Originally published on April 18
Of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six keyboard Partitas, Nils Anders Mortensen here records the B-flat (BWV825), G-major (BWV829) and E-minor (BWV 830) examples, with a second release waiting in the wings to complete the survey. I am already looking forward to that given this first instalment is so absorbing in each of the twenty-one movements. Very well recorded (November-December 2021) in a sympathetic Oslo church acoustic (marrying bloom and clarity ideally) on a good-sounding modern piano, Mortensen impresses with his thoughtful approach to slower numbers to suggest extemporisation and fantasy while quicker ones are the very antithesis of ‘sewing-machine’ Bach, Mortensen crisply articulating while subtly modulating, never fast for the sake of it, although he could be if he wanted; however, these are musically considered readings, articulate, dynamic and full of character, stimulating and illuminating. Lawo Classics LWC1249 is released on April 21.