Perspectives: The Köln Concert

MAKI NAMEKAWA & THOMAS ENHCO

Two inspired pianists from different musical spheres, Thomas Enhco and Maki Namekawa, together tackle Keith Jarrett’s legendary album The Köln Concert (ECM, 1975), rendering the incredible luminance of its music freely oscillating between jazz and classical. Two artists and two approaches : Maki Namekawa will play note for note the first and last parts, while Thomas Enhco will improvise around the central part.
The classically trained Namekawa has endeavoured to faithfully reproduce the transcription of the concert from the recording. Jazz pianist Enhco, on the other hand, offers a new improvisation based on the original melodic framework. In doing so, the two pianists will present a reinvented work that aims to perpetuate the atmosphere of the now iconic concert.

Maki Namekawa, one of the leading pianists of her generation, has earned a unique reputation for her commitment to four centuries of great piano music with a concert repertory that is broad, colourful, and ambitious, ranging from neglected masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, Berg, and Guarnieri to new works by many of today’s leading composers. The impressive list of music especially written for her includes sonatas by Philip Glass and Joe Hisaishi, headlining a list of first performances of music by Elliot Goldenthal, Keith Jarrett, Arvo Pärt, Chen Yi, and Benjamin Yusupov. Recently she has been particularly in demand for programs featuring Glass‘ complete Piano Etudes, which she premiered together with the composer in 2013, Jarrett‘s legendary “The Köln Concert“, and Chick Corea’s evocative “Children’s Songs”.

Thomas Enhco, born in Paris in 1988, is a pianist and composer in jazz and classical music. He began classical training on the violin and piano as a child and studied formally at the CMDL and the Paris National Conservatory. Since then, he has achieved international recognition, recording for labels Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music and performing 100 concerts per year around the world. He has performed at the Jazz Festivals of Tokyo, Montréal, Vienne, Montreux, Istanbul, North Sea, New York and classical venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, Bordeaux Opéra, Brussels Flagey, Salzburg Mozarteum, Théâtre du Châtelet.

A production of Philharmonie de Paris

Presented by NCH