From the Musical Vault Dept.: Keith Jarrett was a little grumpy when I got him on the phone. This was in 1985, and I called to interview him in advance of his appearance in Troy, NY, playing classical Baroque-era selections. Or maybe I came across as a jerk and pissed him off. Either is a possible explanation as to why I didn’t get very much out of him and resorted to quotes from others to fill out the piece below. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to seeing his performance, but he cancelled at the last minute. Five years ago he suffered a pair of strokes that have ended his performing career. So this remains my only in-person brush with the man, although I unreservedly recommend his recording of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues. I’ve left the piece below in its entirety, including a glimpse of other arts events in the area.
IT LOOKS LIKE an abrupt change of career, but Keith Jarrett’s recent switch to playing the classics is really a sort of coming home for the pianist, whose early studies included rigorous classical training. Referring to this change, Jarrett told one interviewer last year, “It seems sudden, but several years have been involved. I won't call it a shift. It’s more a choice for the music.”
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On Saturday, Jarrett brings a program of music by Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti to the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for an 8 PM concert. Those three composers are being feted this year for sharing the same year of birth three centuries ago. Did this fact motivate Jarrett’s programming? “It’s fortunate that this 300th birthday happened at a time when I might have done this anyway. It’s nice to know that it works out. But I also feel, for example, that Handel’s keyboard music needs to be played more often.”
Three keyboard suites by Handel will be performed on Saturday: the program opens with No. 15 in D minor and No. 13 in B-flat major, and concludes with No. 8 in F major. Scarlatti is represented by two sonatas: in F minor and in F major. Rounding out the program are works by Bach: the French Suite No. 3 in B minor; the Italian Concerto; and the Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F major from Book Two of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
This is similar to a program Jarrett performed in March at Avery Fisher Hall, about which New York Times critic John Rockwell wrote: “He often took moderate tempos in music that is too often dashed through by today’s steely-fingered young virtuosos. He shaped phrases, he lingered over details, and all in a way that actually corresponded – whether he knew it or not – to the latest post-modernist notions of how such music ought to go.”
There is a tendency among classical critics to be very protective of their territory, and an intrusion by a jazz pianist doesn’t usually get the red-carpet treatment. Has this been Jarrett’s experience? “Ahead of time, yes, but with reviewers, no. But there is a definite defensiveness,” Jarrett says. “I think it’s valid, though, because I don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘crossover.’ The term doesn’t exist. Also, I don’t believe in ‘fusion.’ That’s another one of those terms. I think that there is simply music of different kinds, and if a musician is able to answer that kind, then he is a valid player of that music.”
Jarrett has been likened to Glenn Gould in his seemingly eccentric choice of repertory, his posture at the keyboard and the fanatical following that attends his concerts – people who are there as much to see the man as to hear the music. But he is quick to point out that there are valid reasons for each, particularly in regard to the works he chooses to play. He began with a process of elimination, and “was left with the masters whose music you find on my program. And I wanted composers who improvised.” Besides the three on the Troy program, Jarrett has been playing music by Beethoven and Shostakovich and C.P.E. Bach. “Those composers are closer to what I feel I do than anybody else,” he explains. “The improvising comes second in my list of priorities, but it’s funny that all of them turned out to be improvisors of major stature.”
Tickets for the concert are $12.50 and $13.50, and are available at the Troy Music Hall box office and CBO outlets.
The Pariahs at SUNYA
THE WORLD PREMIERE of excerpts from Leonard Kastle’s opera “The Pariahs” will take place at Page Hall Auditorium at SUNYA’s downtown campus Sunday at 7 PM. The opera is based on the true story of the return of the survivors of the whaling ship Essex, which was also the inspiration for Melville’s “Moby Dick.” David Janower will conduct the University Chorale; soloists include contralto Judith Ramaley, tenor Rand Reeves, bass John Mielke and soprano Kathi Mason. Admission is $3; seniors and students are $2. Reservations may be made by calling 457-xxxx.
Muse Strikes
“THE MUSE OF FRANCE” is the title of Capitol Chamber Artists’ pair of concerts this weekend (Saturday at 8 PM at the Bush Memorial Auditorium in Troy; Sunday at 3 PM at the Albany Institute of History and Art). On the program are Debussy’s “Bilitis,” in a version for narrator, flute and piano; Durufle’s Prelude, Recitative, and Variations for flute, viola, and piano; and sonatas for violin and piano by Gaubert and Franck.
Tickets are $7 (students $5) and may be reserved by calling 489-xxxx
– Metroland Magazine, 2 May 1985
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