Keith Jarrett J.S. BACH Das Wohltemperierte Klavier Buch I

Keith Jarrett is not the first pianist to establish himself as a jazz musician and fluent improviser before seeking public recognition as a scaler of 'classical' peaks, as my old 78s of the Andre Previn Trio testify, but to attempt the Eiger by the north face at such an early stage might be regarded as an act of veritable foolhardiness. Maybe so, but here you will find no dead or maimed body at the foot of the mountain. The annotation assumes that the reader does not need to be told the what and the why of the work, and focuses instead on Jarrest's approach to the music, beginning with his statement that ''This music does not need my assistance''. Well of course any music needs the performer's help to bring it to audible life but the leading question is: 'what kind of help is needed?'. Jarrett's answer is that the per former's duty is to understand the structure of this music, to grasp the expressive meaning of the lines without exaggeration and to allow the notes to speak for themselves without imposing extraneous notions. In my review of Schiff's recording (Decca) I commented that: ''If clarity is truly in the mind it will emerge through the fingers'', a view that Jarrett overtly shares and puts into practice; his lines emerge clearly, without the help of pianistic coloration, as does structure without the aid of bloated dynamics. He believes also that, in presenting music written for the harpsichord: ''the piano should not go beyond a certain limit of expression. And a piano version should not be played with the intention: 'Look here what the piano can do for this piece'. The piece is better than the piano.''
These are, then, performances in which tempos, phrasing, articulation and the execution of ornaments are convincing, and in which both instrument and performer serve as unobtrusive media through which the music emerges without 'enhancement'. They may seem too 'cool' for those accustomed to the variously 'personal' utterances of most pianists, even the respectful Schiff, but they accord with Bloch's (quoted) observation that: ''Bach's yearning was not outwardly burning fire, but a deep spirituality remaining within'', and as such I find them deeply rewarding. The piano sound is warmly 'neutral', neither hard nor supersoft, and it is finely recorded. May we have Book 2 please? (John Duarte, Gramophone 10/1988)