Bach And Beyond

Información

• Fecha de Lanzamiento: 12 Septiembre 2006
  
• Disquera: EMI Classics

Canciones

1. J. S. Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring from " Herz und Mund und Tar und Leben" BWV 147
2. J. S. Bach: Presto from Italian Concerto
3. Montero: Beyond Bach
4. J. S. Bach: Air in G - Orchestral Suite #3 BWV 1068
5. J. S. Bach: Aria from Goldberg Variations BWV 988
6. J. S. Bach: Adagio from Violin Concerto No. 2 in E BWV 1042
7. J. S. Bach: Prelude in C BWV 846 from Well Tempered Clavier Book 1
8. J. S. Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze from Hunt Cantata BWV 208
9. J. S. Bach: Two-Part Invention in D Minor BWV 775
10. J. S. Bach: Allegro from Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G BWV 1048
11. J. S. Bach: Adagio from Keyboard Concerto in D Minor BWV 974
12. J. S. Bach: Tocatta in D Minor BWV 565

Créditos

Gabriela Montero (piano). Producer: David Groves

Críticas

Using Bach as the basis for improvisation isn’t new: Jazz pianists Keith Jarrett and Jacques Loussier have done it for decades. But the Venezuela-born, Brooklyn-based pianist Gabriela Montero isn’t using jazz alone as her point of departure. Echoing her previous album of works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Ginastera, Montero takes a dozen popular compositions by Bach and elaborates on them using the styles of Chopin and Debussy, as well as Latin music and, yes, straight-ahead jazz.

Montero’s hybrid idiom succeeds because she mixes and matches styles with such quirky finesse. After a soft, bluesy introduction, Bach’s Air in G evolves into a catchy rumba reminiscent of Chick Corea’s music. "Sheep May Safely Graze" becomes a lurching waltz tune straight out of Tin Pan Alley; a Two-Part Invention follows a rousing salsa riff with echoes of ragtime and swing.

In her liner notes, Montero maintains that each piece was completely improvised on the spot. If that’s true, the pianist clearly has an accomplished sense of musical structure. In the Aria from the Goldberg Variations, for instance, Montero navigates from languid Debussian harmonies to a Slavic folk dance and back again, weaving in blues harmonies and swing patterns along the way. Purists might balk, but it’s worth remembering that Liszt and other virtuoso pianists excelled in the art of improvisation. Montero recovers this lost art while adding her own funky sensibility. Brian Wise, Time Out New York