Adolf Wiklund - Piano Concertos (Martin Sturfält)

Information

Composer: Adolf Wiklund

• Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 10
• Konsertstycke in C major, Op. 1
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 17

Martin Sturfält, piano

Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Manze, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: Hyperion

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Review

The Swedish composer Adolf Wiklund does not make it into every reference work and, unless you are a student of Scandinavian music, the chances are that, like me, you will not have come across him before. His dates, 1879-1950, might suggest that stylistically he had something in common with Prokofiev, say, Bartók or Stravinsky. But no. Wiklund is, by and large, joyfully unaffected by 20th-century musical trends, not dissimilar in a way to his near contemporary Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952). The obvious debts to Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Grieg (an early measure in Wiklund’s E minor Concerto comes straight out of the Norwegian’s A minor Concerto), the glimpses of Brahms, echoes of Marx’s Romantic Concerto and the resourceful orchestration coloured by Wiklund’s admiration for Wagner and Sibelius cohere into a likeable but oddly indistinctive voice.

Wiklund’s single-movement Konsertstycke is the earliest work here (1902). By a strange coincidence, another new recording of this obscurity surfaced recently on Sterling, coupled with two other single-movement works by Ludvig Norman and Ture Rangström in fine performances by Maria Verbaite and the NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra under B Tommy Andersson. Hyperion, though, has the edge. If there is a certain coolness about some of their concerto releases, this is not one of them. Wiklund’s compatriot Martin Sturfält (who also contributes an excellent booklet-note) plays all three works with magnificent aplomb, his energy and palpable enthusiasm matched by Andrew Manze and his players. There is nothing of the studio here, and the recording venue, the Helsingborg Concert Hall, not normally noted for its generous acoustic, lends a warm, resonant glow to proceedings.

— Jeremy Nicholas

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Adolf Wiklund (5 June 1879 – 2 April 1950) was a Swedish composer and conductor. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and continued to study piano in Sweden and Paris. He debuted in 1902 performing his own Konsertstycke in C major, Op. 1. From 1911 onward, he focused on conducting, leading the Swedish Royal Orchestra (1911–1924), being director of the Royal Swedish Opera, and serving as principal conductor of the Stockholm Concert Society until 1938. His Romantic and nationalistic compositions include piano concertos, a symphony, and the symphonic poem Sommarnatt och soluppgång.

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Martin Sturfält (born 1979 in Katrineholm) is a Swedish pianist. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Sturfält began giving regular concerts at the age of 11, and has since performed extensively throughout Europe, as well as in Asia and the Far East, collaborating with orchestras such as the Hallé Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. His repertoire includes the standard works as well as new music and lesser-known works. His recordings of the Stenhammar's solo works and Adolf Wiklund's Piano Concertos have received critical acclaim.

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