Keith Jarrett – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (2LP)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Württemberg Sonatas Wq 49
Piano – Keith Jarrett [click here to see vinyl featuring Keith Jarrett]
2 LPs, gatefold jacket
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : unspecified
Label : ECM Records
Original Label : ECM Records
Recorded in May 1994 at Cavelight Studio, New Jersey
Engineered by Peter Laenger
Executive Producer Manfred Eicher
Design by Sascha Kleis
Liner Notes by Paul Griffiths
Photography by Mayo Bucher, Peter Laenger, Henry Leutwyler
Originally released in June 2023
Reissued in 2024
Tracks :
Side A :
- Sonata I In A Minor - Moderato
- Sonata I In A Minor - Andante
- Sonata I In A Minor - Allegro assa
- Sonata II In A-flat Major - Un poco allegro
Side B:
- Sonata II In A-flat Major - Adagio
- Sonata II In A-flat Major - Allegro
- Sonata III In E Minor - Allegro
- Sonata III In E Minor - Adagio
- Sonata III In E Minor - Vivace
Side C:
- Sonata IV In B-flat Major - Un poco allegro
- Sonata IV In B-flat Major - Andante
- Sonata IV In B-flat Major - Allegro
- Sonata V In E-flat Major - Allegro
Side D:
- Sonata V In E-flat Major - Adagio
- Sonata V In E-flat Major - Allegro assa
- Sonata VI In B Minor - Moderato
- Sonata VI In B Minor - Adagio non molto
- Sonata VI In B Minor - Allegro
Reviews:
"Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett has recorded a good number of classical albums, to generally positive reviews. However, this 1994 effort, made in Jarrett's home studio and released by ECM in 2023, stands somewhat apart from the rest. Excepting his album of music by the mystic George Gurdjieff and excepting his own semi-jazz compositions, he has generally recorded music by J.S. Bach and other well-known composers. In J.S. Bach, he is meticulous and seemingly aware of the vast tradition at whose door he is knocking, but with C.P.E. Bach here, he is in largely uncharted territory, and that seems to do him good. The music, from early in C.P.E.'s career, was written originally for clavichord, an instrument Jarrett has played from time to time; it might have been interesting to hear him try it here, though he cultivates a clean piano sound that works well. C.P.E. seems a kindred spirit to Jarrett; there is no attempt to add jazz moves to the music, but he is improvisatory, in a way, departing in a hundred fresh directions from the imposing example his father set. Jarrett's readings are light and elegant. The last of the six sonatas is an early example of C.P.E. Bach's darker empfindsamer Stil, and here, one might wish for a bit more oomph from Jarrett. The usual attraction of top-tier sound from the ECM isn't present in this case, but, unlike at least some of Jarrett's other recordings, one might choose these as reference performances; other recordings on harpsichord don't catch the freshness of the music the way Jarrett does." AllMusic Review by James Manheim
"Keith Jarrett needs no introduction as an interpreter of JS Bach, but the affective world of Carl Philipp Emanuel is such a different proposition that the prospect of reviewing this had me licking my lips. For the avoidance of doubt, this recording dates from the same period as those recordings of the elder Bach, seemingly the last in the series (May 1994, to be exact). One wonders why it took so long for ECM to issue it – unless it was because recording CPE on piano would not have been ‘the done thing’ back then. By Jarrett’s reckoning, he’d heard these sonatas played by harpsichordists and decided that ‘there was space left for a piano version’. In the intervening years other pianists have, too, and it’s no disrespect to them to say that Jarrett moves straight to the top of the list of interpreters on the instrument.
The fluent elegance of his recordings of CPE’s father is in evidence, a honeyed legato when called for, here and there the hint of an edge (though at first blush one’s surprised that there’s not more of it). Indeed, previous reviewers have expressed surprise that such a gifted improviser should seem almost diffident in his approach to the text in this repertory. (It is certainly surprising that he doesn’t make more of the repeats, given that he gives us all of them.) If anything, the question poses itself here even more, given the vagaries of mood that are CPE’s stock-in-trade; and yet, listening to other accounts on piano suggests a possible answer. Such mercurial twists are easily overcooked and might tip into mannerism (in the pejorative sense); whether this explains Jarrett’s preference to let the musical rhetoric speak through the form rather than over-hype the surface, the decision puts the ‘classical’ into ‘pre classical’, as in the pre-echoes of Beethoven’s Op 2 No 1 in the corresponding first movement of CPE’s A minor Sonata.
The pathos of the following Andante is below the surface, with just a pause towards the end by way of acknowledgement; but the main line and the counterpoints beneath are very nicely judged. It’s not that Jarrett is insensitive to the Sturm und Drang overtones; my one criticism would be that sudden strings of staccato chords or repeated notes, which hint at sudden resolve after a moment’s hesitation, could sometimes be more detached and emphatic. But the set seems to me to deepen in quality as it goes: the outgoing finale of the B flat major Sonata has a lightness of touch that eludes other pianists (and gets the staccato chords I mentioned spot on); the (major) slow movement of the B minor Sonata is a gem; and the echoes of the father in the Adagio of the E flat major are very touching (he would surely have seen the set published). Jarrett’s instinctive pianism makes his CPE set (as John Duarte wrote of his recording of the JS Bach viola sonatas with Kim Kashkashian) ‘one I can happily live with’." Gramophone.
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