Brad Mehldau’s After Bach comprises the pianist/composer’s recordings of four preludes and one fugue from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, each followed by an After Bach piece written by Mehldau and inspired by its WTC mate.  The album begins with Mehldau’s own Before Bach: Benediction and ends with his Prayer for Healing. 

As Mehldau’s label mate Timo Andres says in his After Bach liner note, “As a professional organist, much of Bach’s work took the form of improvisation, and during his lifetime it was the virtuosity and complexity of these improvisations for which he was most admired.  Some three centuries after the fact, Brad Mehldau takes up this tradition and applies it to a frustratingly unknowable aspect of Bach’s art.”

Andres continues, “There have always been elements of Mehldau’s style that recall Bach, especially his densely-woven voicing – but he’s not striving to imitate or play dress-up.  Rather, After Bach surveys their shared ground as keyboardists, improvisers, and composers, making implicit parallels explicit.”

After Bach originated in a work Mehldau first performed in 2015 – commissioned by Carnegie Hall, The Royal Conservatory of Music, The National Concert Hall, and Wigmore Hall – called Three Pieces After Bach.

Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo and includes six records with his trio: House on Hill, Day Is Done, Brad Mehldau Trio Live, Ode, Where Do You Start, and Blues and Ballads.  His collaborative records on the label include Love Sublime, Highway Rider, Metheny Mehldau, Metheny Mehldau Quartet, Modern Music, Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, Nearness with Joshua Redman, and 2017’s Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau.  His additional solo albums on Nonesuch include Live in Marciac and the eight-LP/four-CD 10 Years Solo Live, which the New York Times says ‘contains some of the most impressive pianism he has captured on record’.

‘A balance of space and intensity perfectly struck.  An unaccompanied performance split between respectfully straight recitals of several JS Bach classics, and densely dazzling compositions and improvisations inspired by them.’ – Guardian