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. Brad Mehldau, who is married to Dutch jazz singer
Fleurine, performed regularly at editions of the North Sea Jazz Festival. The Après Fauré album is in the same vein as both of Mehldau's After Bach albums (
I… and II). And yet the differences are great. Many jazz musicians know their way around Bachs music, Bach's crystalline signature can have a lot. The world of Gabriel Fauré is much more fragile. Especially Fauré's music of old age sounds lonely and introverted. Mehldau admits that in his musical Fauré commentaries, the trail is less easy to follow than with Bach. It is precisely that mystery that makes this CD a rare adventure. The album ends with an excerpt from the Adagio of Fauré's Piano Quartet opus 45. According to Mehldau, this excerpt contains Fauré in a nutshell. 'Mysterious and enchanting,' says the pianist. (HJ)more
