With flair and finesse, jazz and classical come together in Rembrandt Frerichs’ piano concerts ★★★★☆

Jazz and classical music come together in these adventurous piano concerts by Rembrandt Frerichs. Frerichs plays the solo part himself and gives himself, as befits a real jazz pianist, plenty of room for imaginative improvisation. His ‘orchestra’ is a hybrid combo consisting of his regular percussionist Vinsent Planjer and five classical musicians: the Alma Quartet with double bassist Dominic Seldis.

Both the eight-part First Piano Concerto as the shorter, four-part Second Piano Concerto unfolds like a series of chameleonic rhapsodies. In a random section baroque sounds, a fragmented tango and variations on a jazz ballad pass by. Unpredictable, yet every turn sounds smooth and casual.

Frerichs constantly offers the strings new themes or challenges them with angular rhythms. Sometimes they go along with it, then again they shyly withdraw. Or everyone goes their own way in a stylistic cross between late romantic melancholy and jazzy cheerfulness. And all of this executed with a great deal of flair and finesse.