• Bent Sørensen
  • La Mattina (2009)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)

Second piano concerto. Written for Leif Ove Andsnes

  • 1(pic).2.0.2/2000/str
  • pf
  • 23 min

Programme Note

It all began six years ago. The phone rings - "Good day - you are talking to Leif Ove Andsnes; would you like to write me a piano piece? If so, it will be commissioned by and premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York; but of course you must be allowed to think about it!” I had to pretend I was cool, even though I was already screaming inside "Yes, yes, yes!". But there was nothing to think about, because how could I say "No" to those sensitive hands that I had heard turn so many written notes into revelations and miracles in my ears and soul in the meeting with the keys? It turned into a friendship and into The Shadows of Silence and soon after, it was just a matter of time before it would turn into a piano concerto.

It all starts again three and a half years ago. I am in Vienna to experience Leif Ove and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra play Mozart's 17th Piano Concerto. As I listen to the wonderful performance, my thoughts run around inside the music: Back to childhood - the 17th was one of the first things I heard, and further into the future. This is the crew I want for the concert. The orchestra in a chamber; chamber music in an orchestra.

After the concert we meet at the piano bar “Broadway”, unfortunately since closed down. We are drinking wine, relaxing and suddenly Leif Ove sits down at the piano and plays the Busoni-arrangement of J. S. Bach's “Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”. I sit close and can see his hands forming something that floats up from the depths and forms a halo over our heads. When I get home from Vienna, I immediately write the beginning of the piano concerto La Mattina. It is the deepest and darkest thing I have ever written; but it rises, as we did when night turned into morning and we left Broadway in Vienna.

The concert is in five movements; but you can also divide it into two, three, four or six movements. All movements glide into each other. Motifs and textures return in new guises, and the dark beginning – with closed eyes and a small trace of a Bach chorale – ends in a rousing rondo-like movement – with eyes wide open.

- Bent Sørensen

Media

Scores

Score preview

Reviews

Sorensen's voice stands out by virtue of the fact that his goal is a these days unusual quality: beauty.
Michael Church, The Independent
30th August 2010
Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the orchestra guided the audience into a supreme coloured world of sound, initially as a dim atmosphere in the morning, and later on wandering through imaginary (Nordic?) landscapes, which offered again and again delightful surprises, e.g. a hummed Bach choral or the clicking of wooden sticks. A strong piece!
Markus Stäbler, Hamburger Abendblatt
27th August 2010
This is a score whose dreamlike material doesn't yield all its secrets on a first hearing.
Bruce Dessau, London Evening Standard
26th August 2010
...striking...
Martin Kettle, Guardian
26th August 2010
Bent Sørensen is a master of moods.
***** (5 stars out of 6)
Jakob Wivel, Børsen
7th June 2010
A Danish masterpiece. The word is ”breathtaking”.
****** (6 stars)
Søren Schauser, Berlingske Tidende
5th June 2010
Once again Sørensen has managed to carefully, however radically, challenge the most classical forms in a way few other Danish composers can do – while still communicating his ideas in the form of deeply poetic and entirely accesible music.
***** (5 stars out of 6)
Henrik Friis, Politiken
5th June 2010
One of those musical encounters where the music remains in the body long after the applause has died.
Brita Skogly Kraglund, Vårt land, tue
13th October 2009
Bent Sørensen’s tonal universe is truly original.
Tori Skrede, VG
12th October 2009

Discography

Concertos

Concertos
  • Label
    DaCapo
  • Catalogue Number
    8.226095
  • Conductor
    Thomas Søndergård / Per Kristian Skalstad
  • Ensemble
    The Danish National Symphony Orchestra / Norwegian Chamber Orchestra
  • Soloist
    Leif Ove Andsnes (piano), Martin Frost (clarinet) & Tine Thing Helseth (trumpet)
  • Released
    20th March 2020