Attention, attention! Purists may pass on by! German pianist Michael Gees, famous in the country of Goethe for his art and the way he appropriates specific works to make them truly his own, is legendary, even though he isn’t well known outside of his borders. His interpretation of Bach’s Partita in B-flat major is as much Bach’s as it is Gees’, an improvisation – albeit rigorously framed – that pulls away from Bach to very freely touch on Mendelssohn, Chopin, Beethoven, Reger, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, and is absolutely fascinating for the willing listener. Even though Gees is also known as a jazz musician, he carefully avoids any jazzification of Bach, and keeps to a resolutely classical language. In most cases he plays the movements in his way a first time, then another time – for the reprises, playing all of them, with good reason – as written by Bach, more or less. One can love it, or be frustrated by it, or both at the same time, but none can remain indifferent. He gave a similar treatment to a few of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words and Lieder, and extracts from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach: all kinds of metamorphoses. Stunning… © SM/Qobuz