- Audio CD (Jun 8 1999)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Import
- Label: Warner Bros
- ASIN: B00000J7J7
- Other Editions: Audio CD
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. Bard |
| 2. Resignation |
| 3. Memory's Tricks |
| 4. Elegy For William Burroughs And Allen Ginsberg |
| 5. Lament For Linus |
| 6. Trailer Park Ghost |
| 7. Goodbye Storyteller (For Fred Myrow) |
| 8. Ruckblick |
| 9. The Bard Returns |
Product Description
Amazon.com essential recording
Brad Mehldau is a pianist with a reputation for Bill Evans-style quietude. On Elegiac Cycle, Mehldau's first solo piano outing, that tendency toward melancholy meets up with his rather obvious classical influences (Brahms, Chopin, Satie) for a round of nine haunting and radiant originals. Mehldau's touch has always been light and deft, and those qualities are brought to the front on these gently searching, often mournful compositions. Aside from simply being a piece of gorgeous piano music--which it certainly is--this album offers more. The wonder occurs when Mehldau gracefully introduces brief, glimmering bits of the other side of his persona--a rambunctious improvisational glee. In this context, that spark buoys these tunes and allows light to shine upon them. Rather than facing a set of dark, brooding compositions, Mehldau inserts that indefinable spirit known as jazz into the soul of these melodies, transforming the sullen into the warmly comforting and recasting the sadness of these elegies as tributes to the spirit. A wonderfully moving and human effort. --S. Duda
Chronique amazon.fr
Après une poignée d'albums en trio qui ont révélé toute la science et le talent du pianiste Brad Mehldau, ce dernier choisit de s'offrir une pause en 1999, avec un album solo. On y détecte ce que l'on pressentait sur ses albums précédents : Brad est un incorrigible romantique, influencé aussi bien par Bill Evans ou Chet Baker que Beethoven ou Debussy. La poignée de compositions de Elegiac Cycle révèle un être sensible sans être torturé. Un album d'une beauté diaphane. --Eric Frank
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegiac Cycle - a solo piano landmark,
By Pieter de Rooij (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elegiac Cycle (Audio CD)
Finally there's a piano solo album in my collection that can match Keith Jarret's 'Facing You' (1971). It's Brad Mehldau's 'Elegiac Cycle'. Haven't heard such a great piano solo album in years. 'Elegiac Cycle' -released in 1999- was a revelation to me. This guy's playing takes your breath away. On 'Elegiac Cycle' Mehldau plays improvisations inspired by the theme of 'loss'. His playing is daring and adventurous, and because he has a perfect sense of structure as well, he never gets lost and keeps everything in perfect balance. And on top of this, his playing is deeply moving. In Mehldau's playing we can discern a lot of influences from the realms of classical and jazz music. I hear a lot of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, but, much more important, I hear foremost a pianist with a distinct style of his own. His classical training seems to contribute to this distinctness of his playing. On 'Elegiac Cycle' I hear the influence of Bach's contrapunt, especially in 'Memory Tricks'. I hear a bit of Debussy in 'Rückblick', and each and every time it's a big sensation to hear the opening and ending-segment of 'Trailer Park Ghost', which sounds in my ears as the perfect blending of the enraged energy of Schubert's 'Der Strom' and the odd-mystical melodic intervals in the middle section of Scriabin's piano-piece 'Poème vers la flamme'. In the longest piece on the cd, 'Goodbye Storyteller', Mehldau reveals all his poetic qualities -using a Rachmaninoff-touch here and there- and makes a deeply moving and unsurpassable statement about the way 'beauty and loss' are interconnected. Brad Mehldau's 'Elegiac Cycle' is my favourite album of 1999, and most certainly one of my all time favourite albums. It's a masterpiece, and nobody with a serious interest in good and enriching contemporary piano music can afford to miss this album.[22-1-2000]
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Simple, Soulful Reverie,
By savvyreader "savvyreader" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elegiac Cycle (Audio CD)
My brother, a jazz composer, recommended this disc to me and I have since thanked him for it. Mehldau's contemplative sound challenges without resorting to the jarring and antagonist atonalism that many modern composers rely on to get your attention. If you like piano music, Mehldau fuses your favorites: the elegant simplicity of Satie, echoes of Chopin sonatas, Keith Jarrett's stylistic joie de vivre. The result is something original. Try track #2, "Resignation." It sticks to you.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heroic.,
By "continuo" (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elegiac Cycle (Audio CD)
A brilliant blend of jazz with romantic and modern piano styles(though it would be crass to call it fusion), this long variation set is in the 'great' tradition of piano variation sets (Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Brahms). Amazing lyricism in the playing, alongside crystal-clear voicing (for example in track 2, 'Resignation') and the ability to cut loose in dramatic fashion. A work (it sounds crass to call it a CD!) that is highly, highly recommended.
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