Swiss Baroque Soloists |
|
Baroque Orchester |
|
Niklas Eklund |
|
Contact us :
1, rue de Belfort 68128 Village Neuf FRANCE
Tel : +333 89 89 45 33 Fax : +339 50 27 45 32
|
|
The Swedish trumpeter Niklas Eklund, born in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in 1969, trained at the School of Music and Musicology of Göteborg University (by his father Bengt Eklund). Further studies took place under the tutelage of Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. .After five years as solo trumpeter with the Basle Radio Symphony Orchestra, Niklas Eklund left the orchestra in the autumn of 1996 to further his career as a soloist. Since then he has appeared with several leading ensembles and conductors such as Zubin Metha, John Eliot Gardiner, Heinz Holliger, Andras Sciff, Robert King, Eric Ericson, Reinhard Goebel, Gustav Leonhardt, the London Baroque, the Bach Ensemble (New York), The American Baroque Soloists, the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and the English Baroque Soloists. In 1996, Eklund was the first prize winner of the first Altenburg International Baroque trumpet competition, hold in Bad Saekingen (Germany) Eklund played a permanent part in Sir John Eiliot Gardiner Bach Pilgrimage performances and recordings (Archive DG) in year 2000. Besides giving concerts in Sweden and Europe, he is appearing as a guest performer and teacher in the North and South America, Australia, the Ukraine, Russia and New Zealand. For Naxos, Niklas Eklund has recorded a magnificent five-volume overview of the Baroque trumpet, (sold over 300 000 ex.) embracing composers as diverse as Handel, Torelli, Sweelinck, Vivaldi, Haydn and Molter. Haydn and Hummel (Naxos) (on modern trumpet) was released international in summer 2003 and became outstanding worldwide reviews (The Times, The Telegraph, Gramophone, Amazon and ten points of possible ten in all three categories in the German leading Classical Magazine Klassik-Heute). Eklund is currently Principal Trumpeter in Zurich Chamber Orchestra as well as give worldwide Solo Concerts and recordings. |
|
Reviews |
|
"Many trumpet concertos are vehicles for virtuosity rather than real music, so I put this on out of duty rather than any expectation of enjoyment. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised...The soloist, Niklas Eklund, has a wonderfully expressive tone, too. **** Stars." ˇ ˇ Ivan Hewett, The Times, 7/12/03 ˇ "The two familiar works here are the trumpet concertos by Haydn and Hummel, but the performances buff them up like new, with amazing playing from the young Swedish trumpeter Niklas Eklund, and orchestral support that has grace and lithe, interesting texture. Eklund's tone, while strong, is also malleable and expressive. Since Haydn and Hummel were both writing for the fairly new fangled keyed trumpet of the day, they were abler to conceive broader and more involved melodic structures that had been possible with the natural trumpet of the baroque. Here Eklund's sense of line is wonderfully lyrical, his articulation in the two finales sprightly. The F major Variations by Bedrich Divis Weber (not the Weber) also exploit a melodic potential that Eklund cossets, while enjoying the opportunities to flex muscle. Neruda's E flat major Concerto comes from much earlier than the three other works, and is fairly anonymous pre-Classical stuff, but is none the less neatly crafted, is played with panache and fits well into a fascinatingly broad programme."
- Geoffrey Norris, The Telegraph, 6/28/03 |