Selected quotes

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"Brisk, exciting and unpredictable."

The Wall Street Journal, 5.4.2024

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"Alternately furious and stunned emotional burden."

The New York Times, 5.4.2024

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“Highly personal relationship to the tonality, which in combination with an unfailing dramaturgical mind and a flawlessness for orchestral music makes him a rather odd bird.”
Hufvudstadsbladet, 10.4.2021

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“Harmoniously beautiful, streamlined and delicate music with enough interest in the textures, sometimes even edging.”
Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, 1.12.2021

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“Excellent command of collaboration with musicians and an advanced understanding of sound and of drama.”
FMQ (Finnish Music Quarterly) 6.5.2021

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Reviews of A Savage Beat (2024)

 

"Percussion storm in the opera

Sauli Zinovjev has written a wild concert for the Beethoven Orchestra. It found its master in Vivi Vassileva
The multi-percussionist Vivi Vassileva at a concert with the Beethoven Orchestra in the opera house.

The young multi-percussionist Vivi Vassileva has been playing the Japanese Taiko drum for more than a year - and trains regularly in the gym. After her sweaty performance with the Beethoven Orchestra in the Bonn Opera House, the musician, who lives in Austria, told Manfred Osten in a "Nachklang" interview: "The strength and endurance that you need are unbelievable."
The Japanese drums are used in the finale of the new, six-movement percussion concerto by the Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev. The effect was still clearly in the ears after the premiere on Friday evening, which had just ended: When Vassileva picked up the heavy sticks and worked on the skins of these traditional instruments, the sounds thundered through the hall with primal force. The title of the work, "A Savage Beat", unfolded its full meaning here at the latest. The stage design for the composition, which was commissioned by the Beethoven Orchestra, impresses with its very own aesthetic. Instruments that trace the history of percussion are spread across the entire width of the stage: from the archaic Taiko drums to the Caribbean steel drum to modern instruments developed especially for the work. Particularly striking: in front of the familiar marimba there is a row of "aluminum hats" that together form a new type of aluminum phone. And always in the middle of it all: Vassileva, whose enormous physical effort also has a strong performative quality. But the composition is more than just an extraordinary spectacle. Zinovjev, born in 1988, who traveled from Helsinki especially for the premiere, is now one of the most sought-after composers of large orchestral works. Ensembles such as the Oslo Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are fighting over his compositions. Before the performance, Vassileva summed up what makes his art special in a conversation with Bonn's General Music Director Dirk Kaftan: "For me, Sauli Zinovjev embodies the new generation of composers who are a mirror of our time - the 21st century. We have long since moved away from the 'new music' that we still call it, but which is now also history." He, Zinovjev, has the rare gift of "creating a very large arc in music, so that the music flows and flows and flows." The six-movement work impresses with its thematic diversity. In the first movement, "Arrival," hand drums and gongs alternate in an exciting way. In the second movement, “Together”, the soloist enters into a chamber music dialogue with flute and clarinet – a small, pretty swinging jam session. After that, the mood changes: the energetic third movement (“Beat 1”) contrasts with the finely crafted, metallic sounds of the fourth movement (“Metal”).

The orchestra takes on different functions in the course of “A Savage Beat”. Sometimes it reinforces the soloist’s actions with additional percussion, which not least audibly expands the spatial effect of the sounds, and sometimes it comments. Then again, the sounds seem internalized, or they break out explosively somewhere else.

Kaftan directed the proceedings from the podium with absolute confidence and gave the nuances of the sound effects subtly set by Zinovjev plenty of room to develop. The enormously talented Martin Grubinger student Vassileva is allowed to present herself in two cadences in the piece without an orchestra, which she did in impressive improvisations. And once again in the encore - which followed a standing ovation - a written-out cadenza from the "Recycling Concerto" composed for her by Gregor A. Mayrhofer. She played two old PET bottles in a highly impressive and rhythmically varied way. It is hard to imagine a more beautiful way of reusing plastic waste."

BERNHARD HARTMANN // General Anzeiger, 16.11.2024 // Vivi Vassileva, Dirk Kaftan & Beethoven Orchester Bonn

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Reviews of Double Concerto (2022)

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"Russia's attack on Ukraine influenced the work, where the horrors of war are mixed with dreams

A mournful song turns into shivers of terror and a dance of death in Zinoviev's strong Double Concerto.

