Église Sainte-Famille

560 Marie-Victorin Blvd.

Boucherville

75 min.

Without intermission

*New* Sainte-Famille pre-concert talks

Musicologist and author Danick Trottier invites the public to learn more about the pieces on the program one hour before each concert at l'Église Sainte-Famille of Boucherville.

Program

Keith Jarrett (1945-   ), arr. François Vallières  (1979 -   )

The Köln Concert for string quartet

            Part I

            Part IIa

            Part IIb

            Part IIc

Premiere and creation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the concert.

The Köln Concert refers to a legendary performance by U.S. jazz pianist Keith Jarrett at the Opera House in Cologne (Köln), Germany on January 24, 1975. The entirely improvised composition begins playfully, with Jarrett imitating the five notes of the opera house’s bell that calls the audience to take their places. The Köln Concert album, recorded by producer Manfred Eicher and released under the ECM label, became the best-selling solo jazz album in history and the most widely distributed solo piano album of all time.

To mark the 50th anniversary of this milestone in musical history, Festival Classica commissioned François Vallières to arrange a version for string quartet, based on the transcription published by Schott and authorized by Jarrett. Like the 2022 arrangement of Bach’s monumental piano composition Goldberg Variations, transcribed for strings and continuo by Quebec conductor Bernard Labadie, this reinterpretation of Jarrett’s work offers listeners an illuminating and enchanting recontextualization of a true cornerstone of jazz and contemporary music.