Brad Mehldau: Après Fauré (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Fauré: Nocturne No. 13 in B Minor, Op. 119; Nocturne No. 4 in E-Flat Major, Op. 56; Nocturne No. 12 in E Minor, Op. 107; Mehldau: Prelude; Caprice; Nocturne; Vision; Fauré: Nocturne No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 74; Extract from Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 45: III. Adagio non troppo. Brad Mehldau, piano. Nonesuch 075597900859

The American pianist Brad Mehldau (b. 1970) is best known for his work in the jazz arena, perhaps most widely as the leader of his own trio, but also for his work with other prominent jazz musicians such as guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Josh Redman. If you really want to hear some peak jazz Mehldau, you really can do no better than his “The Art of the Trio” albums from the 1990s, especially The Art of the Trio III – Songs (Warner Brothers 9362-47051-2), which is absolutely amazing. However, his musical interests are not restricted to jazz alone. For example, he has composed songs and performed recitals with classical singers such as Renee Fleming, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Ian Bostridge. Other examples of his wide musical interests and talents include an album titled Taming the Dragon, on which he plays a variety of electronic synthesizers while paired with drummer/percussionist Mark Giuliana, and an album win which he performs what is essentially a classical piano concerto of his own composition, accompanied by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Our review of that album, titled Variations on a Melancholy Theme, can be found here.

 

We have also reviewed some other releases by Mehldau in the past, these featuring his output for solo piano. In 2020, Mehldau released an album he recorded while holed up at home with his family in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. It contains some reflective original music along with tunes by Billy Joel and Neil Young (you can find our review here). Then in 2023, Mehldau created quite a stir when he released Your Mother Should Know, his imaginative keyboard takes on Beatles classics, which you can read about here. But of more interest to followers of Classical Candor might well be an album that he released early in 2018, some months before my old friend and colleague John Puccio invited me to join him here at Classical Candor. his solo piano album After Bach (Nonesuch 7559-79318-0), which contains five selections from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier plus some Mehldau originals inspired by them. Fast-forward six years and we now were recently blessed with After Bach II, which also contains selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier plus some Mehldau originals inspired by them. In addition, we also get to hear Mehldau improvising on the theme from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a nice bonus (you can find our review here).

 

Simultaneous with the release of After Bach II, Nonesuch also released another solo piano release by Mehldau that features another of his forays into the classical repertoire. As you can see from the track listing above, Après Fauré follows the general pattern of the two Bach recordings by including primarily originals by Fauré plus some original music by Mehldau inspired by the French master. Mehldau observes Faure’s late piano music that it is “music that breathes austerity and weirdness all at once. The most familiar model for that uneasy phenomenon is Beethoven, in music like his last String Quartets. Faure’s late music shares this quality.” You can certainly feel that uneasiness as you listen to the opening Nocturne No. 13, which in Mehldau’s interpretation seems to be searching for something that it can never quite find. Still, there is a tranquility, a tenderness, a glimmer of hope. The Nocturne No. 4 that follows is not as enigmatic, but is still possessed of that Fauré-like quality of sounding simple and complex at the same time – a reflecting pool of water stirred by a gentle breeze.

Mehldau writes that “I have composed four pieces Après Fauré to accompany Fauré’s music here, to share the way I have engaged with Fauré’s question, with you, the listener. This format is similar to my After Bach project. The connections are less overt, but Fauré’s harmonic imprint is on all four. There is also a textural influence, in terms of how he presented his musical material pianistically – he exploited the instrument’s sonority masterfully, as an expressive means.” These four short pieces are lyrically expressive, more direct and intense than the Fauré – you can hear that they were inspired by but are not imitations of Faure. Interesting! Mehldau then ends his program with his reduction of an extract of the Adagio movement of Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2, a dreamlike, wistful bit of music that floats by like a cloud on a warm, bright summer day. As was the After Bach II album, Après Fauré has been expertly engineered by Tom Lazarus, and Mehldau has once again provided fascinating liner notes. If you have not yet encountered the piano music of Fauré, this release would be an excellent place to start, but even if you are already familiar with his piano music, Mehldau’s perspective is well worth consideration. Highly recommended!