Brad Mehldau - Fantasy & Reveries Brad Mehldau

Fantasy & Reveries is Brad Mehldau’s recording of his solo compositions Fantasy for Piano and Fourteen Reveries. Originally commissioned by Jeremy Denk, Fantasy for Piano was written in the same period as Mehldau’s Three Pieces after Bach. Fourteen Reveries, similarly to the composer’s Suite: April 2020, comprises a collection of shorter pieces.

“Fantasy for Piano... shares similar obsessions with Three Pieces After Bach: long, extended pedal-points, sharp juxtapositions between triadic consonance and extreme dissonance, and a freely subdivided 7/4 meter,” Mehldau says in his liner note. “It is written very densely, and the challenge is often to convey the melodic storyline within a very thick texture.

“In Fourteen Reveries, I’ve eschewed larger-scale development, opting for brevity. Each piece is more like a distillation of emotion,” he continues. “As the ‘reverie’ description suggests, the music might accompany those moments during waking hours, when we withdraw from our exterior environment. Reverie can be welcome, perhaps as a diversion from the banality of one’s surroundings. At other times, it is an involuntary flight into melancholy. In all cases, it is an interior experience, exclusive to our own consciousness, independent from others. The music accordingly expresses solitude – at turns enraptured, placid, nervous, lonely or ecstatic.”

Brad Mehldau’s Nonesuch debut was the 2004 solo disc Live in Tokyo. His subsequent 22 releases on the label include six records with his trio as well as collaborative and solo albums. His most recent release was Ride into the Sun – a songbook record of music by the late singer, songwriter, and guitarist Elliott Smith – in August 2025.

Other recent recordings for the label include After Bach II and Après Fauré (2024), which both feature compositions by their namesake composers as well as music Mehldau wrote that was inspired by them; a solo album Mehldau recorded during COVID-19 lockdown, Suite: April 2020; Jacob’s Ladder (2022), which featured music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music and was inspired by the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent; and Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles (2023), a live solo album featuring his interpretations of nine songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and one by George Harrison.

Mehldau’s memoir, Formation: Building a Personal Canon, Part I, was published in 2023, offering a rare look inside the mind of an artist at the top of his field, in his own words.

‘[Fourteen Reveries] is manifestly a very personal and special statement from one of the very great musicians of our time.’
– UK Jazz News

‘Brad Mehldau is a jazz pianist enamored of many kinds of music, as his recent albums make clear.’ – New York Times

‘Brad Mehldau is a jazz icon who has never done things the usual way.’ – PopMatters