The idea of using classical music as raw material for jazz is hardly new. But the StarkLinnemann Trio approaches the tradition from a different angle altogether. Pianist and composer Paul Stark does not simply borrow a famous melody and improvise over it. He immerses himself in the architecture of the original work, studies its emotional logic from the inside, and then rebuilds it in a contemporary jazz language. The result is not a decorative variation on Liszt, but something more ambitious: newly composed music carrying the DNA of the original deep beneath the surface. That distinction matters. Too many “classical meets jazz” projects settle for surface gestures — recognizable themes draped in swing rhythms. Stark avoids that trap. His pieces rarely function as vehicles for endless improvisation. Instead, they unfold with the coherence and structural integrity of fully realized compositions. Even when improvisation appears, it serves the larger narrative rather than interrupting it. This method has already produced remarkable recordings, including Pictures at an Exhibition inspired by Mussorgsky and the Transcending Beethoven volumes.

With Transcending Liszt, the trio returns to Franz Liszt — the composer who first launched this entire journey. The source material includes Liebestraum, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Ave Maria, and Vallée d’Obermann. Yet these pieces do not remain enclosed within the nineteenth century. StarkLinnemann reshapes them into expansive modern jazz works where refined lyricism coexists with asymmetric meters, South American rhythmic currents, and passages of forceful, driving improvisation. What emerges is not crossover music in the commercial sense. It feels closer to musical translation — one culture of expression speaking fluently through another. And perhaps the greatest achievement of Transcending Liszt is this: the album remains deeply rewarding even for listeners unfamiliar with Liszt’s originals. The music stands on its own, independent of reference points or historical footnotes. That is far more difficult than it sounds.

Only in the final minute does the worn-down motif of Liebestraum briefly emerge in this nearly eleven-minute jazz reimagining by pianist Paul Stark, drummer Jonas Linnemann, and bassist Maciej Domaradzki. That moment is typical of their approach, which they previously applied to Chopin, Mussorgsky, and Beethoven.

In this first part of their Franz Liszt project, they also turn to the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Ave Maria (where the theme is first clearly stated and then unfolds over sixteen minutes), and Vallée d’Obermann from Liszt’s first suite Années de Pèlerinage. The recordings were made on 6 November 2021 in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

Pianist Paul Stark has, since 2012, formed the jazz ensemble StarkLinnemann together with drummer Jonas Linnemann. As a trio they create “modern jazz compositions” based on classical masterpieces under the label Transcending, with the aim of making the potential of this genre accessible to a new audience. After Chopin, Mussorgsky, and Beethoven, Franz Liszt—one of the greatest pianists of all time—is now the focus. Especially in Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, the sheer joy of music-making bursts out of the three musicians. After an opening of percussion sounds evoking jungle-like imagery and piano chords borrowed from Liszt, bassist Maciej Domaradzki passionately presents the instantly recognisable melody.

In the continuation of this calm piece, Stark contributes cimbalom-like runs, and nearly 25 minutes of improvisation unfolds. In a chain of creative associations, one musical quotation follows another. The warm Latin grooves of Linnemann turn Liszt’s piano work into a slowly unfolding, relaxed jazz piece. Vallée d’Obermann is, in its original form, a highly versatile showpiece for virtuosic pianists. Fortunately, in this adaptation, Liszt’s lyrical and dreamlike passages prevail.

Pianist Paul Stark and German drummer Jonas Linnemann love classical music. The former has given many classical recitals, but both also feel an irrepressible urge to rework that old music in their own contemporary way and turn it into new compositions. In 2017 they already presented their musical vision of Chopin. Now there is Transcending Liszt Vol. 1. So more can be expected. On this first CD, Linnemann has re-composed Liebestraum and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. And Paul Stark took on Ave Maria and Vallée d’Obermann. These are new compositions in their own style, which they group under the name “Universal Crossover Music.” That is a more honest label than jazz. According to this reviewer, one would therefore expect swing to be a constant presence. That is not the case. Although some sections do swing very nicely, such as the Hungarian Rhapsody.

