Beginning with the intimate, hushed textures of the solo piano cycle 12 Nocturnes, a night music that drifts from sundown to sunrise, and unfolding into the Piano Concerto no.3, ‘La sera estatica’ – an ecstatic evening touched by the fleeting magic of twilight, where new encounters and possibilities quietly awaken, captured live at its world premiere by the Copenhagen Phil under John Storgårds – this album immerses the listener in Bent Sørensen’s (b. 1958) profound love of the piano and extraordinary poetic imagination.

For many years, Bent Sørensen struggled to composed for the piano. It was through his encounters with the two pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Katrine Gislinge that he truly embraced it as a composer. This has led to a series of original piano works that together create a unique dramaturgy.

For Sørensen and his wife Katrine Gislinge, the time of the Covid pandemic was a time of freedom. In the evenings, Gislinge would often give a mini-concert with some of the music she had been practicing. The experiences of piano music at home, as darkness fell, could take on an ecstatic character. Fragments of this music live on in La sera estatica (The Ectstatic Evening).

Both La sera estatica and the 12 Nocturnes find inspiration in the magical forces that can come into play at twilight, followed by the night – a quieter world, where the imagination is set free.

The 12 Nocturnes for piano solo is a collection of short pieces of great expressive weight. It is wonderfully atmospheric music with a vibrating magical sound that recalls the stars at night – the classical nocturne retransformed in the 21st century.