The fiftieth anniversary of The Köln Concert – four million sales and counting – has sparked much media interest (with every retelling, the Bösendorfer on which Jarrett conjured the biggest selling solo piano album of all time seems to get increasingly faulty).

For newcomers to Jarrett, drawn by the publicity for Köln, the conundrum of what to investigate after that release only grows. There are more than 20 official multi-volume sets of his improvised concerts, let alone what you can find lurking in the recesses of the internet. And here, to add to the superabundance, is another ECM double, which marks the pianist’s 80th birthday on May 8.

New Vienna is from Jarrett’s final European solo tour before illness stopped him playing in public. Why New Vienna? Fans will of course know the original Vienna Concert from 1992, which for my money, includes some of the most dazzling music Jarrett ever realised (from about 25 minutes in to 41 mins).

By 2016 the approach of Jarrett, post chronic fatigue syndrome, had changed from long-form spontaneous composition to shorter, discrete pieces. Less dramatic certainly, but fewer of those notespinning interludes as the master awaited the muse.

This though is the fourth concert recording to be mined from the tour – after Munich 2016, Budapest Concert and Bordeaux Concert – which may set a few alarm bells ringing.

The blending of disparate ideas, from questing atonalism to plangent balladry, is familiar. The opener is a headlong 11-minute fusillade with no concession to prettiness – a tangled dance that’s kind of exhilarating, kind of exhausting. Part two sets forth at sombre, funereal pace under leaden skies; part three, underpinned by a minor key ostinato, is similarly ominous. Amid the gentle yearning of section four, sunlight begins to emerge and by the lovely fifth section Jarrett is taking a friendlier amble around homely chords. Then there’s more darkness, more yearning – rather beautiful, rather familiar – before a short, crowd-pleasing blues-boogie, also a staple. Jarrett saves the best until last – a gospel-ish vamp that unfurls into dazzling Bach-like counterpoint; you find yourself wishing it was longer. Here’s what the Vienna audience stumped up for – but it’s been quite a wait. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is once again the plaintive encore.

For those allergic to Jarrett’s involuntary vocalising, there’s little here, but perhaps this suggests there were few moments of unrestrained excitement for the performer. Certainly the ratio of inspiration to perspiration is lower than in peak shows.

So New Vienna is one for the committed not the merely curious. Köln newbies should be heading for Bremen-Lausanne, Rio or the original Vienna. As for the ECM label, the quandary is knowing how much more solo Jarrett the world wants to hear before even the completists start to shrug.

New Vienna is released today, 30 May 2025

from https://ukjazznews.com