Brad Mehldau - Live in Tokyo

I've been listening on and off to this treasured recording for almost a week. Likely it's one of my desert island discs. Having listened to it by now maybe hundreds of times, the music has seeped into my bones.  I remember very well how I stumbled into it whilst on holiday in Italy, five or six years ago. That whole week in the Marche got drenched in the tremendous artistry, energy and concentration of this formidable piano solo live concert. It may not be the most subtle piano playing around (in the sense that Shostakovich is likely not the most subtle symphonist around) but there is a no-holds-barred, joyful reverence for the sheer beauty of music that touches the heart. Nietzsche might have liked this kind of 'mediterranean' inspiration. It is the perfect blend of improvisational dash, wistful lyricism and hymnic exuberance that gets me enthralled every time again. I just love those rapturous, meditative, chiming chordal waves, those daring modulations in harmonic hyperspace, those complex contrapuntal textures (often including three separate lines) and also those fragile, sparse right hand musings. I have two versions of this recital: one featuring a selection only issued as a single CD, and another one (Japanese import) with the complete recital on a double CD. I almost always prefer the single CD version as the pacing and sequencing of the tracks is just perfect, starting from the disciplined but intriguing impro on Nick Drake's Things Behind The Sun, momentary settling down in Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me, onwards to the ever more dense and dazzling textures of Porter's From This Moment On and the riotious energy of Monk's Dream to culminate in the jaw-dropping, 20 minute long meditation on Radiohead's Paranoid Android. Then there is a lull, with Gershwin's sweet How Long Has This Been Going On?, only to launch into Drake's River Man as a rousing, exalted finale. What adds to the excitement too is the generous acoustics of Sumida Triphony Hall - with audience's intrusions adding to the atmosphere - that have been wonderfully captured, allegedly by a simple set of overhead microphones. It's a shame that Nonesuch seems to prefer a much drier and less involving sound for its other Mehldau recordings. For me, this is the provisional high point in Mehldau's output. I am curious to hear his next solo installment, but having heard his rather unfocused live concert earlier this year (in Hasselt) I am not hopeful it will upstage the Tokyo disc. Doesn't really matter. This one has brought me already so much pleasure, and will continue to do so for a long time.