In Finstrer Mitternacht - Op.5 & 79 by Nils Anders Mortensen

Nils Anders Mortensen

In Finstrer Mitternacht - Op.5 & 79

Price: € 19.95
Format: SACD
Label: Lawo Classics
UPC: 7090020180960
Catnr: LWC 1084
Release date: 30 October 2015
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Label
Lawo Classics

UPC
7090020180960

Catalogue number
LWC 1084

Release date
30 October 2015

""For the Norwegian pianist it is about the detailled drawing and the traceability of the lines.""

Piano News, 01-5-2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Johannes Brahms’ Sonata no. 3 for piano, opus 5, bears impressive testament to the young composer’s formidable gift as a composer and pianist. “In its heroic scale, unconventional layout, and high quality of thought it was one of the most impressive sonatas since those of Beethoven and Schubert,” writes music critic Calum MacDonald, who further suggests that Brahms wrote his sonata as a response to Liszt’s B minor sonata, which Brahms had heard Liszt play in the summer of 1853. The sonata opus 5 was the last work for solo piano in the genre that Brahms would write.
The two Rhapsodies op. 79 were composed in 1879 when Brahms was in his mid-forties and at the peak of his career. These two compositions are the largest free-standing single-movement piano pieces Brahms had written since the Scherzo, op. 4. The Rhapsodies are dedicated to Elizabet von Herzogenberg, Brahms’ student and lover.
For the Ballad op. 10, no. 1, Brahms was inspired by the Scottish ballad Edward (which he later set for vocal duet in his opus 75).

Brahms, solo piano, Nils Anders Mortensen

Artist(s)

Nils Anders Mortensen (piano)

Nils Anders Mortensen was born in Flekkefjord in 1971. He began playing piano at age three, and in 1986 he won the Norwegian Young Pianist Competition. He studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, École Normale in Paris, and Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. Other important teachers have been Tatjana Nikolajeva and Hans Leygraf.
Mortensen was the recipient of the prestigious Concerts Norway ‘Debutant of the Year’ award in 1996. He has won international prizes and grants. In 1998 he won the Mozarteum Prize in Salzburg. In 2004 Mortensen received the Robert Levin Memorial Prize.
Mortensen has appeared as soloist with Norway’s leading orchestras. He recorded piano concertos of Geirr Tveitt with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. His first solo album Im Freien (LWC1032), featuring music of Debussy, Grieg, and Bartók, was released in 2012 to glowing reviews.
Mortensen has also released 12 recordings with mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland on the LAWO Classics label: Früh (LWC1033), Sæle jolekveld (LWC1040), Grieg (LWC1059), Young Elling (LWC1072), The New Song (LWC1097), Whispering Mozart (LWC1111), Songs: Kielland/Dørumsgaard (LWC1145), Einsamkeit – Songs by Mahler (LWC1157), Eivind Groven Songs (LWC1178), Schumann Lieder (LWC1197) with baritone Johannes Weisser, and Så kort ein sommar menneska har – Songs by Gisle Kverndokk (LWC1220), and Sigurd Lie Songs, Vol. 1 (LWC1256.
In 2015 he released the solo recording In finstrer Mitternacht (LWC1084), featuring music of Brahms, and Tundra (LWC1092), a recording of solely Russian music, with double-bassist Knut Erik Sundquist. In 2016 he released Schumann: Violin Sonatas Op. 105 & Op. 121 (LWC1110) with violinist Arvid Engegård. In 2019 he released his third solo recording on the LAWO Classics label, Bach: Ouvertüre nach Französischer Art, BWV 831 / Sarabande con Partite, BWV 990 / Englische Suite Nr. 6 d-Moll, BWV 811 (LWC1174), and in 2020 he released Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op. 44 / Piano Quartet, Op. 47 (LWC1189) with the Engegård Quartet. His fourth solo recording, J.S. Bach: Partitas Nos. 1, 5 & 6 (LWC1249), was released in 2023.

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