Mendelssohn Inspired By Bach – Karl-Andreas Kolly

Inspired by the spirit of Bach, Karl-Andreas Kolly explores traces of Bach in Mendelssohn’s piano works and discovers Mendelssohn’s deep connection with Bach in his Organ Sonatas, which through Kolly’s transcriptions of astonishingly pianistic effect show the great composer in a completely new light.

Mendelssohn’s Preludes and Fugues arereminiscent of Bach from the title alone. These rarely heard piano works are complemented by two genuinely Romantic character pieces from Op.7, the first of which, Sehnsuchtig (Longing), quite obviously paraphrases a sarabande from Bach’s French Suites – further evidence of the closeness of these otherwise so different musical epochs.

The dynamic flexibility and precision of the articulation ensure an airy sound that allows the polyphonic structures to emerge vividly. The great variations on Luther’s chorale Our Father in the Kingdom of Heaven gain a haunting intensity in the first movement of the sixth sonata.

With octave doublings and skilful voice leading, Kolly succeeds in creating a great richness of overtones with a simultaneously full depth on the rich sound of the Steinway concert grand piano “Manfred Burki” from 1901.