Niklas Sivelöv is not only a brilliant concert pianist, constantly touring the world. He has also proved a prolific composer and symphonist over the past ten years, with six completed symphonies and a seventh currently in progress.

Symphony no.1 (Nordico) was written in the summer of 2013, during a surge of creativity following the birth of the composer’s son that year. The music is bursting with energy and momentum, infused with all the verdant colors of the Nordic forests, its deep blue sky, and – in winter – the all-enveloping snow.

Symphony no.5 was written in 2020 and is a diptych, subtitled Concerto for Orchestra. The two ‘panels’ of the work are not intended to be contrasting, rather as twins made from the same material, reflecting Sivelöv’s first idea, which was to structure the work in a single movement. In its final form, the two parts are almost equal in duration, totalling around 24 minutes, scored for a modest, standard-sized orchestra, with an important role for the piano.