The Blind Banister was written for pianist Jonathan Biss to be performed alongside Beethoven’s second concerto. Andres says, “My piece is not a pastiche or an exercise in palimpsest. It doesn’t quote or reference Beethoven. There are some surface similarities to his concerto (a three-movement structure, a B–flat tonal center) but these are mostly red herrings. The best way I can describe my approach to writing the piece is: I started writing my own cadenza to Beethoven’s concerto, and ended up devouring it from the inside out.” The piece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.
Upstate Obscura takes its inspiration from American painter John Vanderlyn’s Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles. Andres says, “In taking on a quintessentially French subject, Vanderlyn somehow came up with something that feels American; it seems to regard Versailles at a bemused distance, with that characteristically American distrust of anything unnecessarily fanciful. My plan was to start with fragments of musical ornament from the French Baroque tradition—like loose chunks of masonry—and stretch them out until they no longer felt like ornaments ... The solo cello moves … just as a viewer might explore a virtual world—at times wandering, at times with purpose.”
Andres describes the album’s solo piano work: “Colorful History is a chaconne, stemming from a single augmented triad, and following the course of various directions it suggests. I think of this as a kind of extended metaphor for historical events, and how they echo each other without literally repeating.”
Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. His 2013 Nonesuch album of orchestral works, Home Stretch, has been hailed for its “playful intelligence and individuality,” (Guardian) and of his 2010 debut album for two pianos, Shy and Mighty (performed by himself and duo partner David Kaplan), Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker that “it achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene … more mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.”
