Triptyque

Johann Sebastian Bach supplied the bridge that led Belgian oboist Marcel Ponseele, a veteran of the early music scene, to this compelling collaboration with the honey-toned jazz trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart. Their Triptyque, inspired by the concept of a painting in music, explores three Bach-based “panels” from classical and jazz perspectives. They move from the misery of the world, encapsulated in Estiévenart’s Improvisation on B-A-C-H (Track 1) and the “Sinfonia” from Bach’s cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Track 2), to a state of spiritual enlightenment, crowned by an engrossing arrangement of the chorale from the cantata Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (“With peace and joy I go from here”) (Track 10). The journey takes in the scenery of Estiévenart’s ruminative Transition (Track 7) and his intensely beautiful interpretation of the “Adagio” from Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052 (Track 6).