Kalevi Kiviniemi

Kalevi Kiviniemi (born 30 June 1958 in Jalasjärvi) is a Finnish concert organist. He is known internationally for Finnish and French organ music and has given several recitals at Notre Dame de Paris and recorded on historic organs. He is also a notable organ improviser.

Professional career

Kalevi Kiviniemi graduated in 1981 as a cantor and organist and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki for the concert diploma with Eero Väätäinen (literature) and Olli Linjama (improvisation).^[1] In the early 1990s he started an international career with recitals in Japan and London. He has toured in Europe, the USA, Russia, Asia, Australia and the Philippines.

Kiviniemi has frequently performed at Notre Dame in Paris. His first performance there in 2000, together with Olivier Latry, titulaire des grands orgue of Notre-Dame, was televised. His first solo performance at Notre Dame was in 2002. In addition to solo recitals and chamber music recitals, he has appeared with major orchestras such as the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.

In 2006 he, the percussionist Markku Krohn, the guitarist Marzy Nyman and the soprano Tarja Turunen first shared a stage at Lahti Organ Festival. The aptly named performance, ‘Crossover Organ’, veered between the traditional and the contemporary, boasting a bold and far reaching repertoire. The reverent splendour of Liturgical hymns was juxtaposed by the likes of Deep Purple and Nirvana. After that, they played together again in 2008, in a series of Christmas concerts in Finland. Each year, the tetrad combed the breadth of their country, in annual tours that were becoming longer and longer. Despite the cold weather, churches were hot with the press of bodies, and when they were full, people crowded outside in the blistering December cold. A year later, in December 2009, they performed together again at Sibelius Hall, in Lahti. That concert was recorded and released as CD and DVD in 2011, under the name "Tarja Turunen and Harus: In Concert – Live at Sibelius Hall."

In 2009 he played a concert of transcriptions at the Konzerthaus Dortmund.^[2][3] In 2010 he played a concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego.^[4] In the fall of 2010 he played concerts at the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam,^[5] at the Internationales Düsseldorfer Orgelfestival,^[6] at the Wuppertaler Orgeltage^[7] and at St. Martin, Idstein.

Kiviniemi has been a jury member at international organ competitions, Nürnberg in 1996, Capri in 1998, Speyer in 2001, Korschenbroich in 2005). He has given master classes, for instance at the Ruhr University Bochum. He was artistic director of the Lahti Organ Week in Finland^[8] for ten years, from 1991 to 2001.

Recordings

Kiviniemi's discography numbers more than 140 titles as of 2010, including recordings made on historic organs in the USA, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany, such as the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Church of St. Ouen, Rouen. Kiviniemi was the first to record the complete organ works of Jean Sibelius,^[9] reviewed in 2010:

'Judicious' is an apt description of Kiviniemi's playing style, as well as his choice of organ and repertoire. Whether it's the mighty Cavaillé-Coll of Saint-Ouen, the Grand Paschen organ of Pori’s Central Church or the noble Kangasala at Lakeuden Risti, one senses his choices are carefully made, the music matched to the instrument and its unique acoustic. This Sibelius recital is no exception, the late-19th-century Walcker – three manuals, with 16' and 32' pipes – seems ideally suited to the thrust and scale of the works at hand.^[10]

OrganEra recordings

With the Finnish publisher Fuga he began in 2001 a series of recordings, OrganEra, planned to contain 20 volumes.^[11][12]

• Vol. 1 Renaissance-Tänze, works of Francesco Bendusi, Antonio Valente, Tielman Susato, Adriano Banchieri, Hans Neusidler, and Claude Gervaise, among others, recorded on the Renaissance organ of the Schlosskirche in Schmalkalden, 2001
• Vol. 2 Bamboo Organ, works of Michel Corrette, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Antonio de Cabezón, Juan Bautista José Cabanilles, Luis de Milán, Luys de Narváez, Fortunato Chelleri, Johann Caspar Kerll, Gaetano Piazza, Gioachino Rossini, John Blow, and John Stanley, among others, recorded on the bamboo organ of Las Piñas in Manila, 2003
• Vol. 3 Heroic Song, recorded on the organ of Lapua Cathedral, 2003
• Vol. 4 Angel Dream, transcriptions for organ, recorded on the organ of Lapua Cathedral, 2003
• Vol. 5 Waltzing Matilda, recorded on the Grand Concert Organ of the Melbourne Town Hall,
• Vol. 6 Serassi, Italian organ music, works of Niccolo Moretti, Antonio Diana, Baldassare Galuppi, Vincenzo Palafuti, Michelangelo Rossi, Domenico Zipoli and Padre Davide da Bergamo, among others, recorded on the Serassi Organ of San Biagio in Caprino Bergamasco, 2004
• Vol. 7 Sibelius, Jean Sibelius Complete Organ Works, recorded on the Walcker of the Stadtkirche in Winterthur, 2004 ^[10]
• Vol. 8 Canonnade, recorded on the Holzhey Organ of the abbey church in Neresheim, 2004
• Vol. 9 Bombarde, recorded on the organ of the Matthäuskirche in Stuttgart, 2004
• Vol. 10 Liszt
• Vol. 11 Wurlitzer
• Vol. 12 Jehan Alain, works of Jehan Alain, recorded on the organ of the Church of the Cross in Lahti, 2006
• Vol. 13 Franck, organ works of César Franck, recorded at the Central Pori Church, 2009 ^[13]
• Vol. 14 Cavaillé-Coll, works of Marcel Dupré, Henri Nibelle, César Franck, Alexandre Guilmant, Charles-Marie Widor, and improvisation of Kiviniemi, recorded in church of St. Ouen, Rouen, 2008 and 2009^[14][15]

Other selected recordings

• Chicago Concert, works of Gabriel Pierné, Joseph Bonnet, Marcel Dupré, Charles-Marie Widor, Camille Saint-Saëns, Aulis Sallinen, Joonas Kokkonen, Aimo Känkänen, Jean Sibelius and improvisation of Kiviniemi, 2000 details
• Lakeuden Ristin urut (Organ of the Lakeuden Risti church), works of Franz Liszt (arr. Kiviniemi), César Franck, Alexandre Guilmant, Marcel Dupré, Pierre Cochereau, his own, Oskar Merikanto, recorded in Seinäjoki in Lakeuden Risti (designed by Alvar Aalto), on an instrument built by the Kangasala organ factory, 2009^[16]

Awards for recordings

Many of his recordings have won awards, Improvisation was named Star Recording by the magazine The Organ in 1999, and Visions, containing Finnish organ music, received the Janne Prize for the best Finnish solo disc. In 2009 his CD Lakeuden Ristin Urut was chosen as the organ album of the year in the US.

Compositions

Kiviniemi has improvised and composed.

• Suite francaise
  • Caprice héroique, hommage à Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
  • Souvenir, hommage à Madame Dupré
  • Carillon, hommage à Marcel Dupré^[14]
• Fantasia Suomalainen rukous (2008)^[16]

Awards

Kalevi Kiviniemi received the Luonnotar Prize at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti in 2003 and the trophy of the Organum Society in 2004 for services to Finnish organ music. In 2009 he was awarded the State Prize for Music in Finland for lifelong achievements in music.

References

See also

• In Concert – Live at Sibelius Hall

External links

• Literature by and about Kalevi Kiviniemi in the German National Library catalogue
• Kalevi Kiviniemi website
• Entries for recordings by Kalevi Kiviniemi on WorldCat