 

SAULI ZINOVJEV (b. 1988) has enjoyed his music in neo-romantic tonal landscapes. In romantic night moods begins his latest work, Double Concerto for violin, piano and strings, which has just received its premiere.

However, a dark shadow has appeared in Zinoviev's tone. The composer says that the Russian attack on Ukraine has affected the nature of his work.

 

Hugo Ticciati's violin weaved a light sad song over the dark warm chord flow of Simon Crawford-Phillips's grand piano in the double call at the beginning of the first part called Nachtmusik. 

Daydreaming turned into shuddering tremolos. The sound of the grand piano turned into a menacing thump and a thick sound lava erupted from the string orchestra. A dream turned into a nightmare and chaos.

The second movement, Pas de deux, began as a violin and piano dance, but the dance pattern soon distorted into machine-beating rhythms of war and dances of death.

The last part, Belle Epoque 2 started with a massive sonic explosion. Amidst the sounds of destruction and collapsing structures, painfully wistful memories of the beautiful past stood out from time to time.

 

Zinoviev's novelty is a strong story with a dramatic rhythm. Ryan Bancroft led a darkly glorious performance as a thriller, amid the dangers of which skillful soloists bravely ventured."

Hannu-Ilari Lampila / Helsingin Sanomat, 3.3.2023 / / Hugo Ticciati, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Tapiola Sinfonietta & Ryan Bancroft

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Reviews of Piano Concerto (2019)

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“It is an extremely elegant and eventful piece of music that tests both the orchestra’s and the piano’s dynamic boundaries with both pecking treble and thundering bass rumble.”
Johanna Paulsson / Dagens Nyheter, 5.2.2022 / Vikingur Olafsson, Swedish RSO & Klaus Mäkelä

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“The concerto gets the listener’s emotions moving, it evokes a strong pathos, a lyrical desire to dream and wild playfulness. It’s a grand and fast-paced virtuoso concerto that also has its meditative calm sides.”
Hannu-Ilari Lampila / Helsingin Sanomat, 8.1.2022 / / Vikingur Olafsson, Finnish RSO & Klaus Mäkelä

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“Zinovjev, himself a pianist, has written an idiomatic and grateful solo part seen from every conceivable point of view, specially designed as it is for Icelandic star pianist Víkingur Ólafsson”
Mats Liljeroos / Hufvudstadsbladet, 9.1.2022 / / Vikingur Olafsson, Finnish RSO & Klaus Mäkelä

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Reviews of Wiegenlied (2020)

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“A short masterpiece, a lived soundtrack in just eleven minutes.”
Olav Emil Aune / VL (Vårt Land), 20.8.2020 / Oslo Philharmonic & Klaus Mäkelä

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“The master orchestrator Zinovjev has painted a dramatically dark mood, sometimes slightly anxious and quite magnificently colored fresco.”
Mats Liljeroos / Hufvudstadsbladet, 23.12.2021 / Helsinki Philharmonic & Klaus Mäkelä

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“Zinovjev’s melodic language is emotionally contagious. Wiegenlied is a work that creates large sound images, in which the orchestral nuances are skilfully utilized.”
Sonja Saarikoski / Helsingin Sanomat, 23.12.2021 / Helsinki Philharmonic & Klaus Mäkelä

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Reviews of Un Grande Sospiro (2018)

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"Un Grande Sospiro goes further than Munch’s painting, as the music gradually leads us out of the manic state we found ourselves in, to a new place where – as a fitting Kafka quote on the last pages of the score says – the spirit is different. Zinovjev’s outstanding sense of dramaturgy makes me wonder if he should embark on the world of opera sometime in the future?"
Martin Malmgren / Hufvudstadsbladet, 26.10.2019 / Tapiola Sinfonietta & Klaus Mäkelä

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Reviews of “Die Welt – ein Tor” (2017)

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“Zinovjev’s music is characterized by an intensity that is unusually strong, here there is also a developed melodic dimension that is almost as rare among colleagues. As for the pitches, Zinoviev in no way shuns the tonality, rather it is as if he was approaching it again. It is crowded with triads, which are often beautifully expanded and as far as the harmonious construction is concerned, you often hear deep undercurrents. In terms of form, Zinovjev’s compositions sometimes seem like amoebas – very flexible and to some extent indefinite.”
Wilhelm Kvist / Hufvudstadsbladet, 4.2.2018 / Sirja Nironen, Sibelius Academy SO & Atso Almila

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In the space it creates, the questions it poses do not remain one-dimensional, but move from cramped to dreamy melancholy.
Sonja Saarikoski / Helsingin Sanomat 20.2.2021 / Sirja Nironen, Finnish RSO & Sakari Oramo

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Reviews of Batteria (2016)

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"The Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev’s “Batteria,” conveyed a Shostakovichian mood of alternately furious and stunned emotional burden."

