Inspired by Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic series (1944–1983), ACT Music’s founder Siggi Loch started the label’s Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic series in 2012, with the aim of bringing together musicians from jazz and beyond, performing live in the heart of Germany’s classical world: the Berliner Philharmonie concert hall.
The first ever recording in the series featured three outstanding European pianists, Michael Wollny (Germany), Iiro Rantala (Finland) and Leszek Możdżer (Poland), playing an exhilarating set embracing repertoire ranging from JS Bach to Chick Corea, Eurojazz to classical avant-garde, in solo, duet and trio formats. The experiment was so successful that the trio repeated it in 2018, resulting in Jazz at the Philharmonic VII. In December 2024 they did it again, this time as a quartet with pianist Grégory Privat (France/Martinique), resulting in XVI in the series. And if anything, this concert is even more adventurous than its predecessors.
Each pianist takes one solo performance: new joiner Privat opens the concert with his own composition “L’Horloge Créole”, replete with rapid ostinati and dazzling runs – a bold statement of intent for what’s to follow; Możdżer pays tribute to a fellow Polish pianist with a spirited take on Chopin’s “Étude in C Minor” (aka “Revolutionary Étude”); Rantala gets the audience clapping along to “Singing in the Rain” before seguing into Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”, beautifully capturing its bitter-sweet melancholy; and Wollny (like Możdżer) pays tribute to a pianist of his own nationality by playing his friend and mentor Joachim Kühn’s “More Tuna”, which he builds from an introspective start to a dramatic finish.
Five duets provide even more complexity and contrast. Możdżer/Privat play “Ritournelle”, another Privat original, combining dreamy impressionism with sparkling runs; Możdżer/Rantala play “July”, an effervescent Rantala composition on which one of the pianists plays what sounds like a glockenspiel; Wollny/Możdżer deconstruct Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” so spellbindingly, finishing with rippling runs and zither-like strums directly on the strings, that there’s a lag before the audience remembers to applaud; and Wollny/Privat take Wollny’s original composition “Polygon” on a vigorous journey traversing pointillist jabs, cascading runs, a strident bass riff, and hammering tone clusters.
The finale is all four pianists playing a storming version of Ellington’s “Caravan”, whose mysterious start includes a sawing sound (one of the pianists rubbing the strings with his nails, I suspect) and glockenspiel (again, I’m guessing), but which soon turns into the playful, boisterous finale one would expect from such exciting pianists.
In all, it’s a stonking concert of jaw-dropping virtuosity. After Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic I, VII and XVI, what’s next for these outstanding pianists? I for one can’t wait to find out.
