Swedish Organist Jonas Karlsson
Organist – Pianist – Composer – Improviser
On November 10, 2022, I recorded this piano improvisation, on the big Steinway grand piano, in Stockesalen on Frösön. Since I grew up on Frösön in Sweden, I feel at home there. Anyway, this is an improvisation that is a bit inspired by Rachmaninov. It is just a short glimpse on the video.
To get more on fire, it is not a bad idea to sing a little while I play. As long as I don’t sing too loud. The music must be felt inside. I hope you enjoy the video.
Together with my singer Torbjörn Edlund, I did a new mixed concert program, with evergreens and classical piano solos. We played this program in Gamla kyrkan – Östersund / Sweden, on October 18, 2023. The title of this program was ”Allsköns Musik”. That means All Kinds of Music.
I had chosen to play solo music by Chopin and Mozart, and one of my own compositions. Torbjörn sang classical music and evergreens.
Here are two videos from the concert. One video with piano solos, and on the other video Torbjörn is singing O Sole Mio.
Mars 16, 2023. Solo piano recital in Stockesalen.
This concert was really fun to do. Look at this lovely concert hall. The people in the audience are all sitting close to the Steinway grand piano. It was warm in the hall, and it smelled of coffee. It felt very inspiring.
I played a mixed program with Beethoven, Mozart, and my own works. I also played my own arrangements of well known songs.
Since many facebook friends can’t hear me play live, and since the short piano clips I post are not full concerts, I made a compromise, and turned on the video camera and recorded a mini concert. Every note is here, including the few wrong ones. Now I also post this recording on YouTube.
No retakes was made for this video. I simply recorded four piano works, and turned off the camera. I am not dressed up for a concert, it is just a rehearsal for my upcoming live concert. I play Chopin and Schumann and two of my own piano compositions. Schumann’s Träumerei is very well known. Chopins Prelude in E major sounds a bit like pop music in my ears. My own Figaro Fantasy is a show piece from my younger days. My own Ballad No. 1 was my first serious concert composition with an Opus number.
The recording was made on February 22, 2023. The piano is a large Steinway grand piano, in Stockesalen on Frösön -Sweden.
Program:
This video is recorded during a live concert I did in December 2022. I have never posted this composition on YouTube before. I think it was in 2001, I composed theese Variations (on the melody My Hat, It Has Three Corners). It is a composition in A major, and I was thinking of Mozarts Piano sonata in A major when I wrote it. It is not a series of strict variations, but a composition written in a more free form.
It is not even a strictly classical work, but more like an encore in humour style. I have never claimed to be a strictly classical pianist. I am just a pianist.
As always, I prefere to make live videos. The video is recorded in the church in Ytterhogdal, and the piano is a Feurich. A pretty nice piano, by the way.
It was lovely to do two Xmas concerts with a trio, in the churches in Sveg and Ytterhogdal. On December 17, we did theese concerts. I played with the two singers Torbjörn Edlund and Johnny Wiktorsson.
I got the chance to play the well known Xmas songs. I also got the chance to play my own piano compositions.
Here is a short demo video from the live Xmas concert I had with the singer Torbjörn Edlund, in December 27, 2021.
The song is the well known ”Oh holy night”. Or ”O helga natt” in Swedish. Torbjörn sings in Swedish here. In this video he reaches the high notes, and he can fully show his capacity as a singer.
If you want to contact us for a concert program, please mail me and make your request. We can performe all kinds of music, not only classical. And we are both composers, and also perform our own compositions.
Here we go. I was practising the piano a couple of days ago, and I did an improvisation, feeling inspired by the amazing composer Alfred Schnittke. Of course, Schittke would never repeat a rythm as much as I do here. But as I said: I was inspired by Schnittke, not trying to copy him. Perhaps this sounds more like Prokofiev.
The improtant thing in this excerpt from a pretty long improvisation, is that the rhythm fills the room. The piano is no longer singing, but sounds more like a rhythm instrument. By using harmonies that sounds a bit like Bach, the music gets a certain kind of hypnitic effect. Enjoy!
The video was recorded in February 2022, at a Steinway grand piano.
This is a live video from my last concert. I just wanted to show you my way of playing romantic piano music. This is the first bit of Schumann’s Träumerei, Op. 15. This is recorded in December 2021, at the Steinway grand piano in the EFS Church, in Östersund – Sweden.
From my point of view, I believe that it is a good idea, not to play each note the way you expect it to sound. A few small unexpected things, makes the ear start to listen. I also surprise myself with theese things, just to get the right live-feeling when I play. This time, I created a sharper sound, and stayed a little longer on certain stressed notes, to draw more attention to them. I also played the highest note in the A7 chord almost pianissimo. As a surprise.
I hope you enjoyed this short sample from my recital.
This is a piano improvisation on a theme that Liszt used in his Spanish Rhapsody. The theme is ”La Follia” and is not composed by Liszt himself. I made a long improvisation on this theme, and this is a short sample from that video.
I always create music like this when I practise piano. I start improvising on some theme or a song. In this case, it is a perfect theme for piano improvisation. And after a while I did not care so much about being faithful to the original theme. I just wanted to create some crazy and fun music.
Recorded: Sep 20, 2021 EFS Church – Östersund/Sweden
Piano: Steinway & Sons
Swedish Organist Jonas Karlsson 