Niklas Sivelov (born in northern Sweden in 1968) is one of the leading representatives of the once-familiar tradition of pianist-composer that first achieved prominence with...

Niklas Sivelov (born in northern Sweden in 1968) is one of the leading representatives of the once-familiar tradition of pianist-composer that first achieved prominence with Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin and continued through Rachmaninov and Bartók. But Sivelov also has a sizable, and growing, body of orchestral music to his name. These three recent works reveal a style that balances delicacy of feeling and freewheeling energy, with something of Stravinsky’s sense of rhythmic mischief, the vernal vigor of Tippett, just occasionally the harmonic density of Ligeti, and the unusual awareness of light and dark that characterizes the music of Sibelius and other Nordic composers.