"The album ""Inner Spaces"" is the third album of the Istanbul-born pianist Serra Tavsanli. With great certainty one can claim that it is her most personal album. With the works by Johann Sebastian Bach recorded here, she not only presents a masterful interpretation on a modern grand piano, but also connects the music with her own history and origins. In doing so, she reveals her innermost self and provides insight into very personal spaces of thought. Based on the initials B A C H, Serra Tavsanli has selected the pieces that match the key. Even more, because in the album's booklet she writes: ""Pieces that for me stand for different concepts that make up being human and play a role in all traditions and religions. B (Partita in B flat major) symbolizes faith. A (Partita in A minor) stands for hope. C (Toccata in C minor) represents love. B (French Overture in B minor) symbolizes our present. With this selection, the pianist takes her audience directly into her emotional worlds, into her ""Inner Spaces"". At the age of 10, she visited Germany for the first time, again all alone. A country that was foreign to her, whose language she could neither understand nor speak, but that had a connection to the culture she loved so much. And so classical music became her second mother tongue. In this language she could communicate effortlessly, express feelings and develop herself. The works of J. S. Bach thus took on an even greater meaning for her. Sometimes she even considered Bach as her ""imaginary mentor"". One senses this from the very first notes of this recording: Serra Tavsanli has ventured deeply into the world of Bach and is completely absorbed in it while playing. In a certain way, she also intentionally makes herself vulnerable. Her playing is narrative, it opens up associative spaces and is at the same time effortless, yet completely uncompromising. In the booklet she writes: ""I was suddenly there, where everything succeeds, where it is safe and free. A place that is accessible to everyone, and where origin, religion, skin color or gender no longer play a role. A place where we are not alone."" Serra Tavsanli decided to share her insights and experiences, which made her become an exceptional pianist, with her audience. At concerts, she likes to recite texts that she wrote in collaboration with cultural manager and Bach specialist Folkert Uhde to give the works even more context, but also to bring them into our time. ""As an artist, I want to open this place to everyone, to share with anyone and everyone the experience that fear becomes strength, that paralysis becomes strength. A place of hope, of freedom, of doing well. A place where no one is excluded,"" Serra Tavsanli describes her concern. With this recording, she will certainly succeed in this."
