028948115808

Barber & Bartok Piano Concertos

Keith Jarrett, RSO Saarbrucken & Dennis Russell Davies

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Format: CD

Cat No: 4811580

Release Date:  11 May 2015

Label:  ECM New Series

Packaging Type:  Jewel Case

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  028948115808

Genres:  Classical  Orchestral  

  • Description

    For much of the 1980s, Keith Jarrett balanced his improvisational activities with performances of classical music and contemporary composition. Here, with concert recordings from the middle of that decade, he is heard playing Barber's Piano Concerto and Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3, and rising to the challenges of these major works.

    The New York Times praised Jarrett's playing of the Barber concerto with Dennis Russell Davies in this period ("a sinewy, vigorously lyrical performance...both sensitive and strong"), and the Bartók with Kazuyoshi Akiyama was most enthusiastically received in Japan. After the Tokyo Bartók performance Jarrett returned alone to the stage of the Kan-i Hoken Hall to play a touching improvised encore, also documented on this recording. The album includes liner notes by Keith Jarrett and Paul Griffiths, both of which illuminate the pianist's own relationship with the music of these great composers.

    These recordings, made in 1984 and 1985 in Saarbücken and Tokyo, make a significant addition to the pianist's discography as an interpreter of notated music. Jarrett's recordings of classical repertoire for ECM have focused primarily on Bach and Mozart, though there are also exemplary albums of Handel's keyboard music, and Shostakovich's Bach-inspired Preludes and Fugues as well as a crucially important contribution to Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa. Playing Pärt's 'Fratres' alongside Gidon Kremer, Jarrett's participation would help to bring the then little-known Estonian composer to world attention.

    This historical album of music by Barber, Bartók and Keith Jarrett himself is one of two discs issued to celebrate the pianist's 70th birthday (which falls on 8th May 2015), the other being 'Creation' an album of new recordings of improvised solo piano.

    Personnel: Keith Jarrett (piano), Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor), New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Kazuyoshi Akiyama (conductor)

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Barber: Piano Concerto - Allegro appassionato
      • 2. Barber: Piano Concerto - Canzone-Moderato
      • 3. Barber: Piano Concerto - Allegro molto
      • 4. Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Allegretto
      • 5. Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Adagio religioso
      • 6. Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Allegro vivace
      • 7. Jarrett: Tokyo encore - Nothing But A Dream