Vers la flamme

Niklas has a wide-ranging repertoire with concertos from Beethoven to Lutoslawski and Ligeti, and he has had piano concertos dedicated to him by contemporary Scandinavian composers. He collaborates on a regular basis with well-known musicians such as the clarinettist Martin Fröst and he has appeared together with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Saraste, Alan Gilbert and Kristjan Järvi.

Here he has set about recording Scriabin´s large-scale piano works with, among other things, the poem Vers la flamme (towards the flames), which includes music from the composer´s entire life. This work has also given the name to this CD on the Caprice label.

Who, then, was Alexander Scriabin? Scriabin lived from 1872 to 1915 and was a unique Russian composer and pianist. He strove to attain a new musical language and wanted to combine music with other art forms. Niklas Sivelöv finds Scriabin and his tone language quite fascinating. It is rhythm and vivid timbres. The performance of this music demands much of the pianist technically. Scriabin was one of the first to prophesy the use of electronic sounds.

The recording of Vers la flamme took place at the Culture House in Ytterjärna south of Stockholm, and the music producer was Evert van Berkel. This demanding recording of works by Scriabin is perhaps Sivelöv´s best ever.