But above all, this is a matter of playing with different rhythms, tempos, time signatures, and occasionally Latin influences. “Transcending” should mean “to go beyond,” or “to surpass.” But who would dare claim to be greater than Franz Liszt, who continues to inspire generations of admirers to this very day? We do not need to take the term so literally. Stark and Linnemann have added a radiant, richly crafted album to Liszt’s musical legacy.For this recording they are joined by Polish bassist Maciej Domaradzki, who was trained in Rotterdam and is a master of the bowed double bass.

Ludwig van Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata Op. 27 No. 2 in 1801. Alongside many others, artists such as Alicia Keys and Dmitri Shostakovich have also reworked this very well-known composition in their own work. The 15th Piano Sonata, written shortly afterwards and subtitled “Pastoral,” is less widely known. Its nickname, like that of the 6th Symphony, refers to the atmosphere of an idealised rural life. And so drummer Jonas Linnemann begins the first of the four movements with mysterious jungle sounds, which pianist Paul Stark complements with string-like resonances from inside the piano. It takes a while before a clear rhythm emerges and the piano begins to improvise in a relaxed way over Beethoven’s harmonies.

When bassist Maciej Domaradzki adds a jazzy line, the picture is complete. In the following sections, Beethoven can be heard throughout all four movements, enriched with fluid rhythms and melodically accessible harmonies. In the second movement, Domaradzki plays a beautiful contemplative solo. The Scherzo gives Linnemann full space for a virtuosic drum solo, before the long Rondo once again evokes rainforest atmosphere with rainstick and drone, unfolding into a kind of devotional hymn while Stark demonstrates his pianistic talent. An original crossover.
— Michael Klier

Pianist Paul Stark and drummer Jonas Linnemann present, in the second instalment of their Beethoven project, a jazz adaptation of Beethoven’s Third Cello Sonata Opus 69, which the composer himself described as “Unter Tränen und Trauer” (“In tears and sorrow”).They are joined by tenor saxophonist / clarinettist Iman Spaargaren and bassist Maciej Domaradzki.

The classical version typically takes around 25 minutes to perform; here, the piece is expanded to more than 46 minutes of music, which understandably often has a weighty, sustained character, but unexpectedly bursts open in the second movement into a Latin-inflected exercise with echoes of It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).

What the quartet of Paul Stark (piano) and Jonas Linnemann (drums) presents here is not only a jazz adaptation of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 Opus 69, his most popular cello sonata. In the third movement, as it were, a second layer of chamber music is added, now in a jazz idiom.For this, we can enjoy an engaging rumba that gives the material a new character, thanks in part to bassist Maciej Domaradzki. With the duration doubled compared to the original, large contrasts can be created.

In this way, the sonata gains more depth than was intended in the original conception. A strong asset once again is saxophonist Iman Spaargaren, who adds extra jazz credibility.As with earlier Beethoven “re-compositions” by this quartet, Stark has succeeded in avoiding obvious choices. Some sections, rhythmically speaking, contain a little too little ambiguity to make them more exciting in that respect.

All expectations—whether positive or negative—are shattered with a crash. Reading the subtitle of the CD, “An original approach to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Opus 69,” one might fear the worst. But a restart is needed, because the album delivers a hot mix of jazz and classical music wrapped in a vibrating Latin mantle. The three Dutch musicians Iman Spaargaren (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Paul Stark (piano), and Jonas Linnemann (drums, percussion) are joined by Polish bassist Maciej Domaradzki, who also studied in Graz, and together they thoroughly shake up the old Ludwig.

Band leaders Stark and Linnemann are known for setting up daring fusion adventures with classical music—and for succeeding at them. That the album often sounds like a salsa band at a fiesta is largely due to Linnemann, who deploys his congas with virtuosity, temperament, and explosive force. A second thread runs through the quartet: time and again they branch off into unrestrained free improvisation and momentarily forget Beethoven’s original intentions. In particular, saxophonist Iman Spaargaren repeatedly reveals himself as an inventive musician and a fearless multi-reed player on this daring recording. With full conviction: a strong recommendation.

