Grammy Award winning jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, Brad Mehldau, has two new albums, After Bach II and Après Fauré, out on Nonesuch Records!
Following 2018’s stunning After Bach, After Bach II continues Mehldau’s performances of both Bach and Bach-inspired pieces, while Après Fauré sees a similar approach to the works of foremost Late-Romanticism French composer, Gabriel Fauré.
After Bach II is comprised of four preludes and one fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as the Allemande from the fourth Partita. Interspersed are seven compositions or improvisations by Mehldau, inspired by the complementary works of Bach—including Mehldau’s Variations on Bach’s Goldberg Theme.
In the album’s liner notes, Mehldau, speaking of the “universality” of Bach’s music, says, “The more you try to engage with him, the more your own personality becomes visible…You are not playing Bach – Bach is playing you, in the sense that he lays you bare,”.
The Jacksonville, Florida born composer also states that Bach’s ability to “…make melodic phrases that carry harmonic implication, and create harmony that moves in a melodic fashion,” has inspired him as a jazz musician.
On Après Fauré, Mehldau performs four Nocturnes, from a thirty-seven-year span of Gabriel Fauré’s career, as well as a reduction of an excerpt from the Adagio movement of his Piano Quartet in G Minor. Mehldau’s four Fauré inspired compositions are presented in a group, bookended by two sections featuring the French composer’s works.
While the connection isn’t as overt as it is on his After Bach project, Fauré’s harmonic and textural imprint is showcased throughout Mehldua’s nine pieces, here.
Discussing the album, Mehldua states in the liner notes, “If the sublime foreshadows our mortality, this music might communicate the austerity of death—Fauré’s as it approached him, but also the apprehension of our own,“.
As of yet, there’s no announcement of any vinyl pressings, but be sure to stop in for a copy of both “Mean Gene” approved CDs! You can also find tour dates and tickets for one of Mehldua’s many upcoming shows HERE!
