syncopations influenced by the music of Miles Davis register with dramatic and startling impact. The orchestration showcases an impressive colour range. As we draw near to the close, ostinato accompaniment helps ratchet up the tension and the curtain finally closes abruptly to a brilliant coruscating whirlwind of terror. The Fifth Symphony, described as a two-movement “dyptych”, dates from 2020. Rather than contrasting movements, the two “panels” are cut from the same cloth; the composer originally intended a single movement work. There’s a role for the piano in the scheme. The first movement is a theme and variations, with each orchestral instrument being given its moment in the sun. The lovely second movement derives from a jazz ballad Sivelöv wrote about one of his cats called Ringo, who crept silently around the house. Everything in this movement is kept under wraps, both quiet and restrained. The Fifth Symphony, as a whole, is a far cry from No. 1. There’s less drama, less intensity and less flamboyance. The recorded sound is exemplary, allowing all the instrumental detail to be fully savoured. The Malmö Opera Orchestra under the inspirational direction of Joachim Gustafsson offer enthusiastic and convincing performances. Paul Mann’s annotations provide an interesting analysis of the works played, but it’s a pity the booklet gives no information about the composer. Neither are there any track timings. Yet, all told, Sivelöv’s music has an appealing freshness and makes for a compelling listen. Stephen Greenbank
Politiken 4 STARS I did not know Sivelöv’s music. I have now discovered it, and he is a wonderful symphonist who can write broadly, darkly and compellingly for orchestra. A lone oriental voice emerges in the Nordic context, because today’s world is globalised. But gloominess and conciseness are quite clearly the music’s DNA, and to me this music concerns itself with inwardness. Soul and psyche are condensed into intense notes. After a scream that could have been painted by Edvard Munch, the symphony turns inwards – very Nordic, personal and private, it seems to me – before Sivelöv, inspired by good old Stravinsky, lets the music end in dancing, with neoclassical rhythmic features in an agitated, stomping harbinger of disaster – perhaps just formally long, but clearly an all the more genuinely felt finale ending. And of course, just as in Sivelöv’s expressive, fluid and bluesy Fifth Symphony, good use is made of the composer’s own instrument, the piano. Thomas Michelsen Sydsvenskan 4 STARS To define his artistic profile and stylistic framework, the recording delivers interesting material. It is a pleasure to hear the Malmö Opera Orchestra under the direction of Joachim Gustafsson in these symphonies, which are listener-friendly and accessible but not lacking in originality and substance. The First Symphony, vintage 2013, has been given a special label: “Nordico”. The tones of the northern winter and the deep forests allow the listener to engage in the landscape as a musical state of mind, not as program music but as emotional mood. That Jean Sibelius is a kind of godfather to this is evident. As well as lots of percussion there are sometimes interwoven piano sounds. This is not some refined chamber-music construction, it is nature in rebellion and eruption. The composer mentions Edvard Munch’s well-known picture “The Scream” as an explosive background. The Fifth Symphony was added in 2020. The author characterises the two-movement piece as “Concerto for orchestra”. The work does not have the same dramatic dimensions as the First Symphony; instead, it contains meditative moments, alternating with a certain jazz-inspired playfulness. Personally, I would like to return to “Nordico”, with its fresh weather and natural feeling, which should have the whole world as its domain. What is his motivation and his main characteristic? Perhaps: cross-border versatility and bold curiosity. Carlhåkan Larsén
Concert Review: Niklas Sivelöv, September 18, 2022 By Paul Baker For his September 18 concert, Swedish virtuoso Niklas Sivelöv strode out in long tails and gray ascot looking not a little like a clean-shaven Beethoven. As he sat at the vintage Mason & Hamlin 1906 model AA piano I appreciated that nod to sartorial tradition. His concert of Bach, Beethoven, Schonberg, Scriabin, and his own compositions wove a musical thread that linked 400 years of musical styles. Each piece he played with physical passion, highlighting forceful movements by tapping his toes and heels, wincing, lunging, and raising his arms aloft. The man is not lost in the past. He reads his music on an iPad controlled by a floor pedal, and