Pianist Nils Anders Mortensen. Johann Sebastian Bach - CD Review, 24th of April2023

The six harpsichord suites of Johann Sebastian Bach Had been published separately starting with 1726, then, five years later, they emerged in a set entitled as "Exercises for harpsichord". It seems like the great German composer got his inspiration for the creation of these music sheets from the suites set created by the end of the 17th century by Johann Kuhnau, the one that had preceeded Bach in the cantor position at the Saint Thomas Church from Leipzig. Comparing the two, and the other pieces created for the keyboard stringed instruments by Bach, such as the English and French suites, these six ones published in 1731 at Leipzig are more technically difficult and bolder in structure- they drift away from the traditional forms of French dancing suites to a larger freedomof interpretation, fantasyand creativity of discourse - they become less centered on the imitative contrapuntal song writing and more focused on the songs' charm kept by refined harmonies, creating new types of ringingqualities. Three of these suites - namely the first, fifth and sixth - are included onto the schedule that I exclusively present you at Radio România Muzical: recordings created at the end of 2021 at the Sofienberg Lutheran Church from Oslo, by Nils Anders Mortensen, a remarkable representative of Scandinavian piano school. Within the suite nr. 1 BWV 825 in B-flat major, Nils Anders Mortensen stresses melodic creativity and rhythmic diversity which characterizes this suite, by giving us a dynamic version, slightly sentimental through its slow flow, being in contrast with the quickly rendered ones that are played with stylistic rigor and acoustic clarity. The same dynamism exists in The Suite no.5 in G major, that starts with a preludewhose spontaneous characteris well pictured by the Norwegian pianistand, proceeding with the elegant allemand, subtly musically decorated, the rithmed courant and, in the same light, optimistic and gracious manner, the sarabande. For his next move, Bach chose a minuet pace, followed by Passepied, closing this BWV 829 suite in a structure of a double fugue, with complex contrapuntal qualities fluently presented in detail by the pianist Nils Anders Mortensen.

Born in 1971, the pianist Nils Anders Mortensen undertook musical studies in Oslo, Paris and Hanover. He won several prestigious contests, such as the Mozarteum Prize from Salzburg, The Contestof young pianistsfrom Norway and the Robert Levin Memorial Prize. Nils Anders Mortensenhad performed in concerts as the lead of the most important orchestras from Norway and had recorded a large number of albums that covers a great repertoire, from baroque music and leading up to modernity, Bach, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy şi Bartok being some of the composers approached by this talented pianist.