There are countless jazz interpretations of classical music, and in this Beethoven year many of them are dedicated to the great Ludwig van Beethoven. Pianist Paul Stark and drummer Jonas Linnemann go significantly further with an imaginative transformation

of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Opus 69 into a piece for jazz quartet. By showing the greatest possible respect for the original composition, the four musicians arrive at a fresh version that is both sparkling and, at its core, pure jazz.

Arriving in beautifully designed packaging, the two newest CDs from StarkLinnemann immediately announce their ambitions before a single note is heard. The project began in 2012 as the collaboration between Paul Stark and Jonas Linnemann, two musicians searching for artistic counterparts willing to move freely between classical composition and jazz improvisation. Bassist Vasilis Stefanopoulos soon became an essential presence, and with the later addition of tenor saxophonist Iman Spaargaren, the quartet finally reached full strength. This ensemble now delivers a remarkable double album. Earlier releases included Awake and Transcending Chopin Volume I, both featuring radical rewritings of works by Frédéric Chopin by Stark himself. Stark had already hinted at these interests on the 2010 Paul Stark Trio release Sonata. But the new double album pushes the concept much further. Disc One reconstructs Chopin’s Piano Sonata Op. 58 across nearly fifty minutes. Disc Two reimagines the Cello Sonata Op. 65 over roughly forty-five more. With each listen, the achievement grows larger. The cello sonata was first recomposed in 2013. The title Transcending may sound almost recklessly ambitious—“surpassing Chopin” borders on sacrilege—but the result is undeniably overwhelming. Stark spent four months reshaping the material before allowing it to mature over several years.

The piano sonata followed in 2015 and opened even more space for Linnemann’s rhythmic imagination and metric transformations. By coincidence, I own a recording of Chopin’s original Piano Sonata Op. 58. Listening to both versions side by side leads to an obvious conclusion: StarkLinnemann preserves fragments of the emotional atmosphere of the original—and even that is an accomplishment—but otherwise travels confidently down an entirely different road. And what a road it is. These are not crossover curiosities or polite “jazz adaptations” of classical repertoire. They are two outstanding modern jazz recordings in their own right. The quartet possesses extraordinary technical and musical depth, improvising and transforming the material with fearless imagination. Spaargaren clearly carries the legacy of John Coltrane somewhere in his bloodstream. Linnemann seems to possess an endless supply of rhythmic ideas. Stefanopoulos supports and shapes the music with understated authority. And Stark himself plays the piano magnificently throughout. A superb achievement.

Classical piano music may operate according to strict traditions, but every so often someone slips past the barriers. In his autobiography, Fred Hersch recalls how, as a child practicing classical repertoire, he would instinctively color outside the lines—only to be corrected. But instinct has its own gravity. Eventually the classically trained pianist becomes an improviser, and jazz reveals itself as the inevitable destination. Paul Stark follows precisely that surprising path in Transcending Chopin, where classical music and jazz are fused into something genuinely new. Volume I, recorded in 2015, explores the romantic piano works of Frédéric Chopin. Stark and Jonas Linnemann reshape these compositions until they swing like jazz standards and, at times, dissolve into Latin jazz. Yet Chopin’s spirit remains intact—what Poles call żal, a sorrowful longing Stark compares to the Portuguese concept of saudade. In the “Polonaise Op. 53,” bowed bass lines from Vasilis Stefanopoulos merge beautifully with Latin rhythms. “Nocturne Op. 27” glows through delicate piano touch and finely judged bass and drum accents. The trio reaches full maturity here. Linnemann constantly introduces rhythmic contrasts into Stark’s arrangements. “Mazurka Op. 7” bursts forward with infectious joie de vivre propelled by a repetitive bass groove. And then comes “Ballade Op. 23,” a work Stark first began reimagining back in 2003. Stretching over more than twenty-three minutes, it emerges as the masterpiece of Volume I—a sublime example of trio jazz so vivid that Chopin’s own pallor might begin to blush. The continuation of the project arrives as a double album: Volume II devoted to Piano Sonata Op. 58 and Volume III to Cello Sonata Op. 65. Here the trio expands with the addition of Iman Spaargaren on saxophone.