incorporates Scriabin and Schonberg into his own compositions. The concert program included Beethoven’s 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126, a demanding piece despite its name, with its dense harmonies and knotty rhythms, cross-hand playing, and several sustained trills that sprang airborne into flight. Compared to that harmonic and rhythmic density, J. S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826 sounded translucent and sparse. But not cold, as Sivelov phrased some passages with Romantic hesitations. The left hand sometimes played counterpoint to the right, as in the two-part Inventions, then joined the right in close parallel passages. The Partita set the mood for Arnold Schoenberg’s challenging dodecaphonic Suite for Piano, Op. 25, with its six movements reflecting a Baroque suite. Its dissonant clusters and staccato rhythms suggested at times a scatter of birds, racing chipmunks, sometimes human speech. The resulting tensions were resolved by way of lyrical passages, dynamic contrasts, and motivic development. Sivelöv’s selection of Scriabin included preludes, etudes, and a mazurka. Following the Schoenberg, Scriabin sounded Romantically rich. The gentle swirls and clouds hinted at Debussy and Ravel; some phrasing and harmonies nodded to Chopin. Scriabin’s synthesis of Russian music with French Impressionism fed into his larger project of combining all art forms into an ultimate synthesis that would lead the listener/observer into states of mystic rapture. Sivelöv concluded with a selection from his composition, 24 Preludes (2010-2014). One noted the influence of jazz pianists like Cecil Taylor and Keith Jarrett, along with tokens from Schoenberg (clusters and sprinkles) and Beethoven (extended trills, dramatic pauses) and (!) Jerry Lee Lewis (swipes across the entire keyboard and heavy forearm clusters). A lengthy standing ovation inspired an encore, a wistful reading of a Swedish folk song, whose pastel lyricism recalled Debussy by way of pianist Bill Evans. Kudos to Sivelöv for an untiring virtuosic performance, and for programming such challenging works by Schoenberg, which the audience clearly enjoyed. How privileged we are to witness such talent. Paul Baker is the host of “Listen Adventurously,” a program of contemporary and 20th-Century classical music, streaming Mondays 5am to 8am at www.wortfm.org and over the air at 89.9 FM, Madison.
Joachim Gustafsson | Sivelöv: Sinfonie Nr. 3 „Primavera“ 05.03.2021 Ohne Corona würde es die vorliegende Aufnahme nicht geben. Da die schwedischen Musiker im Frühling vergangenen Jahres Pandemie-bedingt keine öffentlichen Konzerte geben konnten, hatten sie Zeit, die Partituren ihres Landsmanns zu studieren. Die Musik gefiel ihnen so gut, dass sie beschlossen, die Werke einzuspielen. Das immerhin war erlaubt, Gott sei Dank, wie man nach Anhören des Albums sagen muss. Sivelöv, der am Musikkonservatorium in Kopenhagen lehrt, hat sich vor allem als Pianist einen Namen gemacht; seit einigen Jahren reüssiert er aber auch zunehmend als Komponist. Die hier zu hörenden Werke könnten unterschiedlicher kaum sein, gemeinsam ist ihnen jedoch ihr gleichsam nordisch-klarer Grundton und ein Faible für formale Verläufe und rhythmische Finessen. Im faszinierend-verwirrenden, regelrecht überkomplexen und dabei letztlich doch hoch spielerisch empfundenen ersten Satz („Passacaglia“) der „Sinfonietta per archi“ (2019) kommt dieser Stilzug besonders eindrücklich zum Ausdruck. Die „Primavera“ titulierte Sinfonie Nr. 3 von 2018 macht ihrem vitalen Namen alle Ehre. Bezüge zur Natur wie etwa Tierstimmen oder ein durchziehendes Gewitter sind zwar hörbar, werden aber nahtlos in die zum Einsatz kommenden Sonaten- und Variationsformen integriert. Zu einem Höhepunkt des Albums geraten die „Five Pieces for String Orchestra“ (2016), insbesondere deren „Lamento“-Satz. Auch wenn Vorbilder wie Sibelius oder Strawinsky mitunter grüßen lassen: Sivelövs hier von den „Malmöern“ hoch engagiert dargebotene Tonsprache hat ihren sehr eigenen Sound & Drive. Burkhard Schäfer Bei unseren Partnern erhältlich als CD oder Download: Musik: 4 stars Klang: 4 stars Sivelöv: Sinfonie Nr. 3 „Primavera“, Five Pieces for String Orchestra, Sinfonietta per archi (Sinfonie Nr. 4); Malmö Opera Orchestra, Joachim Gustafsson (2020); Toccata Classics
Great review in the biggest newspaper in Sweden Dagens Nyheter 4 Stars! In this incomparable music, it is as if Niklas Sivelöv celebrates that he is now the first Swede to record all piano works by Bach.And he does it in a splendid and swinging way! Martin Nyström Read more: https://www.dn.se/kultur/i-niklas-sivelovs-pianospel-blir-bach-ruskigt-dansant