Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist who is equally at home in classical music. His jazz trio, founded in 1994, gained international recognition thanks to the series
The Art of the Trio. Mehldau performed regularly at editions of the North Sea Jazz Festival. The album After Bach II is, of course, a follow-up to
After Bach I from 2018. Some listeners found that first album somewhat confusing.
Purely by ear, it was not always clear what was from Bach and what was from Mehldau. For seasoned Bach lovers, the second album will not present much of a problem. Mehldau's music (composition, improvisation) always provides its own commentary on an adjacent piece of Bach's music. This usually results in wonderful gems, such as Cavatina (after Bach's Allemande from Partita No. 4) and the Variations on Bach's Goldberg Theme. Only the Toccata (after the Prelude BWV.851) is rather long. Not even the young Bach was that obsessive in his early toccatas for harpsichord (HJ).more