Once again, StarkLinnemann pulls off a remarkable feat. The “new” cello sonata had been developing since the winter of 2013, while the reborn piano sonata emerged over four months in the summer of 2015. In the piano sonata, Chopin’s thematic material remains the guiding thread, but Linnemann overlays it with a second layer of African-inspired polyrhythms—particularly striking in the introduction to the second movement and again in the fourth. Stefanopoulos deepens the melancholy atmosphere in the opening sections. As Stark explains in the liner notes, Chopin composed this sonata during a period of emotional turbulence. His father died on May 3, 1844, while his sister’s arrival in Paris and Nohant created the joy of reunion after twelve years apart. StarkLinnemann attempts to translate all of those conflicting emotions into music that is simultaneously swirling, refined, and unmistakably modern chamber jazz. The cello sonata presented perhaps the quartet’s greatest challenge in recomposition. The addition of saxophone creates a new spatial dimension, with Spaargaren delivering powerful solos throughout. Here too, groove and Latin influence remain deeply embedded in the music. The result is chamber jazz of exceptional quality—broad-minded, expansive, and capable of reaching audiences far beyond the traditional jazz world. And StarkLinnemann is already preparing the next chapter: recompositions inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven. To be continued.

One of the fortunate facts of music history is that Pictures at an Exhibition has continued to ignite the imagination of both listeners and musicians for more than a century. Countless arrangements for countless ensembles have allowed new instruments to add their own brushstrokes to Mussorgsky’s original piano canvases. But the recent adaptation by the StarkLinnemann Quartet for saxophone, bass, piano, and percussion is no straightforward translation of the original score with a few syncopations added for swing. A classically trained listener will still recognize Mussorgsky’s fingerprints, yet there is much more to discover here than familiar themes and harmonic landmarks. Most striking are the “Promenades,” transformed into expansive improvisations far larger than their classical prototypes. Each painting undergoes a similar metamorphosis. Mussorgsky’s moods, dynamics, and harmonic peculiarities remain intact, yet after only a few introductory chords the music begins living an entirely new life without severing ties to its roots. “Gnomus” evolves into a colorful and increasingly jagged improvisation. “Il Vecchio Castello” acquires a mysterious atmosphere through Iman Spaargaren’s warm saxophone tone and the extended techniques of bassist Vasilis Stefanopoulos. “Tuileries” becomes an animated dialogue between saxophone and pianist Paul Stark, supported by the playful percussion of Jonas Linnemann. The humorous “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks” inspires endless rhythmic and tonal variations.

“Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle” introduces a melancholy clarinet line against fugue-like piano writing. “Limoges” stays closest to the classical source, while “Catacombae” sounds startlingly contemporary. After the explosive “Baba-Yaga,” the cycle concludes with a monumental “Great Gate of Kiev” that occasionally evokes Sergei Rachmaninoff. Here the piano pulls the entire ensemble into a sweeping wave of improvisation. Each instrument is granted space to assert its identity within this remarkable homage to Mussorgsky. Yet ultimately it is the piano that binds everything together. Through his playing, Paul Stark supports the improvisations of his colleagues while continuously reintroducing the melodic and harmonic material of the original cycle. The newly created sections sound entirely authentic and could easily belong anywhere: a Cuban square, a French café terrace, or a klezmer celebration. Rooted equally in classical music, jazz, and global traditions, this Pictures at an Exhibition becomes a melting pot of genres—far more adventurous and boundary-defying than the title alone might suggest.

