Esbjörn Svensson

[tengstrand]

This is a total chock...Esbjörn was a fantastic person and a marvelous musician.
I cannot really grasp this...

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=19452

[retrouvailles]

I have no idea who this was, but I can see how losing a musician at such a young age would be heartbreaking. Imagine what they could have accomplished with the rest of their life. I will look into this man. I feel like I should have heard of him from my jazz friends. Scandinavian music, classical or jazz, has always been one of my great admirations and I am always eager to learn more about it.

Also, I hate to digress, but it's great to see you back on the forum. I have really enjoyed your "Masters of the North" CD. Any other CDs in progress? Stenhammar 2nd piano concerto possibly? I remember you posting the latter half of it in the past once. Your rendition was much better than the one I have on CD.

[Petter]

Quite a shock yes, very tragic.

[Petter]

I have no idea who this was, but I can see how losing a musician at such a young age would be heartbreaking. Imagine what they could have accomplished with the rest of their life. I will look into this man. I feel like I should have heard of him from my jazz friends. Scandinavian music, classical or jazz, has always been one of my great admirations and I am always eager to learn more about it.

He was quite well known in france I think, I used to see him alot on Mezzo.

[tengstrand]

I had one of my best experiences as a pianist together with Esbjörn. I had been told by some piano tuners that he told them he liked my playing, and when I got the chance to make up a program for the inauguration night of the new piano in Uppsala Concert House, I called him and asked if we could do something together. We ended up having a completely unrehearsed "keyboard conversation": I played a Chopin Nocturne, the c sharp minor "Lento con Gran Espresione" and he picked up where I ended and made a musical comment in his style.
 
I will never forget the moment he struck his first chord into the end of the Chopin piece...it was absolute magic. His way of playing completely transformed me right then and there. When his chord progressions made the bridge to my next piece, a Waltz, I played the waltz completely different from what I had planned. It was one of the greatest moment I have had on stage.

We were going to do this again this fall, and we were really looking forward to it.

Thank you Retrouvailles, I have been away for a while from here, but it's nice to come back and read the threads here. I'm happy you like Masters of the North, it's one of the few CDs by myself I can stand listening to, haha.

I'm thinking of recording a Liszt CD next. I would love to record Stenhammar actually, and it's always in the back of my mind. I know Neeme wants it, but it would be a costly project and the recording industry today, well...in any case, I will do it, sooner or later!
 

[Petter]

I bought his first record which was released in 1993, and was really triggered by it, to learn jazz piano. I found it in my shelve today and on the backside of the cover there´s this really sad picture of a floor with autumn leafs and dim shadows. The record is called "When everyone has gone", and when I looked inside the record was actually gone...
 Even though I admit I rarely listened to him later on this still saddens me so bad, I don´t know why.

[retrouvailles]

It is human nature to lament over someone that is lost that one perhaps has some sort of personal connection to. Music is something very close to human sentiment, so it is natural. I remember being very sad about the death of Ligeti, even though I wasn't a big fan of him at the time. Now I am, and I feel the loss even more.

[tengstrand]

This is very true. I was amazed how much I was thinking of Esbjörn playing and sad that I will not be able to experience it again. Although I talked to him on the phone just a week ago, it was the way he made music that is painfully present when missing him. And I'm sure we can feel this connection even if we never met the person but through their music.