Brad Mehldau - After Bach (2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

The album comprises the pianist/composer's recordings of four preludes and one fugue from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, each followed by an After Bach piece written by Mehldau and inspired by its WTC mate. The album begins with Mehldau's own "Before Bach: Benediction" and ends with his "Prayer for Healing."

As Mehldau's label mate Timo Andres says in his After Bach liner note, "As a professional organist, much of Bach's work took the form of improvisation, and during his lifetime it was the virtuosity and complexity of these improvisations for which he was most admired … Some three centuries after the fact, Brad Mehldau takes up this tradition and applies it to a frustratingly unknowable aspect of Bach's art."

Andres continues, "There have always been elements of Mehldau's style that recall Bach, especially his densely-woven voicing—but he's not striving to imitate or play dress-up. Rather, After Bach surveys their shared ground as keyboardists, improvisers, and composers, making implicit parallels explicit."

After Bach originated in a work Mehldau first performed in 2015—commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Royal Conservatory of Music, The National Concert Hall, and Wigmore Hall—called Three Pieces After Bach.

Brad Mehldau's Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo and includes six records with his trio: House on Hill, Day Is Done, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, Ode, Where Do You Start, and Blues and Ballads. His collaborative records on the label include Love Sublime, Highway Rider, Metheny Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau Quartet, Modern Music, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, Nearness with Joshua Redman, and last year's Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau. Mehldau's additional solo albums on Nonesuch include Live in Marciac and the eight-LP/four-CD 10 Years Solo Live, which the New York Times says "contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record."

Tracklist:
1. Before Bach: Benediction 5:27
2. The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 848: Prelude No. 3 in C# Major 1:21
3. After Bach: Rondo 8:21
4. The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 870: Prelude No. 1 in C Major 2:36
5. After Bach: Pastorale 3:46
6. The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 855: Prelude No. 10 in E Minor 2:16
7. After Bach: Flux 5:06
8. The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 857: Prelude and Fugue No. 12 in F Minor 6:10
9. After Bach: Dream 07:49
10. The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 885: Fugue No. 16 in G Minor 3:04
11. After Bach: Ostinato 12:20
12. Prayer for Healing 11:06

Personnel:
Brad Mehldau, piano