Pictures at an Exhibition occupies a sacred place within the Russian classical tradition. Since its premiere in 1874, Modest Mussorgsky’s piano cycle has been rearranged countless times: for brass orchestras, string ensembles, multiple cellos and basses, chamber groups, even progressive rock. Emerson, Lake & Palmer famously transformed it into a monumental live spectacle in 1972. Now the StarkLinnemann Quartet has entered the lineage with a jazz-quartet interpretation of its own. Mussorgsky conceived the work after visiting an exhibition of paintings by his friend Viktor Hartmann, who died unexpectedly in 1873. The resulting composition unfolds across sixteen sections, linked together by the recurring “Promenade”—the musical equivalent of walking between Hartmann’s paintings. That Promenade is the emotional and structural foundation of the entire work. StarkLinnemann undertook the formidable task of translating Mussorgsky’s emotional architecture—grief, anger, frustration, pride, humor—into the language of a small ensemble. Anyone familiar with the grand orchestral interpretations of the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev will immediately recognize the scale of the challenge. Yet the quartet succeeds in preserving the overwhelming emotional impact of the original while reshaping it according to its own artistic instincts. That alone is an achievement. The emotional states embedded in Mussorgsky’s score emerge vividly throughout the album. In “Il Vecchio Castello,” the bass clarinet becomes an instrument of mourning.

“Tuileries” bursts into joy through buoyant jazz swing. “Bydlo” radiates exuberance as piano and tenor saxophone clear the way for a gripping bass-clarinet improvisation. Because Pictures at an Exhibition exists on so many emotional and structural levels, arranger Paul Stark had no choice but to inject the music with a substantial charge of dynamic contrast and emotional tension. But reinterpreting a monument like Mussorgsky’s requires more than invention; it demands respect for the composer’s intent. StarkLinnemann understands this. Their version succeeds because it remains faithful to the spirit of the original even while allowing jazz to gradually take command of the material. The quartet achieves this by constructing bridges between classical traditions, jazz, rock, and traces of world music. Instrumentation also expands the palette. Iman Spaargaren moves between tenor saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet. Percussionist Jonas Linnemann supplements the drum kit with congas. Bassist Vasilis Stefanopoulos introduces electronic textures. Together, these elements deepen the sonic dimension of Mussorgsky’s Russian drama. And yes, StarkLinnemann has done both itself and the broader musical world a considerable service. After their earlier reinventions of Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, this rebirth of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece lands squarely on target.

After their ambitious reimagining of Frédéric Chopin, StarkLinnemann continues its project of “recomposing” classical masterworks. This time the target is Modest Mussorgsky’s legendary Pictures at an Exhibition, transformed into vibrant contemporary jazz. The sixteen sections of Mussorgsky’s original piano cycle receive meticulous and highly imaginative treatment. StarkLinnemann balances expressive improvisation with careful attention to the atmosphere and imagery of Viktor Hartmann’s paintings, while preserving the recurring Promenade theme that ties the journey together. The stumbling dwarf of “Gnomus” emerges through fractured rhythms and a striking clarinet solo. “Il Vecchio Castello” drifts through restrained piano figures, bass clarinet, and bowed bass, capturing the melancholy song of the troubadour. A rolling drum solo introduces “Tuileries,” where playful clarinet lines and dancing piano passages conjure children racing through the gardens. In “Bydlo,” Spaargaren explodes into fierce free-form improvisation.

Then comes “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks,” brilliantly rendered through sparkling percussion and rhythmic wit. “Goldenberg und Schmuyle” introduces a clarinet line steeped in Jewish musical traditions, propelled by a cool but insistent swing. After the animated “Limoges,” the atmosphere darkens completely in “Catacombs” and “Con Mortuis in Lingua Mortua,” which function as meditations on Hartmann’s death. Here StarkLinnemann reveals a remarkable sensitivity to emotional nuance. “Baba Yaga” arrives with muscular groove before the quartet closes triumphantly with “The Bogatyr Gate,” whose extended piano passages unfold with grandeur and introspection. With Pictures at an Exhibition, StarkLinnemann surpasses itself both as arranger and performer. The album stands as a bold artistic statement that honors Mussorgsky while refusing to embalm him in museum glass.

