Keith Jarret, The Köhln Concert

In 1924, jazzband director Paul Whiteman conducted the premiere of a composition he had requested from George Gerswhin and which was intended to link jazz with classical music. The released piece was Rhapsody in Blue. Twenty-five years later, already retired from the stage, and perhaps sure that he would never again establish relationships with a top-ranking musician, Whiteman had to welcome – in his role as a TV host in a show promoting young talents – a five-year-old boy who played the piano leaving the audience astounded.

Boulanger's invitation
The boy's name was Keith Jarret and he had started studying piano two years earlier. Some time after his first formal performance at age seven playing Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Saint-Saens, an invitation was issued to him. He was invited to Paris to continue studies with the most important music pedagogue of the time, Nadia Boulanger, who had taught Daniel Barenboim and Dinu Lipatti to play the piano, to name just two of his talented students. Keith's mother was delighted with the news, but the adolescent Jarret was beginning to feel more inclined to jazz than to the classics, so he respectfully declined the invitation.

A great improviser
This is how, at twenty years old, we have Keith enjoying life and music in clubs in Boston and New York, in his role as a cocktail pianist. In the latter city, he joined a jazz group and soon after recorded his first compositions. Despite being part of numerous jazz trios and quartets in the seventies, it is also the time when he began to perform alone, just him, his music and his piano. In 1975, a very young seventeen-year-old German businesswoman encouraged him to give a concert with a "repertoire" consisting exclusively of improvisations.

The Köhln Concert
The concert was held at the Köhln Opera House on January 24, with the venue packed with enthusiastic audiences. Almost as enthusiastic as Keith, who at that time gave remarkable samples of his brand, accompanied by murmurs, foot taps on the floor and movements around the bench; as well as his extraordinary ability to improvise, of which it will suffice to note that in this Part I of the concert the pianist stays for twelve minutes improvising on the basis of only two chords: G major and A minor. Then, it takes a breather and "expands" its harmonic base by adding one more chord: A major.

The improvisation, one hour and ten minutes, was recorded in its entirety, and it became, until today, one of the best-selling records of solo piano music in history. A few years ago, and after persistent challenge, Jarret finally agreed to make a transcription of what he played in Cologne and publish it, but with the compulsory advice that what was heard that night has the last word.

Chopin, Étude op 10-3, "Tristesse"

Arriving in Paris in September 1831, Frédéric Chopin saw his first concert in front of the Parisian public amazingly scheduled for three months after his arrival. The recent relationship with his eventual teacher, the German pianist Kalkbrenner, made this possible. Kalkbrenner and nine other musicians were to perform at a group concert in December of that year, and they were kind enough to invite the Polish refugee to join them.

In addition to the works for solo piano, four-hand piano and piano quartet, plus a violinist and an oboist – in accordance with the tradition of the time – a singer was invited too. Her mission was to increase the diversity of timbres, allowing hearing of the human voice. But the singer canceled and the concert was postponed until February 26, 1832, with the singer's replacement by a female vocal trio. Chopin thanks it: "Three graces are worth more than a single goddess", he says, although he would regret it later because now the "bordereau" had to be shared among a greater number of protagonists.

Chopin in the Salle Pleyel
The concert was held in the Pleyel Hall, with its three hundred seats taken. Of course, a good number of them had been distributed among French personalities, although the Polish compatriots flocked. Among the attendees were Félix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt.
As could be expected, the concert was a financial failure: many artists and not many paid tickets; in short, too many guests. However, Frédérik would see in it a positive balance: although he didn't get a single peso, he is already present in the opinion of Parisians. The Revue Musicale has stated so:
"In Mr Chopin's inspiration there is a renewal of form, no doubt destined to exert a profound influence on the future achievements of works written for the piano."

That same year, 1832, the Études Op 10 were published, dedicated to his young friend Franz Liszt, a year younger than him. If we consider that in his entire life Frédérik received the miserable sum of 17,000 francs for his complete work (the classes, however, will report to him, on average, 14,000 francs a year), the publication of the Études, we suppose, might have lessened the economic constraints of the moment.

Étude Opus 10 No. 3, in E major
Easy in appearance, the étude in E major presents very delicate problems: to the requirement to make all the voices sing in the serene moments, they are added later, in the determined central section, very uncomfortable fingerings (2:49) and bravura passages of double sixths from distant positions (3:05). Then, the piece resumes the initial quiet song and vanish delicately.

The rendition is by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.