Artist: Brad Mehldau
Album: After Bach II
Genre: Modern Creative, Classical
Label: Nonesuch
Released: 2024
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Prelude to Prelude (1:22)
- Prelude No.9 in E Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 854 (1:49)
- Prelude No.6 in D Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 851 (1:18)
- After Bach: Toccata (14:42)
- Partita for Keyboard No.4 in D Major, BWV 828: II. Allemande (8:11)
- After Bach: Cavatina (5:17)
- Prelude No.20 in A Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 865 (1:07)
- Between Bach (6:05)
- Fugue No.20 in A Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 865 (3:56)
- Intermezzo (1:26)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Aria-Like (3:40)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation I, Minor 5/8 a (2:12)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation II, Minor 5/8 b (1:10)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation III, Major 7/4 (2:31)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation IV, Breakbeat (1:41)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation V, Jazz (2:03)
- Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme: Variation VI, Finale (1:40)
- Prelude No.7 in E-Flat Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 852 (3:59)
- Postlude (2:17)
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Pianist Brad Mehldau comes from the world of jazz, but he was classically trained, and he has released several albums that draw on classical music. After Bach II, released in 2024 and a sequel of sorts to 2018's After Bach, might be the best of them. As before, Mehldau interpolates compositions of his own among classical originals, competently played. However, the structure of this album is a bit more complex than those of After Bach and the 2024 release Après Fauré. Mehldau begins with an alternation, but the second half of the album, with the exception of a return to the Bach touchstone in the Prelude No. 7 in E flat major of BWV 852 from the Well-Tempered Clavier, is all Mehldau. One senses a deeper attempt to come to terms with the age-old and difficult problem of integrating jazz and classical music. Mehldau contributes some new variations to the theme of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. Taking on this imposing task might be called swinging for the fences, and Mehldau hits the ball out of the park. Only one variation is entitled "Jazz," but the variations before it build up to the jazz presence in subtle ways. To these ears, these are unlike anything done elsewhere, and they provide new avenues that one hopes Mehldau will explore in further releases. The rather vexed classical-jazz relationship is in need of a shot of new blood, and Mehldau may well be the one to provide it. Nonesuch's engineering work at the acoustically superior Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, is another draw here.
Review by James Manheim