Peter Seivewright has attracted international notice on two fronts: he is the first pianist to tackle all 90 sonatas by Baldassare Galuppi, a near-contemporary and stylistic cousin of
Domenico Scarlatti; and
Seivewright is one of the more important artists dedicated to championing piano works of lesser known and contemporary composers. Witness
Seivewright's résumé in the recording studio: beside launching his Galuppi cycle with the Divine Art label (2004), he has recorded a two-disc set of piano works for that label by forgotten Danish composer Louis Glass; for Divine Art he has also recorded a CD of piano sonatas by
Elliott Carter,
Miklós Rózsa, and Edward MacDowell (2009), and with Naxos he recorded the entire piano output of
Carl Nielsen. In the concert hall he is just as adventurous: he gave the world premiere of the
Rory Boyle Piano Concerto (1998) and introduced other major works by Robert Crawford and
Martin Dalby. For all his dedication to the contemporary and offbeat though,
Seivewright possesses a repertory that takes in many standards by
J.S. Bach,
Tchaikovsky, and others. Beside Divine Art and Naxos,
Seivewright has recorded for the Rondo Grammofon label (piano works by another forgotten Danish composer Victor Bendix).
Peter Seivewright was born in Skipton, England, in 1954. His first advanced music studies were at Oxford and following graduation he spent three years at the Manchester-based Royal Northern College of Music under Ryszard Bakst. During his student years
Seivewright achieved critical acclaim for his performance of the
Richard Rodney Bennett Piano Concerto with an RNCM student orchestra.
Seivewright gradually built his reputation, touring the U.K. and Europe, particularly Denmark, and Asia and the Americas. By the mid-'90s
Seivewright was internationally known, and in 1997-1998 he recorded the
Nielsen keyboard works for Naxos.
More successful recordings followed, but
Seivewright had to put a temporary halt to his career in 2000, when he received quadruple bypass surgery. During his recovery, the resourceful
Seivewright reportedly used music by
Bach for therapy.
Following his recovery
Seivewright returned to concert work with renewed vigor. He made his Russian debut in 2003 with the Arkhangelsk Philharmonic, and in 2006 appeared in both Beijing, China (playing the
Tchaikovsky First), and Calcutta, India (performing the
Bach D minor Concerto). In the new century
Seivewright's recordings have appeared with greater frequency, not least because the Galuppi cycle is projected to run to 10 discs.