Niels Viggo Bentzon

Tempered Piano

All I do is write down what comes. Sometimes a huge amount comes, at other times nothing at all. I’m not in control.' That is how Niels Viggo Bentzon described his own process of composing when I once asked him how he had planned and composed this enormous work. 'They are almost frozen improvisations, and when I’ve written it down, I don’t do very much more with it. If it’s good or bad is something other people must decide.' I have never forgotten these sentences. For precisely this statement, that 'other people must decide what is good or bad', is what gave me the idea for this recording.