KEITH JARRETT - Creation
ECM 472 1225
Keith Jarrett (piano)
Recorded live April June 2014
KEITH JARRETT - Barber / Bartók / Jarrett
ECM New Series 481 1580
Samuel Barber
Piano Concerto op.38 - Jarrett (piano); Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Saarbrücken; Dennis Russell Davies, Conductor
Concert recording, June 3, 1984 at Congresshalle, Saarbrücken
Béla Bartók
Piano Concerto No. 3 - Keith Jarrett (piano); New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Conductor
Keith Jarrett
Tokyo Encore - Concert recording, January 30, 1985at Kan’I Hall (U-port), Tokyo
ECM 472 1225
Keith Jarrett (piano)
Recorded live April June 2014
KEITH JARRETT - Barber / Bartók / Jarrett
ECM New Series 481 1580
Samuel Barber
Piano Concerto op.38 - Jarrett (piano); Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Saarbrücken; Dennis Russell Davies, Conductor
Concert recording, June 3, 1984 at Congresshalle, Saarbrücken
Béla Bartók
Piano Concerto No. 3 - Keith Jarrett (piano); New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra; Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Conductor
Keith Jarrett
Tokyo Encore - Concert recording, January 30, 1985at Kan’I Hall (U-port), Tokyo
Two new releases from ECM issued to mark Jarrett’s seventieth birthday on 8th May, each equally wonderful and displaying two different musical worlds in which the pianist has inhabited.
The first of these, Creation, is music from improvised solo concerts but presented rather differently. Whereas before, entire concerts have been released in their entirety as single, double or even triple albums or box sets we are presented here with a single disc of music that Keith Jarrett has compiled music from performances given in 2014. After reviewing all the music recorded that year, the pianist has picked music from just six concerts given between April and June, and chosen what he believes to be the most revelatory moments.
In doing so there is a uniformity in the recording that is perhaps not possible in a single live performance, where the art of creating in the moment will lead the improviser down paths that could not be for seen or quickly tempered to mirror what has gone before. As a result Jarrett has been able to hone in and focus on specific a specific aspect of each performance, and produced an album that it lyrical and song like. So much so that this side of Jarrett's solo playing has not been brought so sharply into focus since the exquisite The Melody, At Night With You album from 1999.
Eschewed are the long improvisations that range freely where the music allows for flights of fancy following the muse of the music, and the deep rhythmic ostinato over which the pianist can add his melodic lines. Instead Jarrett has focused his attention on the more compact and tightly reined in improvisations that all play out to their logical and natural conclusion in under ten minutes.
If listening to this remarkable album, one is immediately drawn to the flow and melodic shape of not just the individual improvisations but the suite or 'creation' as a whole, it is interesting to note that with the exception of 'Part VII' and 'Part VIII', the pieces do not follow chronologically from one convert to the next, but have been carefully sequenced by Jarrett to tell it's story as a unified whole. Tension and release with the framework is therefore found both within the improvisations and the programming, skilfully done when the delicate beauty that shapes 'Part V' is sequenced between the hard won and dramatic climaxes that are heard in 'Part IV' & 'Part VI'.
The New Series disc presents music was recorded some thirty years earlier, at a time when forays into the classical world were nothing new for Jarrett having already recorded the works of Bach and Mozart. The departure here perhaps it that the pianist was performing music that was written in a world in which Jarrett was living (Bartók died in 1945 the year Keith was born), and perhaps a different affinity with the music was felt when tackling these pieces.
The Samuel Barber Piano Concerto op.38 is often a densely packed and tightly controlled piece that find it's light and shade within a somewhat confined range of expression. There is not the grand sweeping gesture, but more of a sense of piano and orchestra staking claim on their territory.
By contrast, Bartók's Piano Concerto No.3 is lighter in the way the orchestra is handled, producing music of a much more playful nature. Piano and orchestra coexist in a much more harmonious environment, and as a consequence this is probably the music that I would return to for pleasure, and the Barber when wishing for the sisibilities to be challenged.
Jarrett's playing on the classical recitals are brought into sharper focus when one remembers that at the time of these performances the pianist had also formed what was to become known as the Standards Trio, and was also giving concerts of solo piano improvisations, displaying an astonishing ability to juggle these three different disciplines to the highest level.
Two more for the Jarrett discography that really should not be allowed to pass you by.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
The first of these, Creation, is music from improvised solo concerts but presented rather differently. Whereas before, entire concerts have been released in their entirety as single, double or even triple albums or box sets we are presented here with a single disc of music that Keith Jarrett has compiled music from performances given in 2014. After reviewing all the music recorded that year, the pianist has picked music from just six concerts given between April and June, and chosen what he believes to be the most revelatory moments.
In doing so there is a uniformity in the recording that is perhaps not possible in a single live performance, where the art of creating in the moment will lead the improviser down paths that could not be for seen or quickly tempered to mirror what has gone before. As a result Jarrett has been able to hone in and focus on specific a specific aspect of each performance, and produced an album that it lyrical and song like. So much so that this side of Jarrett's solo playing has not been brought so sharply into focus since the exquisite The Melody, At Night With You album from 1999.
Eschewed are the long improvisations that range freely where the music allows for flights of fancy following the muse of the music, and the deep rhythmic ostinato over which the pianist can add his melodic lines. Instead Jarrett has focused his attention on the more compact and tightly reined in improvisations that all play out to their logical and natural conclusion in under ten minutes.
If listening to this remarkable album, one is immediately drawn to the flow and melodic shape of not just the individual improvisations but the suite or 'creation' as a whole, it is interesting to note that with the exception of 'Part VII' and 'Part VIII', the pieces do not follow chronologically from one convert to the next, but have been carefully sequenced by Jarrett to tell it's story as a unified whole. Tension and release with the framework is therefore found both within the improvisations and the programming, skilfully done when the delicate beauty that shapes 'Part V' is sequenced between the hard won and dramatic climaxes that are heard in 'Part IV' & 'Part VI'.
The New Series disc presents music was recorded some thirty years earlier, at a time when forays into the classical world were nothing new for Jarrett having already recorded the works of Bach and Mozart. The departure here perhaps it that the pianist was performing music that was written in a world in which Jarrett was living (Bartók died in 1945 the year Keith was born), and perhaps a different affinity with the music was felt when tackling these pieces.
The Samuel Barber Piano Concerto op.38 is often a densely packed and tightly controlled piece that find it's light and shade within a somewhat confined range of expression. There is not the grand sweeping gesture, but more of a sense of piano and orchestra staking claim on their territory.
By contrast, Bartók's Piano Concerto No.3 is lighter in the way the orchestra is handled, producing music of a much more playful nature. Piano and orchestra coexist in a much more harmonious environment, and as a consequence this is probably the music that I would return to for pleasure, and the Barber when wishing for the sisibilities to be challenged.
Jarrett's playing on the classical recitals are brought into sharper focus when one remembers that at the time of these performances the pianist had also formed what was to become known as the Standards Trio, and was also giving concerts of solo piano improvisations, displaying an astonishing ability to juggle these three different disciplines to the highest level.
Two more for the Jarrett discography that really should not be allowed to pass you by.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
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