DJURO ŽIVKOVIĆ (b. 1975) : Citadel of Love for chamber ensemble (2019—20), Commissioned by and written for Norrbotten NEO. I Shall Contemplate... II (2011/2019) for viola and chamber ensemble, Riikka Repo viola / voice. Night Music for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (2014), I. Poème languide II. Danse languide III. Nuances IV. Feuillet d’album no 1 V. Feuillet d’album no 2 VI. Poème. Norrbotten NEO : Sara Hammarström flute, Robert Ek clarinet, Daniel Saur percussion, waterphone; theremin, Mårten Landström piano, Cecilia Zilliacus violin, psaltery, Marco Fusi viola, Nikolay Shugaev cello, waterphone, Mats Olofsson cello, Fredrik Burstedt, conductor.

Description: Serbian-Swedish Djuro Živkovic has quickly established himself as one of Europe’s leading young composers. His musical style is strongly marked by Byzantine Orthodox music – spiritual, mystical and characterized by fantastic narration, virtuosic instrumentation and a stylistic, highly profiled sound. Živkovic’s music presents a profound and abstract space to reflect on the subject matter of mystery, ecstasy and transcendence. Citadel of Love is a highly personal ensemble work which manages to create a mystical aural experience. The narrative voice of the piano together with the other six instruments, subtly adding voices as well as percussion instruments, carries the listener from beginning to end through an inner drama of intensity and fullness of soundscapes. I Shall Contemplate… II is an intimate chamber piece for viola and small ensemble, stylistically similar to a sacred cantata, in which improvisatory techniques contribute to the free and unencumbered compositional process. Here, Živkovic’s use of ancient scales creates an archaic, echoing space. The text, spoken by the soloist, comes from old Byzantine mystical books. Finally, Night Music is a fascinating crossover work in which piano works by Alexander Scriabin are mixed with newly composed musical layers, thus adding to the Russian composer an absurd fantasy, estranged passion and exotic illusions. Norrbotten NEO : Sara Hammarström flute, Robert Ek clarinet, Daniel Saur percussion, waterphone; theremin, Mårten Landström piano, Cecilia Zilliacus violin, psaltery, Marco Fusi viola, Nikolay Shugaev cello, waterphone, Mats Olofsson cello, Fredrik Burstedt, conductor.