Zachary Woolfe/ The New York Times 5.4.2024 / Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Klaus Mäkelä

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"The concert began with the U.S. premiere of "Batteria," an 11-minute work for large orchestra from 2016 by the Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev, a friend of the conductor. With an opening enriched by tubular bells, timpani and four horns, the piece—brisk, exciting and unpredictable—proved a fitting way to mark Mr. Mäkelä's new role."

David Mermelstein / The Wall Street Journal 5.4.2024 / Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Klaus Mäkelä

 

"Mäkelä has conducted Zinovjev’s music for most of his professional career, piloting the fellow Finn’s “Un Grande Sospiro” in 2019 and “Wiegenlied” in 2020. Though he didn’t premiere “Batteria,” Mäkelä has made the tolling, gradually quickening parade of orchestral color part of his repertoire.

The Mäkelä-CSO unit played the 10-minute opener with palpable zeal. That’s not always the case when this orchestra is faced with an unfamiliar score, but it helps that Zinovjev’s piece is engaging and well-wrought. Esa-Pekka Salonen acolytes will find happy resonances in Zinovjev’s treatment of the orchestra, especially its modal woodwind chirrups and industrious moto perpetuo strings."

Hannah Edgar / Chicago Tribune 5.4.2024 / Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Klaus Mäkelä

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"As a starter there was a sultry work by the young Finnish composer Sauli Zinoviev, Batteria: a lived-in atmosphere piece, with a dark, stately step and chirping chimes, which briefly turned out to be an Iberian dance halfway through."

Joep Stapel / Nrc 15.12.2022 / Royal Concertgebouworkest & Klaus Mäkelä

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"First on the program was Batteria (2016) by his compatriot Sauli Zinovjev. Mäkelä conducted the full work with great verve and passion. Melancholic violas alternated with blocks of brass, threatening roar culminated in an almost standstill, from which a little later large waves of sound rolled from one side of the orchestra to the other. And all of a sudden, as if the last sentence had not yet been spoken, Mäkelä ended Batteria brilliantly in the middle of the brilliant swing."

Michael Klier / Bachtrack 15.12.2022 / Royal Concertgebouworkest & Klaus Mäkelä

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"It began with "Batteria", a piece by Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev, born in 1988, bursting with vitality. Mäkelä and the Philharmonic offered it as a percussively flashing, elastically thundering, then again smoothly melancholic virtuoso piece for large orchestra. The composer present, Mäkelä and the musicians were showered with bravi."

Harald Eggebrecht / Süddeutsche Zeitung 16.6.2022 / Munich Philharmoniker & Klaus Mäkelä

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"Sauli Zinovjev, born in 1988, was a guitarist in a rock band. A video clip by the Hungarian pianist György Cziffra opened up his perspective on classical music making, he studied piano and composition, eventually also with Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. His orchestral piece Batteria, written in 2016, mixes several associations at once: intensively pattering (called “Batteria” in Italian) percussion salvos, order of an artillery unit, compactly stored energy. Timpani, violas and cellos initially provided the meter with insistent quarter notes, images of a gently swinging grandfather clock pendulum or raindrops on a metal roof flashed. Again and again densely staggered sound surfaces of the strings or of motorically drilling trombone power pushed in between, virtuoso modulated while stopping. A permanently pulsating flow of energy throughout the entire work: relaxation in tonal chords as well as inexorable, almost frightening episodes and progressions up to the final coda, realized with virtuosity by the Philharmoniker."

Michael Vieth / Bachtrack 17.6.2022 / Munich Philharmoniker & Klaus Mäkelä 

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“Batteria is a bravely personally drawn calling card that may lead far.”

Matti Sauramo / Demokraatti, 3.2.2017 / Finnish RSO & Andre de Ridder

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