After Bach comprises Brad Mehldau'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. "There have always been elements of Mehldau’s style that recall Bach," writes Timo Andres in the liner note. "After Bach surveys their shared ground as keyboardists, improvisers, and composers, making implicit parallels explicit."
Brad Mehldau's After Bach is due March 9, 2018, on Nonesuch Records. 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.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Brad Mehldau
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Tom Lazarus
Recorded April 18–20, 2017, at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA
Additional Mixing by Brian Montgomery
Piano Technician: Barbara Renner
Production Coordination: Tom Korkidis
Design by Evan Gaffney Design
Cover Photograph by Peter Marlow, 1991 © Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos
Portrait Photograph by Michael Wilson
Concert Photograph by David Bazemore
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
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MUSICIANS
Brad Mehldau, piano