There’s little need to retell the history of Pictures at an Exhibition, composed in 1874 by Modest Mussorgsky in response to the paintings of his friend Viktor Hartmann. Without diminishing anyone else’s contribution, it was probably Maurice Ravel’s orchestral arrangement that elevated the work into worldwide fame. Since then, countless classical adaptations have followed. And beyond the classical world, musicians from nearly every genre have attempted their own passage through Mussorgsky’s musical gallery. In rock and progressive music, it is surely Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s version that occupies pride of place in well-stocked record collections. Now, in 2018, the StarkLinnemann Quartet adds another interpretation to that long tradition. Across two earlier albums—Transcending Chopin and Transcending Chopin Volumes II & III—the ensemble immersed itself in the music of Frédéric Chopin. Regarding this newest classical expedition, Paul Stark and Jonas Linnemann wrote in the liner notes: “The StarkLinnemann Quartet is always searching for unusual combinations of musical styles, far away from the obvious. On this album, that principle has been pursued to its deepest level. Extreme contrasts between classical music, jazz, world music, and rock create a unique musical experience.” The works on the album were “recomposed” by Stark, sometimes in collaboration with Linnemann. Undertaking a project like this is more than a challenge; it’s a high-wire act balanced somewhere between triumph and catastrophe. Yet the quartet had already proven, through its Chopin recordings, that it possesses unusually sure instincts for this kind of reinvention. The emotions embedded in Hartmann’s paintings are translated by StarkLinnemann into vivid sonic imagery. The group paints with a broad palette filled with striking shades and subtle gradations. Creativity becomes the dominant force here. Moments of explosive expressiveness are constantly counterbalanced by passages of introspective sensitivity. StarkLinnemann wields its musical brush with both ferocity and tenderness.

And it must be emphasized: all four musicians perform with astonishing technical and expressive command. One of the album’s great pleasures comes in the depiction of children at play. Through Linnemann’s drumming, Stark’s fearless runs across the keyboard, and the dazzling clarinet work of Iman Spaargaren, the music vividly captures youthful chaos and movement. After seven minutes of that restless energy, the contrast with “Bydlo” speaks volumes. Following a wonderfully relaxed exchange between piano and woodwinds, Spaargaren launches into free-jazz improvisation on tenor saxophone. Superb. After the meditative calm of “Promenade IV,” “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks” becomes another major highlight. Congas and layered percussion create an atmosphere of celebration, joined by joyful dancing piano figures. The following “Goldenberg and Schmuyle” belongs largely to Spaargaren’s clarinet, while somewhere in the background one senses a rhythmically charged caravan crossing the landscape. Midway through, the reed player switches to saxophone. Meanwhile, Stark’s piano fantasies are simply breathtaking. Linnemann occasionally injects near-rock intensity from the drum kit. The sheer variety packed into this single track is astonishing. “Catacombs (Sepulcrum Romanum)” unfolds in cool darkness, and the quartet sustains that emotional intensity through the remainder of the exhibition journey. This version of Pictures at an Exhibition fully justifies its existence. StarkLinnemann has approached this historic work with imagination, respect, and courage. These Pictures stretch far beyond the borders of the classical original.

I am having longstanding and very pleasant affair with the Stark Linnemann Quartet right now. The previously reviewed Transcending Chopin Volumes II and III (see HIFICRITIC Vol. 11 No1) were beautifully re worked and executed in a equally sophisticated way. The same can be said about the already classic Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor, which started Stark’s journey into classical music transcriptions, some six years from where we I was looking forward to getting my hands on this famous Mussorgsky composition quite badly, not just because I know what the band is capable of, but also because it is such a well-known piece of music which has been re-worked so many times.

A great many have done it, from composers who are themselves conic. to pop and rock musicians, and the raises the bar significantly. A snippet of the music which had arrived in the middle of last summer only smiced. up my appetite, so when I finally heard the whole psece I was gobsmacked, not only with the music itself and the way it next been made, but also by the fact that I could see that the stile they created has now become a mature hallmark which l can recosmise. This is simply an exquisite approach which the Stark Linnemann quartet has now completed. To me this CD is already a classic, right up there with the best Mussorgsky/ Pictures interpretations created in the past. Hats off.

There’s a long history of jazz musicians taking on classical repertoire—and an equally long history of those experiments going sideways. The challenge is obvious: how do you make classical melodies swing without draining them of their original emotional gravity? But Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition has already inspired so many reinterpretations that the psychological barrier feels lower here. These miniatures are already strange, concentrated, and sharply etched in their original form. At times they almost sound like latent jazz compositions waiting to be unlocked. Still, the Dutch quartet StarkLinnemann pulls off something unusually successful on this recording. Pianist Paul Stark approaches Mussorgsky less as an arranger than as a musical deconstructor. His imaginative “recompositions” tease apart the themes into riffs, rhythmic cells, fragments, and side motifs.

