Joachim Kuhn Touch The Light Vinyl

Some of the pieces here have deep personal resonance. “A Remark You Made” by Joe Zawinul takes Kühn straight back to a pivotal moment in his life: Zawinul was a juror at the 1966 Gulda competition in Vienna, the event which facilitated the 22-year-old pianist’s escape from East Germany.

Gato Barbieri’s theme from “Last Tango in Paris” recalls not just the fact that Barbieri enlisted Kühn in 1972 to play on the soundtrack, but it is also a tune he would play countless times later, in his trio with Daniel Humair and Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark.

And the Allegretto from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony not only brings to the fore a composer whose music has always made the deepest of impressions on Kühn, but also the fact that his physical resemblance to Beethoven often resulted in fellow musicians giving him the nickname Beethoven.