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SIVELÖV: Concerto Classico for Piano and Orchestra , Concerto Nol 2 for
Piano and Strings. Concerto No. 5 "Riddarkonserten for Piano and Brass
Band. LISZT: Hexaméron. Concert paraphrase on themes
from Verdi's Ernani. Fantasy
on themes from Bellini's Norma.. THALBERG: Grand Fantasy on
Thtmes from
Donizetti's Don Pasquale. Fantasy on Themes from Rossii's Mose. FIBICH: Symphony No 3 iin E minor, Op. 53. Sarka Overture, Op. 51.
Boure (The Tempest), Op. 40. Act III Overture. Nevesta messinska (The Bride
of
Messina, Op. 18 - Funeral Mrch from Act III Swedish pianist Niklas Sivlov (b 1968) has a distinguished career in his native land and currently is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He has given many solo recitals and appeared with a numer of orchestras. On this new CD we have premiere recordings of three of his major works, outlined above. His music features brief clusters and whsps of sound that don't amoun to much, often of improvisational nature. I found all three concertos totally uninteresting; they seem endless. Surely we can assume these performances do what can be done for this music with the composer as soloist. The recordings are excellent sonically. These doubtless will be the only recordings of this music; I'm sure no other pianist would wish to play them. Amazing pianist Marc-André Hamelin continues to display his total
command of the ketybord and sensitive sense of dynamics on this superb
new issue of opera transcriptins and fantasies. These are written by
two of the legendary keyboard master rivals of he time,, Franz Liszt
and Sigismond Thalberg both of whom dazzled audiences with their virtuosity.
Of particuar
interest is Hexaméron, a major work suggested by Princess Cristina
Trivulzio Belgiojoso in 1837. She persuaded Liszt to assemble a set
of variations of the march along with five of his pianist-friends. Liszt
composed the introduction, second
variation, connecting sections and finale, and integrated the piece into
an artistic unity. Five well-known composer-performers each contributed
one variation: Frédéric Chopin, Carl Czerny, Henri Herz,
Johann Peter Pixis and Sigismond Thalberg. The theme is March of
the Puritans from
Bellini's opera I puritani. Zdenek Fibich (1850 - 1900) had the misfortune of being overshadowed by his famous Czech compatriots, Antonin Dvorak and Bedrich Smetana. Fibich composed seven operas, chamber music and symphonie works including three symphonies. All have been recorded a number of times, all three on Chandos with Neemi Järvi and the Detroit Symphony. Naxos is now in the process of recording all of Fibich's symhonuic music and here complete their symphony set with Marek Silec and the fine Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra with this issue of Symphony No. 3, along with four relatively unknown orchestral pieces. While Fibish was an excellent nationalistic composer, his music generally does not match his compatriots. It is well written, melodic and melodic. Many years ago this site praised a recording of four of Fibich's lesser-known works (REVIEW). This new Naxos CD gives us an opportunity to hear more of Fibicg's rekatively unknon woks The recording was made January 2019 in Ostrava's House of Culture, and the stereo sound is excellent. R.E.B. (August 2020 |