He opens up spacious zones for modal improvisation and creates launching pads for genuine jazz drama—yet somehow preserves the emotional DNA of the original piano works. You can hear that this band has experience handling classical material with irreverence and intelligence. Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt have all previously been subjected to their recompositional adventures. Alongside Stark and drummer Jonas Linnemann, the quartet features bassist Vasilis Stefanopoulos and reed player Iman Spaargaren. Spaargaren is especially compelling here: his bass clarinet conjures wonderfully grotesque textures, while his tenor saxophone drives the music into blazing excursions.

After two Chopin-centered albums, the StarkLinnemann Quartet now turns its attention to Modest Mussorgsky. His famous piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition—a work that has been endlessly rearranged since its 1874 debut—receives a jazz treatment here from reed player Iman Spaargaren, pianist and harmonica player Paul Stark, bassist Vasilis Stefanopoulos, and drummer-percussionist Jonas Linnemann.

How do they approach it? By embracing extremes. Classical music collides with jazz, world music, and rock, creating what the band calls “a special musical experience.” The album was recorded between November 29 and December 2, 2017, at Studio The Spheres in Montesilvano, Italy.

These days, individual tracks sell while albums—and especially concept albums—have become relics of another era. But Jonas Linnemann and Paul Stark had the nerve to return to the grand conceptual tradition instead of taking the easy road. Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky’s musical response to an art exhibition—here represented by ten of the original sixteen movements—has already passed through many famous hands, from Maurice Ravel to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The suite itself was written as a memorial to the painter Viktor Hartmann, Mussorgsky’s close friend. Curiosity is immediately awakened.

Stark and Linnemann, together with their collaborators, recast these pieces as a hybrid of classical music and modern jazz, infused with elements of rock and world music. The listener wanders through the exhibition almost cinematically: gnomes, castles, wandering minstrels, quarreling market women, children at play, and impossible architectural fantasies drift by like scenes in a dream. What makes this project work is its restraint. The quartet treats the source material with both respect and atmosphere. At times the music becomes abstract, but never empty. The journey remains compelling all the way to the final fading note.

StarkLinnemann operates here as a quartet built around the original trio of Paul Stark on piano, Jonas Linnemann on drums, and Vasilis Stefanopoulos, with Iman Spaargaren added on reeds. On the previous two Chopin projects, the trio format dominated. Here, the addition of Spaargaren brings new colors to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The composition itself already has the structure of a series of linked tableaux, connected by recurring promenades. It’s a powerful framework and one that naturally invites reinterpretation. Paul Stark’s arrangements exploit that openness brilliantly.

By shifting the balance between thematic material and rhythmic structures, he reveals perspectives hidden inside the original score. These rhythmic displacements create fertile ground for improvisation, especially for Spaargaren’s solos. The tension in this kind of undertaking lies in the contradiction between recognizability and freedom. The audience expects the familiar landmarks of Mussorgsky’s music, but jazz thrives on risk and unpredictability. Stark resolves this elegantly by giving each section its own rhythmic identity, allowing the music to move fluidly between fidelity and reinvention.

Pianist Paul Stark has earned a solid reputation as a “re-composer” of classical music. He has translated works by Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, and Ludwig van Beethoven into jazz trio and quartet settings, in recent years in close collaboration with drummer Jonas Linnemann. This time it is Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition that comes under his hand. The term “re-composing,” which Stark consistently uses, can sound somewhat pretentious, but that prejudice does not survive a first listening to Pictures at the Exhibition.

If anything, the clearest example of the mastery on display here is the five versions of Promenade. This is the piece with the most recognisable and dominant melody in Mussorgsky’s work, here transformed five times into highly varied jazz pieces that extract the very maximum from the original material. Impressive? Certainly. But above all: simply a pleasure.