The Celestial Hawk

1. 01The Celestial Hawk: 1st Movement18:15
2. 02The Celestial Hawk: 2nd Movement7:07
3. 03The Celestial Hawk: 3rd Movement14:33

The Celestial Hawk is an album of contemporary classical music written by Keith Jarrett and performed by Jarrett with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Keene. It was recorded in March 1980 and released by ECM Records in November that same year. The Celestial Hawk came about when, in 1976, Jarrett received a commission from Deutsche Grammophon to compose a piece for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to be conducted by Seiji Ozawa, and featuring piano, with Jarrett as the soloist. The result was a 200-page 40-minute fully-composed piece with minimal improvisation, completed in 1978. (The title refers to a bird depicted in Tibetan mythology, of which one wing represents compassion and the other represents wisdom.) Unfortunately, the BSO were expecting a jazz-based work, with Jarrett improvising at the piano, and lost interest in the piece. Later, Jarrett recalled: "I had stumbled into what I would call the marketing world of classical music, without realizing it. I'm glad that they never did it. They thought it was going to be a big kick for the orchestra sales and they would have this jazz piece with me as soloist. And then they discovered this isn't jazz at all…